Candice Roberts, 49, was sleeping in an alleyway in St. Petersburg when she was struck and killed by a garbage truck in the early hours of Saturday.
The driver, Nathan D. Brown, was retrieving a dumpster off Third Street North, behind Ruby's Elixir, when his vehicle struck Roberts, court records show.
Brown was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death.
He has since posted bond, which was set at $50,000. He pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer, Lee Pearlman, told the Tampa Bay Times that Brown was not aware he had hit someone sleeping in the alleyway.
But the incident has raised questions about the city and state's responsibility as well.
Advocates who work with the homeless population point to ordinances and laws that criminalize public sleeping and, they say, push homeless individuals to stay in unsafe areas.
Jacqueline Azis, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center who specializes in issues of economic justice, said these anti-homeless policies need to be reexamined.
"We need to think about why is it that there are people who are sleeping in unsafe places, like alleyways, like behind garbage dumpsters," said Azis. "It's because there's no place they can lawfully be in the city of St. Petersburg."
The city enforces its own ordinances that restrict public sleeping and temporary shelters.
And, in 2024, a state law known as Florida's camping ban put more pressure on local governments to curb homelessness.
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The law enabled local residents and businesses to take legal action against jurisdictions that allow unauthorized sleeping or camping in public spaces that haven't been designated by the Department of Children and Families.
Andy Oliver, community activist and pastor of Allendale United Methodist Church, said these punitive approaches are not the way to address the issue.
"Handcuffs do not solve homelessness. A house, a home solves homelessness," said Oliver.
Oliver said he spoke to Roberts when doing homeless outreach in the past. While he says he can't know for sure why Roberts was in the alleyway, he said finding a place to sleep is a struggle for many who are unhoused.
"I would imagine she felt like it was safe from interactions from the police or from other people, but unfortunately it wasn't safe from the garbage truck," said Oliver.
Oliver said people have told him about being arrested.
"The ordeal they have to go through — the fines, showing up at court, maybe getting a lawyer, maybe not," said Oliver, "when you're already living on the extreme margin, it just disrupts their life even more."
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Azis said a public records request made by the SPLC revealed St. Petersburg made approximately 500 arrests of people experiencing homeless between January 2024 and August 2025.
"It's a policy choice that the city and that (Pinellas) County are making by choosing to arrest people over making sure everyone has shelter or housing," said Azis.
Azis and Oliver both feel more effort should be put into expanding affordable housing and social services, rather than penalizing homeless individuals.
While there are shelters available in St. Pete, Oliver said people don't always choose to stay in them for various reasons. Some have had their belongings stolen, or experienced other types of trauma in shelters, said Oliver.
St. Petersburg has several programs in place to address homelessness, including the police department's street outreach team that assists people with finding temporary or permanent housing.
The city has not returned a request for comment.
