MIAMI — Miami is directing $3.1 million in federal funding toward beds for homeless shelters, along with job training and mental health treatment for people living on the street — in contrast to the city’s recent efforts to create new restrictions for people experiencing homelessness.
Shortly after commissioners on Thursday approved the measure sponsored by Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Manolo Reyes, Suarez touted the spending package as a step toward reducing homelessness to “functional zero” in Miami.
Since his reelection in November, the mayor has said a key goal for his second term is to create a system where if someone in the city experiences homelessness, it won’t last long. He said the funding fuels a two-year plan, which allocates federal COVID-19 relief dollars to a slew of agencies that work with homeless people.
“This is obviously a work in progress,” Suarez said at a press conference Thursday outside City Hall. “This is a goal. But we’re hoping to get there.”
Commissioners approved giving Chapman Partnership $200,000 to boost workforce training, $750,000 to the upcoming Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, $2 million for services provided by Camillus House and $200,000 for job training at Lotus House, a well-regarded shelter for women and children. Suarez said that in deciding on how to divvy up the money, he approached an array of local agencies and asked them what they needed to stamp out homelessness.
“It may seem like it’s crazy for us to want to get to functional zero, but when we do it, you’re going to be like, ‘Wow,’” said Commission Chairwoman Christine King, who is a Camillus House board member. “Our homeless situation is a priority for me, and we have to address the homeless issue that we have with compassion.”
The infusion of dollars marks a stark contrast to recent measures taken by Miami’s commission, including banning homeless encampments, restricting where and how aid groups can feed people living on the street, and even creating a program where city residents can "adopt" homeless people and bring them into their homes.
Reyes backed the feeding ordinance. The other two measures were sponsored by Commissioner Joe Carollo, who has been skeptical of spending more to address homelessness and has drawn criticism for wanting to create criminal penalties for people who camp out on public property.
Recently, homeless advocates have decried a string of “cleanups” where city workers ask people living on the street to vacate public spaces so crews can wash sidewalks, a process that activists have criticized as harassment and city officials have defended as necessary to keep public spaces clean. Officials contend they offer services to people they encounter on these cleanups, but advocates say the approach doesn’t work and can lead to homeless people losing important valuables and documents.
Suarez was asked to reconcile the criticism over the city’s homeless policies with the new investments approved on Thursday.
“I like to focus on what we’re doing and sort of looking forward. And this plan was constructed in collaboration with all commissioners, in collaboration with all the organizations that they lead, and in collaboration with all the organizations that do this every day,” the mayor said. “That’s how the plan was created. And so, you know, I’m not here to necessarily draw a contrast. I’m here to say that this was my best effort in conjunction with those people and organizations to come up with a plan that we think can effectively deal with the issue.”
The mayor also touted years of declining numbers in Miami-Dade County’s census of the homeless population, which yields an estimate from a snapshot of how many people are sleeping in the street on one night each year.
The funds for the city’s new initiative came from the American Rescue Plan, which will pump $137 million in pandemic relief into city coffers. When he was invited to a summit with other mayors and President Joe Biden in February 2021, Suarez advocated for more federal assistance for municipalities.
While the American Rescue Plan funds have been roughly divided among the mayor and commissioners, only a few spending plans have been approved, including a $1.1 million initiative by Commissioner Ken Russell to give bonuses for the city's essential workers who labored through the pandemic.
The city has hired an outside consultant to review spending of all relief dollars, including the homeless spending plan, and make sure city plans comply with rules set out by the U.S. Treasury. Administrators expect the homeless initiatives to comply.
