{"id":357197,"date":"2026-07-30T05:04:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357197\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T05:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:04:55","slug":"mayor-eileen-higgins-should-veto-change-to-miami-encampment-ban-that-could-worsen-homelessness-advocates-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357197\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Eileen Higgins should veto change to Miami encampment ban that could worsen homelessness, advocates say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real journalists wrote and edited this (not AI)\u2014independent, community-driven journalism survives because you back it.\u00a0Donate<\/a>\u00a0to sustain Prism\u2019s mission and the humans behind it.<\/p>\n

Housing advocates are calling on Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins to veto recent amendments<\/a> to the city\u2019s anti-encampment ordinance, arguing that the changes would make it easier to arrest people experiencing homelessness while doing little to address the region\u2019s housing crisis. Higgins has until Aug. 3 to sign or veto the ordinance.<\/p>\n

The Miami City Commission voted 3-2 on July 23 to approve amendments<\/a> to the city\u2019s existing ban on sleeping in public spaces. The changes eliminate the requirement that police issue a written warning before arresting someone for violating the ordinance. Instead, officers may issue a verbal warning and provide a \u201creasonable amount of time\u201d for a person to leave before making an arrest, provided shelter space is available.<\/p>\n

In an open letter delivered to Higgins, the Miami chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), joined by local housing advocates, attorneys, and community leaders, urged the mayor to veto the measure before the deadline. The five-member commission would then need four votes to override a mayoral veto.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s been clear for decades that such laws do nothing toward achieving our goal of ending homelessness, it\u2019s equally as clear that exacerbating the vicious cycle of sending people to jail who have no place to sleep but on our streets is nothing but an exercise in profound cruelty,\u201d the letter says. \u201cThese suffering souls get arrested, get released, get arrested again, on and on ad absurdum. Under this regime the only outcomes are lives fraught with misery and the promise of an early grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higgins did not respond to Prism\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Jeff Weinberger, a Miami DSA member and founder of the October 22nd Alliance to End Homelessness, said the amended ordinance prioritizes enforcement over long-term solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminalizing [the homeless] and putting people in jail for violating these laws doesn\u2019t help anyone,\u201d Weinberger said.<\/p>\n

Although the law prohibits arrests when shelter space is unavailable, Weinberger said that is not an ideal solution. Many people avoid shelters because they may have to leave behind pets or belongings, face restrictive rules, or fear theft and violence, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was a promise of housing on the table, I think a lot more people would say, \u2018Well, if I have to go to a shelter to get housing, and they\u2019re promising me housing, then I\u2019ll go to a shelter,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBut that\u2019s not part of the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advocacy coalition also tied its opposition to the ordinance to Miami\u2019s broader affordability crisis. The open letter points to the ongoing legal battle involving residents of Silver Court Trailer Park<\/a>, where dozens of households face displacement as the property is redeveloped.<\/p>\n

Weinberger said allowing existing affordable housing to disappear while expanding enforcement against people experiencing homelessness sends contradictory signals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to build affordable housing, great,\u201d he said, \u201cbut in the meantime, it also means you have to protect the affordable housing that\u2019s already online.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coalition argues that Higgins, who campaigned<\/a> on expanding affordable housing, should use her veto authority to prevent further criminalization of homelessness, while prioritizing investments in deeply affordable and publicly subsidized housing.<\/p>\n

Advocates with Florida Coalition to Advance Racial Equity (FCARE) also planned to hold a rally and press conference July 30 outside Miami City Hall, urging residents to ask Higgins to reject the amendments before the veto window closes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot arrest our way out of homelessness,\u201d David Peery, executive director of FCARE, wrote in an email. \u201cHomelessness is fundamentally a housing issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Weinberger, the broader issue extends beyond one ordinance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crime is that we created a system that renders housing affordable for millions of people, and then we criminalize those very people for a situation that they didn\u2019t create,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the horrible irony that we\u2019re looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Lara Witt, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real journalists wrote and edited this (not AI)\u2014independent, community-driven journalism survives because you back it.\u00a0Donate\u00a0to sustain Prism\u2019s mission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28,23464,1192,1644,58876,12575,123,125,124,115,25186,145772],"class_list":["post-357197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-florida","tag-homeless","tag-homelessness","tag-housing","tag-housing-affordability","tag-housing-crisis","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-news","tag-unhoused","tag-unhoused-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357197","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=357197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}