Investigators and deputies with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office rolled up to Esther Street in Key Largo the morning of May 5. This wasn’t a drug raid or search for a suspect; rather, a cleanup of an abandoned homeless camp was about to take place with the Monroe County Land Authority at a county-owned preserve.
“It’s a decent-sized encampment, but not as large as others,” Lawrence Lopez, county assistant land steward, told the group — all composed of law enforcement — before they walked through the vegetation to the homeless camp.
The group reached the camp to find a tent filled with dirty items, rusted crates with coolers inside, worn utensils and cookware, empty bottles, empty wrappers and bags and soiled clothing.
In roughly 45 minutes, 1,600 pounds of filthy items and trash were hauled out of the preserve and taken to the transfer station. The 12th joint cleanup between the sheriff’s office and land authority was complete.
Lopez, who began working with the land authority two years ago, said the first thing he saw on the job was an encampment.
“It was big. I didn’t know about this stuff at the time. I talked to my boss and asked what was going on and she said it’s the homeless. I asked, “How are we going to do this?’”
In January 2025, Lopez contacted the sheriff’s office and Capt. Spenser Bryan for some help. In addition to keeping communities safe, the sheriff’s office has spent countless hours picking up trash along the highway and in Keys communities.
“We want to make this place the safest community ever to live, work and play,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said. “This is part of quality of life. This is part of public safety. This is part of preservation of a sensitive ecosystem. This is out of sight, out of mind; most people wouldn’t know what’s back there.”
Ramsay added that he’s not against homeless people. However, if they want to be homeless and live in areas such as nature preserves, they should have respect for property that belongs to the people, or in this case, the taxpayers.
“We tried in the past to give them an opportunity to clean up their mess and be part of the solution before being charged criminally. We’ve yet to see someone clean the property,” Ramsay said “You see food and food scraps, (they) bring in rodents when you have trash and garbage and chicken wing bones.
“Why do we do it? Our stance is we don’t want to do it, but who’s going to do it? We’re leaders and get things done. We get it done with team members and partnerships.”
Bryan said they try to work with homeless people while giving them notice to pick up their belongings and leave within a week.
“We offer them different social services throughout the Keys, if they have to go to KOTS (Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter) to stay for the night,” Bryan said.
Lopez acknowledged encampments on sensitive lands, like the preserve off Esther Street, can harm the environment.
“We were losing plant species, and some of them are endangered,” he said. “Homeless people don’t know. But it’s an impact.”
In total, the partnership between the sheriff’s office and land authority has led to more than 33,000 pounds of trash removed from sensitive lands. Cleanups between the sheriff’s office and land authority have not only targeted abandoned homeless encampments on preservation lands. Illegal dumping has also been an area of focus. Some cleanups have led to arrests.
Lopez said the list of environmental lands to clean was fairly long when they started. Through the partnership, the number has dwindled. But the work continues.
“I hope that what we’re doing may deter some of the homelessness happening in our sensitive lands,” Lopez said.
“We’re more than a policing agency. We’re going above and beyond for the betterment of our community,” Ramsay said.
