Miami-Dade’s choice: Spare 150 seniors homelessness or save taxpayers $14 million

Up to 150 seniors who can’t afford to live in Miami-Dade County unaided are likely to soon benefit from a new state law that’s forcing local governments to segregate their homeless residents.

The county’s Homeless Trust is about to buy and retrofit for seniors the La Quinta Inn, a 105-room motel in Cutler Bay, a town in South Miami-Dade. It’s one of the first efforts in Florida to respond to the new state law by considering the purchase of a motel to house the homeless.

If approved Tuesday, the $14-million purchase, capping a bitter commission fight, will mark a change in the county’s focus from makeshift shelters to rent-controlled, permanent housing for individuals and families.

The law foresees locally authorized homeless “encampments” but Miami-Dade won’t take that approach because it’s “fraught with concerns,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava explained in a Sept. 3 memo to county commissioners. These concerns include “a standard of care that is less than dignified with little evidence that it will ultimately reduce homelessness.”

There’s irony in the fact that the catalyst for affordable housing in Miami-Dade is a far-right state government many accuse of criminalizing homelessness.

But lawyer/lobbyist Ron Book, the longtime Homeless Trust chairman, sees pure pragmatism in action. Finally.

“This is the first time in 30 years that anyone has paid attention to the issue,” he said.

ENDING HOMELESSNESS

“As the homeless problem has grown across the state, property owners are frustrated, which has encouraged lawmakers to act in a way that will help solve the homeless problem,” Book said. “That’s their goal.”

Effective Oct. 1, the statewide law bans “unauthorized public camping,” which means living on the streets. Although it doesn’t spell out criminal penalties, homeless people who refuse to move to sanctioned properties, or, to leave them after a year as required, may be prosecuted.

That would violate Homeless Trust policy, according to Book. “We’ve always said you can’t arrest your way out of homelessness. It doesn’t work.”

Book has a strong ally in Levine Cava, a lawyer from a social work background.

The new state law “brings a renewed sense of urgency to humanely assist those on our streets, and serves as a call to action to strategically and compassionately tackle the issue of homelessness together as a community,” the mayor wrote to the county commissioners.

The law also threatens the county’s fiscal well-being – House Bill 1365 comes with sharp teeth. After Jan. 1, residents, business owners and the state can sue for damages any locality that lets homeless people live on the streets “without designating property for that use.” A winning plaintiff can recoup attorney’s fees and costs from the guilty government.

HELPING ‘GOLDEN WARRIORS’

Homelessness is a chronic problem, most visible in big cities like Miami, that gets worse as the cost of living rises. The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom flat in Miami is $2,116, which is 35 percent higher than the national average of $1,563, Apartments.com reports.

Inflation and income disparity have changed the face of homelessness. Workers who once clung to the bottom rung of the middle-class ladder may be more likely to slip into poverty and lose their homes; retirees who used to get by on a small fixed income increasingly find it difficult to cope.

“In Miami-Dade County, one of every three people on the verge of homelessness is a senior citizen,” Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez said during an intense discussion of the La Quinta deal on Sept. 4.

He and several other commissioners spoke emotionally about the need to help “the most vulnerable in our community.” Commissioner Kionne McGhee called seniors “golden warriors.”

“It is unkind for us as a community to say, ‘We’re sorry that you worked your whole life and that you can’t afford anywhere to live but the streets,’ ” Commissioner Eileen Higgins said. “It is the right moral choice to begin building the housing that we need for our homeless population.”

The commissioners acknowledged the La Quinta project is just the start. An estimated 1,000 Miami-Dade residents are homeless; although Book says he has plans for housing them, he doesn’t expect to meet the Jan. 1 deadline.

Anticipating a lawsuit, Book said he wants to be able to assure a judge the county is actively pursuing the goal of ending homelessness.

COHEN HIGGINS DISSENTS

The only vocal dissenter at the Sept. 4 meeting was Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, whose district covers Cutler Bay. She said she opposes the LaQuinta deal because it means paying an “exorbitant” $14 million in tax dollars for a property appraised at just under $10 million.

In an opinion piece for the Miami Herald, Cohen Higgins wrote, “a decision to specifically earmark the La Quinta Inn property for the Homeless Trust’s mission will swiftly capsize our community’s vision.” This vision features the nearby planned $1-billion Southland Mall redevelopment project – “a beacon of hope in a sea of uncertainty.”

At the Sept. 4 meeting, when it became obvious things weren’t going Cohen Higgins’s way, she attacked the Homeless Trust. She claimed the agency has evaded financial transparency by avoiding a particular county audit for many years.

“I’m now genuinely concerned about hundreds of millions of dollars and why it is that the Homeless Trust does not feel like they are subject to oversight, analysis and auditing like every other department in Miami-Dade County,” Cohen Higgins said.

Other commissioners sprang to defend the Homeless Trust and, by extension, Ron Book, its leader for 25 years. “We are regularly audited,” Chairman Oliver Gilbert told Cohen Higgins.

He asked commission analyst Victoria Mallette about federal and state audits. “I would argue that we have twice as many eyes on every move that we make” as anyone else, she said.

Commissioner Keon Hardemon said Cohen Higgins’s diatribe “sent a chill over the room.” She “went a step too far and it affects the credibility of the message,” he said.

At previous meetings Cohen Higgins was able to block the commission from approving the La Quinta deal. On Sept. 4, 10 of the 13 commissioners agreed to a rarely used procedure that let them seize control of the topic — a subtle but stinging rebuke of Cohen Higgins.