In the City of Miami, District 3 Commissioner Rolando Escalona\u2019s proposal will allow police to forego issuing written warnings before arresting individuals for setting up public encampments. The officer must first deliver a verbal warning, providing a \u201creasonable amount of time\u201d for the individual to remove their encampment. In the case that a shelter bed is available, it must be offered, but a refusal to accept would qualify as grounds for arrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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During the summer, the Homeless Trust provides extreme heat outreach.<\/p>\n
(The Homeless Trust via Facebook)<\/p>\n
Only District 5 Commissioner Christine King opposed the ordinance during first reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am opposed to any legislation that will make it more convenient for the houseless community to be criminalized,\u201d Commissioner King told The Miami Times. \u201cI believe that Commissioner Escalona sponsored this legislation from a place of wanting to do well for his community… [but] we have to govern from a place of compassion and humanity, and arrests do not fall into that category.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Commissioner Christine King speaks in opposition to the encampment ordinance.<\/p>\n
(City of Miami TV)<\/p>\n
King said she doesn\u2019t believe the ordinance would reduce the unhoused population in any significant way. The legislation, in her eyes, is a \u201clast resort,\u201d although she did not name any specifics that would improve its efficacy. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Homeless Trust utilizes outreach teams to engage those who are unsheltered.<\/p>\n
(The Homeless Trust via Facebook)<\/p>\n
Miami-Dade County has the eighth-largest jail system in the U.S. On average, the Corrections and Rehabilitation Department is responsible for the custody of approximately 4,500 individuals incarcerated in three detention centers across the county. According to the county\u2019s 2025 PIT (point-in-time) Census, the total number of people experiencing homelessness in Miami-Dade County rang in at 3,728. The Corrections and Rehabilitation Department\u2019s budget is also over five times that of the Homeless Trust, although both entities serve similar percentages of the county\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
David Peery, founder and executive director of the Florida Coalition to Advance Racial Equity, or FCARE, has organized rallies, protests and press conferences that challenge policies seeking to criminalize homelessness. He was one of the leading voices against the proposed ordinance at the July 9 commission meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe direct administrative cost of jailing a person is about 300% of the daily cost of housing them,\u201d said Peery during a phone call after the meeting. \u201cCriminalization is really an expensive way to make homelessness worse. Trying to make a social justice issue into a criminal justice matter is entirely inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Homeless Trust oversees operations and fiscal activities for more than 100 housing and service programs in Miami-Dade County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(The Homeless Trust via Facebook)<\/p>\n
According to the county\u2019s Department of Corrections, the full operating cost per inmate is around $30,000 in FY 2025-26. According to Peery, an unhoused individual can be put in supportive housing for roughly $30 a day, or $10,950 a year. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Shelter beds, like those provided for in the proposed ordinance, do not often lead to long-term housing solutions, said Peery. He emphasized that residents can still be homeless while working a full-time job.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShelters are fairly effective for people who are situationally homeless,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for the chronically homeless \u2014 people who have been on the streets for a year or more \u2014 shelters are just temporary solutions… We have a deficit of permanent supportive housing, and [shelter beds] often recycle people right back onto the streets again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three years ago, the City of Miami Beach approved legislation similar to this month\u2019s proposed City of Miami ordinance. The Miami Beach ordinance allows a law enforcement officer to arrest unhoused individuals engaged in public camping or sleeping, with an exception if there is no immediate government assistance available.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Miami Beach ordinance came into effect in the second half of 2023, and unsheltered homelessness decreased 13% from 2023 to 2024. However, that change was coupled with a 16% increase of unsheltered homelessness within the City of Miami in the same time frame. Peery stated that the two statistics are directly related.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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During the winter, the Homeless Trust provides cold weather placement.<\/p>\n
(The Homeless Trust via Facebook)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening is that they\u2019re simply dumping their homelessness crisis on the City of Miami,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The City of Miami Commission meeting on July 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
(City of Miami TV)<\/p>\n
Peery opposes the Miami Beach ordinance not only because it\u2019s a \u201cfake process,\u201d as he called it, but because he believes it has county-wide implications, pushing unsheltered individuals from one municipality to another. He fears the same will occur with the proposed City of Miami ordinance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are downplaying it,\u201d said Peery. \u201c[Commissioner Escalona] keeps saying there\u2019s no major change here because the police can\u2019t arrest unless the homeless are offered a shelter bed… But what this threatens to do is make us [have] the same kind of phony, illusory bed check process that the City of Miami Beach has.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Commissioner Rolando Escalona speaks in favor of the encampment ordinance.<\/p>\n
(City of Miami TV)<\/p>\n
Peery pointed out that unsheltered people often return to where they were arrested because \u201cthat\u2019s where they\u2019re familiar with.\u201d Despite Miami Beach\u2019s \u201cissue with mass arrest,\u201d he said, the prevalence of homelessness within its city limits persists.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael Langley, executive director of the Florida Justice Institute, also spoke against the proposed ordinance during the July 9 commission meeting. During his testimony, he stated that care for the homeless is \u201cmore than just a moral stance; it\u2019s an economic imperative.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like Peery, Langley mentioned that \u201cmany of those without permanent housing throughout Florida are working but aren\u2019t making enough to reach\u201d the economic threshold of affordability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis proposal would criminalize them for their inability to afford the basics,\u201d said Langley. \u201cWe know that these punitive approaches are ineffective, costly and exacerbate homelessness… We need to be transformational, not transactional.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matthew Pastewski, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who works with the Miami Street Medicine team, also opposed the ordinance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHomelessness is not a housing issue,\u201d argued Pastewski. \u201cIt is a medical condition created by social determinants of health… Jail makes medical problems worse. People lose access to medications. They lose follow-up appointments, documents, belongings, phones and trust. They often leave sicker, more disconnected, and end up back on the street.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to City of Miami Police Chief Edwin Lopez, enforcement of this ordinance would be a \u201clast resort.\u201d He stated that there have been only two arrests for encampments in the City of Miami this year thus far.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is not to arrest anybody,\u201d said Commissioner Escalona during the July 9 meeting. \u201cI understand what it is, being homeless. But we also need to be honest… I understand that people go through situations in life, but we are providing the resources that are needed for them to go to shelter. We are providing resources, not only beds, but we are [also] providing way more than that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Escalona\u2019s communications team declined to give further comment to The Miami Times by the time of this publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City of Miami commissioners are facing a July 23 vote to pass an ordinance that would make it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24591,142567,142569,142572,142573,119007,225,227,226,142566,142564,142570,142571,142563,142574,142575,142576,142568,142577,142565,15335,68935,142578],"class_list":["post-348280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-christine-king","tag-city-of-miami-commission","tag-encampment-ban","tag-florida-coalition-to-advance-racial-equity","tag-florida-justice-institute","tag-hb-1365","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-homelessness-in-miami","tag-houseless-arrests","tag-july-23-commission-vote","tag-miami-beach-ordinance","tag-miami-homeless-ordinance","tag-miami-street-medicine","tag-miami-dade-county-corrections","tag-miami-dade-homeless-trust","tag-miami-dade-homelessness","tag-public-camping","tag-public-camping-ban","tag-rolando-escalona","tag-supportive-housing","tag-unsheltered-homelessness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}