Miami Beach police begin arresting homeless people under stricter ‘camping’ ban

Miami Beach police made a spate of arrests of homeless people in the days before Art Basel, enforcing for the first time a city law that officials revised in October to crack down on sleeping outdoors.

Police arrested 20 people for “camping” in the city between Nov. 30 and Dec. 7, according to jail booking records and police reports reviewed by the Miami Herald.

Most of the people arrested were lying on the sand under blankets or on top of beach chairs, police reports show. The camping charges they faced were coupled with charges of entering a park after hours, as the beach is closed to the public from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

All of the arrests took place in South Beach. The police reports note that officers had been assigned to a detail to enforce the city law about entering the beach after hours, a response to “numerous complaints from residents and city officials [about] criminal activity occurring during the non-operational hours of the beach.”

A spokesperson for the Miami Beach police, Christopher Bess, told the Herald the enforcement was “based on residential needs and wants.” He said the timing was unrelated to the influx of tourists visiting for Art Week.

The arrests represent a new level of enforcement of the city’s camping ban, which has been on the books for years but previously required police to provide a warning to give people an opportunity to relocate. Booking records show Miami Beach police charged just 75 people between 2015 and when it was updated in October.

The updated ordinance no longer requires a warning, but does say people must be offered a shelter bed before they can be arrested. If a person who is camping “volunteers that he or she has no home or other permanent shelter, he or she must be given an opportunity to enter a homeless shelter or similar facility, if available,” the ordinance says. “If no such facility is available, an arrest may not be made.”

Convictions for violations of the ordinance can result in a prison term of up to 60 days and a $500 fine.

Is the ordinance being followed?

Police reports from the recent arrests say that, in some cases, officers asked people whether they wanted to receive “homeless outreach services” from the city or if they “wanted help seeking permanent shelter.”

In other cases, officers said they asked if people wanted “assistance to get access to a homeless shelter.”

It wasn’t clear from the reports whether police provided details about available shelter beds. The reports also do not say whether police warned people they could be arrested if they declined a shelter placement.

The Miami Herald has requested body-worn camera footage from several of the arrests.

Miami Beach does not have any shelters. The city pays for use of more than 50 shelter beds at facilities in the City of Miami.

Bess, the police spokesperson, said the department also has three shelter beds reserved for its use.

Stephen Schnably, a University of Miami law professor who worked on the landmark Pottinger case that addressed homelessness in the City of Miami, reviewed the arrest reports and said they leave questions about whether the ordinance is being properly enforced.

“It’s not at all clear that there’s an offer of immediate housing,” Schnably said. “Do [officers] say, ‘You’re violating this ordinance and you can be arrested for it, however, we have shelter, are you interested in that?’”

Bess said Tuesday that the department is working to respond to questions the Herald submitted Friday about the arrest reports. The Herald also asked how many people have accepted a shelter bed to avoid arrest.

Every officer was required to watch a 15-minute training video prepared by the city attorney’s office before police began enforcing the revised ordinance, Bess said.

“Any questions they had were answered accordingly,” he said.

The Herald has requested a copy of the training video.

Criminalization or encouragement?

The updated ordinance reflects concerns from residents and elected officials about increased visibility of homeless people and a desire to take a “tough on crime” approach.

City officials modeled the change after an Orlando ordinance that bans sleeping outdoors on public property in most cases and was upheld in 2000 by the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

“This is absolutely not about criminalizing the homeless,” Commissioner Alex Fernandez said at the October meeting. “This is about making the homeless community accept services ... If this helps us encourage them, then we have to do this.”

Miami Beach had an unsheltered homeless population of 152 in an overnight count in August by the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, down from 235 in January and 167 from the previous August.

The ordinance change sparked resistance from local homeless advocates, who have said it unfairly criminalizes a vulnerable population and effectively makes it illegal to be unhoused in the city.

“It doesn’t accomplish anything about ending homelessness, and it just makes it harder for those individuals to ultimately find jobs and housing because it’s more of an arrest record,” said Schnably.

Advocates note there are many reasons why people may be resistant to go to a homeless shelter, including safety concerns, limits on how long people can stay, policies about abstaining from drug and alcohol use, curfews, and restrictions on bringing pets or certain personal belongings.

Some people have had bad past experiences in shelters that shape their views, said Valerie Navarrete, a Miami Beach real-estate agent who advocates for the city’s homeless population through a nonprofit, Favela Miami.

“These people need to be treated with respect,” Navarrete said. While she said she doesn’t take a stance on the camping ordinance, “it’s very important to remember that they are people.”

In police reports, officers described how some people expressed their hesitancy to accept shelter. In one report, police said a woman told them, “I do not want to be around those type of people” in a shelter facility.

One man told officers, “I am homeless, not helpless,” according to a police report.

Court records show most of the people arrested were released without having to post bail. Most of the cases remain pending.

One man who was charged with camping and entering a park after hours has remained in jail since his Nov. 29 arrest after his bond was set at $1,000, jail records show. Police say they found him shortly before midnight Nov. 29 lying in a sleeping bag on a lifeguard tower near 13th Street, and arrested him after he “refused police assistance.”

Many of the cases are being charged by Miami Beach’s municipal prosecution team rather than the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. The municipal team handles criminal cases that involve only city ordinance violations and no state or federal crimes.

Court records show judges have in some instances withheld adjudication of the camping charge, a form of probation that does not go on a person’s record. Judges have also imposed “stay away orders” that restrict people from returning to particular locations.