Following an order from the Florida Department of Transportation, the legal owner of the road and right-of-way used for years as a central encampment for Marathon’s homeless population, as well as a lawsuit filed by area residents and businesses, the afternoon of Jan. 31 found heavy machinery clearing what remained of shelters and belongings on 20th Street.
Deputies with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office notified residents two days prior that they had 48 hours to vacate the street, providing information sheets with resources and organizations available to aid those in need. By Friday morning, the clearing proceeded largely without incident, with a single arrest made of a protester residing in Boot Key Harbor.
“The sheriff’s office deserves credit for handling it with professionalism. They treated people with kindness and respect,” Lorenzo Chiango, a longtime volunteer and advocate for 20th Street residents, told the Weekly. “The city workers also did their jobs well and stayed courteous throughout. Both played a role in managing a hard situation the best they could.”
Volunteers familiar with the camp’s residents told the Weekly that some had returned to their families out of state, while others dispersed to different areas in town. A few reportedly headed to Key West.
“A few people were able to reconnect with family, KAIR and other groups stepped up where they could, and some found solutions,” Chiango said. “But many are still out there, needing help.”
What exactly that help will entail remains mired in uncertainty for Marathon.
Legal constraints and what’s next
Though the 20th Street camp had grown for years, its swift dissolution was backed by Florida laws enacted in 2024 to crack down on homeless camping throughout the state. Three months after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1365, a Supreme Court case in Grants Pass, Oregon strengthened its premise, upholding the Grants Pass laws and criminal penalties for public sleeping.
According to the new Florida law, cities may only permit homeless camping on designated properties – and only if those properties satisfy a litany of conditions to be certified through the Department of Children and Families, including running water, restrooms, on-site security and a host of zoning regulations, among others. These constraints, Marathon officials have previously stated, would rule out most, if not all, properties within the city as viable shelter locations.
Speaking last month in a press conference, DeSantis said he would look to further strengthen Florida’s law in 2025 in the wake of the Grants Pass decision, telling reporters the ruling “probably has cleared the way for us to be a little stronger on how that was done.”
Speaking with the Weekly by phone, Marathon Mayor Lynn Landry said the city’s long-term response would likely hinge on the final result of those changes.
“Nothing is off the table, but everything revolves around the legalities of the situation,” he said. “We’re going to continue recommending the services we have in this community that are good. Based on the governor and statutes, if you do something, you may end up being required to do something you can’t afford as a municipality.”
“The county walking away from a group of people like this is what really bothers me,” Chiango told the Weekly. “Many have Monroe County-issued IDs that list 20th Street as their home. … My mom used to tell me that moving food around on my plate didn’t mean I’d eaten it, and that’s exactly what happened here. The problems these folks are facing and the impact on the community didn’t just disappear. The camp is gone, but that doesn’t mean the problem is solved. It’s time to put a plan together to help them.”
Marathon was offered help with a shelter
As 20th Street was cleared, the Weekly received multiple reports that leaders with the nonprofit Cornerstone Resource Alliance, the group responsible for operating Key West-based Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter (KOTS), had contacted Marathon in early 2024 to assist in the creation of a homeless shelter.
Emails obtained through a public records request show Cornerstone’s president Elicia Pintabona contacted Marathon City Manager George Garrett in January 2024 offering to “open a conversation about an emergency shelter option in Marathon.”
“I’ve been keeping a pulse on the homeless situation in your city, and I do believe we could help,” Pintabona wrote.
The meeting, however, never materialized, with Pintabona’s final request for Garrett’s availability in February 2024 going unanswered. Multiple council members told the Weekly they were unaware of Pintbona’s offer.
Speaking with the Weekly by phone, Garrett acknowledged the emails, but said he had “stayed out of” discussion about a potential shelter pending the outcome of HB 1365.
“I felt like they gave me the answer without giving me the answer, and that’s up to their discretion,” Pintabona told the Weekly by phone. “(The shelter) would have essentially been a copy-and-paste of KOTS on a much smaller scale. … Key West has done a really great job of implementing a system that they know works, and I think it’s a good way to manage an issue that’s going to keep coming back because of simple geography.”
“We’ve really figured out how to operate a low-barrier emergency shelter, and also have a case management program that really does help people find more appropriate living situations, or link them to benefits so they can get over that little hurdle,” she added. “We have a manager and we have people who would be able to implement quickly.”
Plaintiffs agree to dismiss camp lawsuit
While the lawsuit filed against the city by Marathon residents and business owners in the 20th Street area remained active as of Feb. 5, the suit’s principal author, commercial captain Morgan Gotti, told the Weekly by phone that morning that all of the suit’s plaintiffs had agreed to dismiss the complaint due to removal of the camp.
