Homeless Population and the Law on Psychiatric Commitment in Florianópolis (SC)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze Law No. 11.134/2024, enacted by the municipality of Florianópolis (SC), which regulates the voluntary and involuntary commitment of homeless individuals with mental disorders and/or who use alcohol and other drugs. The research, based on bibliographic and documentary sources, employs content analysis articulated with the Foucauldian notion of the security dispositif to understand strategies of population management and urban circulation. Parliamentary discourse reveals a strong appeal to public security, associating drug use with urban violence and reducing this population to the figures of the "criminal" and the "mentally ill." The law, the discourses that support it, and other measures adopted by the municipality constitute a dispositif that restricts the right to occupy public space. Commitment and the actions of public security agents are used as quick and symbolic solutions, pointing toward the militarization of security, while failing to address the root causes of social exclusion.