![\"Camillus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_02CAMILLUSHOUSETOUR.JPG\" "\\"Camillus")
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Camillus House CEO Eddie Gloria, right, walks through the shelter facility in Miami on Nov. 11, 2024.<\/p>\n
Carl Juste<\/p>\n
cjuste@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
In Miami Beach, police can arrest homeless people under a city law banning public camping<\/a>, but they must first offer someone the choice to go to a shelter instead.<\/p>\n But those offers are usually rejected, arrest reports show. Officers have made six times more camping arrests than shelter placements since January 2024.<\/p>\n There are many reasons why someone may prefer the street to a shelter bed on a given night. Those include bad past experiences at shelters, strict shelter rules and limits on how much people can bring inside.<\/p>\n As of the latest count in January, there are nearly 2,500 homeless people across Miami-Dade County who are in some sort of shelter, while more than 1,100 are living on the street.<\/p>\n Ron Book, who leads the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, said most \u201cchronically\u201d homeless people refuse shelter offers.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly with consistent and persistent outreach efforts, when trained outreach workers are able to develop a relationship and trust, [do] we see people accepting help and coming off the street,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Several factors may help explain the particular resistance to shelter in Miami Beach, where 93 people are living on the street, according to the January census.<\/p>\n The city has a relatively transient homeless population, officials say. Some homeless people come to Miami Beach precisely because of its outdoor conditions \u2014 warm weather, sand and public showers along the boardwalk.<\/p>\n There are no shelter beds in Miami Beach, but the city has contracts for more than 90 beds at multiple locations in Miami.<\/p>\n Offers of assistance made by police often seem \u201cdesigned to elicit a \u2018no,\u2019\u201d said Trey Santorine, a University of Miami doctoral student who surveyed almost 200 homeless people in the city of Miami as part of a recent study that also looked at homelessness in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n When Miami Beach officers ask people if they want shelter, they typically don\u2019t provide details about what\u2019s being offered, according to arrest reports reviewed by the Miami Herald.<\/p>\n Beds offered by police are typically only available for 24 hours at the Salvation Army in Miami, meaning people may return to the street the next day \u2014 though Miami Beach officials do meet with them at the shelter to discuss potential alternatives.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you offering them a three-month bed in Chapman [Partnership\u2019s shelters], which I think people would jump at, or is this an overnight [bed] so they can decline and you can continue to arrest them?\u201d Santorine said.<\/p>\n Santorine\u2019s research indicated that most homeless people would enter a shelter if given the chance. Out of 194 respondents in Miami, 62% said they would be \u201cvery likely\u201d or \u201csomewhat likely\u201d to accept shelter if offered. Only 28% said they would be very unlikely or somewhat unlikely to accept.<\/p>\n Most people surveyed by Santorine said they can never or rarely get into a shelter when they try to do so, and about half said they have given up on getting into a shelter altogether.<\/p>\n Here are some of the reasons why someone might turn down an offer for a shelter bed.<\/p>\n Skepticism about police<\/p>\n The nature of interactions between police and homeless individuals plays a role, experts say.<\/p>\n Homeless people may be hesitant to accept services from law enforcement, even if they are facing arrest.<\/p>\n Book said that\u2019s especially true of people dealing with addiction, mental illness and past trauma.<\/p>\n \u201cExpecting them to respond favorably to an officer who [is] threatening them with arrest is not just irrational and shortsighted, it\u2019s heartless,\u201d Book said.<\/p>\n Concerns about the shelters<\/p>\n Eugene \u201cGino\u201d Gordon, who is homeless in Miami Beach, said he feels safer sleeping outside than in a shelter, where people often struggle with their mental health.<\/p>\n Shelter rules, which can include requirements that people leave each day before returning at night, also feel too restrictive, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make me feel like I\u2019m a human being,\u201d said Gordon, 47. \u201cIt makes me feel like I\u2019m a high school kid.\u201d<\/p>\n David Peery, who was homeless for years and was a plaintiff in the landmark Pottinger lawsuit<\/a> on homelessness in the city of Miami, said he believes shelters can be useful for people who are \u201csituationally homeless\u201d \u2014 meaning they generally had housing until something happened that landed them on the street.<\/p>\n But for people who are \u201cchronically homeless,\u201d Peery said, he views shelter as \u201ceffectively useless.\u201d Strict rules can make it feel like a \u201cminimum security prison,\u201d where it\u2019s difficult to avoid rule violations and where staff sometimes treat people with \u201ccontempt.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn general, because of all the rules, it strips you of the last remaining possession you have: autonomy over your body,\u201d Peery said.<\/p>\n Lack of trust about next steps<\/p>\n Many people living on the street struggle with mental illness and simply don\u2019t trust the shelter system, said Eddie Gloria, CEO of Camillus House, which has a shelter in the city of Miami.<\/p>\n When people do enter a shelter, it\u2019s essential that they have access to treatment and resources that bring them closer to stability, Gloria said.<\/p>\n The goal, he said, is to get people back into the community and into long-term housing, including 1,400 permanent supportive housing units that are part of Camillus\u2019 system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real issue is, where do you go from here?\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>\n Employment is a part of that, too.<\/p>\n At Chapman Partnership, which has over 800 shelter beds at two campuses in Miami and Homestead, residents are asked to comply with an evening curfew and to look for jobs during the day. Scott Hansel, the president and CEO at Chapman, said people are surprised to learn that more than 40% of people staying there are employed in some capacity. The organization offers education and career training for its clients.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people that come to us have made the mental shift,\u201d Hansel said. \u201cThey want to be in a good spot. They want to be self-sustaining.\u201d<\/p>\n Peery, who founded the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity, said shelters can be effective when they act as a bridge to permanent housing.<\/p>\n He said that approach was taken at the Bikini Hostel in South Beach, which took in<\/a> more than 100 homeless people in late 2024 and early 2025 after Camillus House reduced its number of emergency shelter beds<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several people being housed there said at the time that they had positive experiences and felt supported by caseworkers. Peery said last March that about half of the people placed there had since moved into permanent or transitional housing.<\/p>\n \u201cYou feel like you\u2019re a part of the community,\u201d one resident, Michael Black, said last year of his time at the hostel, which was demolished last month as part of a development deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Peery said, people need to be allowed to make their own decisions about shelter and paths out of homelessness.<\/p>\n \u201cForced treatment never works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_Homelesscensus_SN_00017.JPG\" "\\"MIA_Homelesscensus_SN_00017.JPG\\"")
A man sleeps under the Interstate 95 overpass during the Homeless Trust’s biannual census in downtown Miami on Jan. 22, 2026. SAM NAVARRO Special for the Miami Herald <\/p>\n A man sits in downtown Miami near the Stephen P. Clark Center on Jan. 31, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
![\"Ron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_107HomelessCensus00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_107HomelessCensus00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Ron Book, chair of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, and Victoria Mallette, the Trust\u2019s executive director, talk to a homeless man in downtown Miami as part of an overnight census on Aug. 21, 2025. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_BIKINIHOSTEL1.JPG\" "\\"MIA_BIKINIHOSTEL1.JPG\\"")
The Bikini Hostel in Miami Beach is pictured on June 9, 2025. Alexia Fodere for Miami Herald <\/p>\n