Arrests of homeless folks in Miami Seashore for violating new anticamping legal guidelines sharply spiked in February, in line with public information obtained by Cause.
In a single specific week in mid-February, arrests of homeless folks made up two-thirds of all arrests in Miami Seashore.
The numbers are a glimpse into enforcement of anticamping legal guidelines within the metropolis that turned a mannequin for the remainder of Florida. And Florida is now main a nationwide crackdown following a Supreme Courtroom resolution that it isn’t merciless or uncommon punishment to criminalize sleeping in public, even when there was no different shelter obtainable. When Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a statewide legislation final yr banning cities from permitting tenting in public, he selected Miami Seashore for the placement.
DeSantis and Miami Seashore officers say the legal guidelines are a agency however compassionate strategy to get folks off the road and cease unpleasant tent camps. Nevertheless, homeless advocacy organizations and civil rights teams say criminalizing homelessness is merciless and counterproductive.
The arrest statistics had been obtained from weekly memos that the Miami Seashore metropolis supervisor despatched to town council from final September by means of Might on homeless outreach and enforcement. All the memos can be found right here.
The memos present that in 2024, Miami Seashore police arrested 261 folks below an anticamping ordinance that it strengthened in October of the earlier yr.
The Miami Herald reported this January that, along with the anticamping ordinance, Miami Seashore police had been closely imposing quality-of-life offenses and nuisance crimes alongside the enduring seaside and boardwalk. The outcome, the Herald reported, was that 42 % of all Miami Seashore arrests in 2024 had been homeless folks.
That type of proportion is not unparalleled; in 2022 Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that roughly half of all arrests in Portland over a four-year interval had been of homeless folks.
However in February, memos present that Miami Seashore police started imposing the legislation in a manner that dwarfed its earlier efforts.
Based on a March memo from the Miami Seashore metropolis supervisor, the variety of arrests for prohibited tenting went from 10 and 13 in December and January, respectively, to 78 in February. The variety of tenting arrests dropped to 27 in March.
In the course of the week of February 17, Miami Seashore hit a very eye-popping statistic: Of the 125 whole arrests that week, 82—66 %—had been of homeless folks.
Of the 445 whole arrests by Miami Seashore police in February, 238 had been homeless—53 %.
Throughout that very same interval, the Miami Seashore Police Division Homeless Useful resource Unit positioned 4 folks in emergency shelters or residential remedy, in line with metropolis memos. The town’s different homeless outreach companies recorded dozens of placements, but in addition a whole bunch of refusals of service.
A spokesperson for town of Miami Seashore stated in a press release to Cause that “no directive was issued to give attention to the tenting ordinance, and our method continues to steadiness enforcement with outreach and care.”
“The Metropolis of Miami Seashore stays deeply dedicated to treating all people, together with these experiencing homelessness, with dignity and compassion,” the assertion continued. “Whereas we proceed to prioritize public security and the suitable use of public areas, we acknowledge the complexity of homelessness and actively work with our Workplace of Housing & Group Providers to attach people with shelter and supportive companies.”
Beneath Miami Seashore’s anticamping ordinance, police should give homeless folks the choice of being transported to an obtainable shelter. In the event that they refuse, they are often arrested and brought to jail.
Nevertheless, a Miami Herald evaluation of arrests made after town’s public sleeping ban was enacted discovered Miami Seashore cops requested “solely imprecise questions on whether or not homeless folks need shelter or different help earlier than detaining them. Officers don’t seem to debate the supply of beds in particular shelters, supply transportation to the shelters or clarify that declining companies will outcome of their instant arrest.”
Issues was once totally different. From 1992 to 2019, Miami was prohibited below the phrases of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit settlement from arresting homeless folks for sleeping, bathing, or different important actions.
David Peery was homeless in Miami from 2008 to 2018 and was the category consultant for homeless plaintiffs within the consent decree that resulted from the settlement.
Peery, now the founder and govt director of the Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Fairness, was shocked by the February statistics. He says they present a “outstanding and deeply troubling diversion of police assets.”
“They’re spending their time chasing folks whose solely crime shouldn’t be with the ability to afford a house,” Peery says. “It’s very fiscally irresponsible and merciless.”
As Cause‘s Christian Britschgi wrote, if cities are going to outlaw sleeping in public, they need to even be working to decontrol and increase the sorts of housing they permit, however in lots of instances native governments are as a substitute combating new housing and attempting to close down shelters.
The spike in arrests additionally would not make sense to Peery as a result of homelessness goes down in Miami-Dade County. In January, earlier than the spike in arrests, the Miami-Dade County Homeless Belief reported a 31 % drop in unsheltered homelessness in Miami Seashore over the earlier yr.
There was one main occasion on the calendar that month. The Miami Worldwide Boat Present passed off February 12–16. Boatingindustry.com wrote that the commerce present anticipated 100,000 attendees from world wide and was projected to generate $1 billion in financial exercise for the state of Florida. DeSantis was readily available to supply a speech on freedom for leisure boaters.
It isn’t unusual for cities to roust homeless folks to make manner for high-profile occasions and VIPs. Final March, for instance, the Miami Herald reported that police ordered homeless folks to maneuver out of an space the place filmmakers had been capturing Dangerous Boys: Experience or Die.
“It is extra necessary to cover homelessness than to resolve it,” Peery sighed.
