‘They just sprung it on us’: Homeless Miamians face repercussions of shelter displacement
Since losing his job eight months ago, 35-year-old Yadier Montoya has been living on the streets of Miami. He often prefers to sleep in a tent under a bridge downtown but has repeatedly been told by police that he can’t stay there.
On Tuesday, Montoya was granted a seven-day stay at the Camillus House shelter in mainland Miami. But on Friday night, he learned that he and about 50 others were being moved to a hostel on South Beach.
“They gave me seven days and by the fourth, they are taking us out,” he told the Miami Herald on Saturday morning. “They told us to pack up because we’re leaving, and now they brought us here.”
Miami Beach city commissioners have suggested the mass relocation of homeless people is political retribution after they voted on Wednesday to repeal a ballot item asking residents if the city should add a 1% food and beverage tax to support homelessness and domestic violence services. Both Miami Beach Vice Mayor Alex Fernandez and Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said on social media that the homeless individuals were being used as “pawns.”
“They are weaponizing human beings,” Rosen Gonzalez said in a Facebook post Saturday.
The city of Miami, meanwhile, attributed the move to a contract dispute with Camillus House, leaving the city scrambling to find last-minute accommodations for more than four dozen people. Camillus House had sent an email to an assistant city manager in Miami on Thursday explaining that it was shutting down shelter operations for 53 people on the first of the month. A contract that Camillus House had with the city of Miami for shelter beds expired at the end of September but had been extended for another month, until the last day of October.
Camillus House CEO Eddie Gloria told the Herald that his staff was unaware that the city of Miami planned to relocate people from Camillus shelter beds to the hostel in Miami Beach, and that Camillus had planned to relocate people “carefully” and would have ensured that no one ended up on the street after the Nov. 1 deadline.
“The City [of Miami] made its decision to move the clients Friday afternoon and we had no part in it,” Gloria added in a statement.
READ MORE: Miami moves 50 homeless people from shelter to South Beach hostel. Was it political?
Nevertheless, the individuals who were uprooted were given just a few hours’ notice on Friday that they would have to move some six miles across Biscayne Bay to the Bikini Hostel at 1247 West Ave. That has created logistical challenges for those with jobs or those receiving services in the city of Miami, according to Fernandez.
To address those needs, the city of Miami said they will be providing transportation services for the individuals who were relocated to get to work, according to a city spokesperson.
In a video that Miami Beach officials shared with the Miami Herald, Ronald White, a Camillus House resident of one year, said late Friday that he was scheduled to work Saturday at his job with the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA) but did not know how he would get there from the Bikini Hostel. Normally, he is able to walk to work.
“They just sprung it on us today,” he said.
White said that he and the others moved from Camillus House were only allowed to pack a single bag.
“They didn’t even tell us how long we could be here,” White said.
Christina Crespi, CEO and executive director of the Miami DDA, said in a statement Saturday night that the DDA has partnered with Camillus House for more than 10 years on a downtown improvement program that helps people experiencing homelessness reenter the workforce. Members of the Downtown Enhancement Team perform services like trash pickup, graffiti removal, landscaping and restroom maintenance. Crespi said the team members are employed through Camillus House.
City of Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes, who serves as chairman of the Miami DDA, on Saturday expressed his surprise at the sudden move of the Camillus House residents, particularly given the DDA’s contract with Camillus House to provide housing for some of its employees.
He said the DDA is looking into whether this action constitutes a breach of contract. What Reyes is certain of, however, is the DDA’s commitment to supporting the employees affected.
“We are going to take care of them, because they are our employees, and they’re doing a great job,” said Reyes. “Everybody is working, staff is working, trying to solve this problem and help them.”
Crespi said the Miami DDA “will ensure that any [Downtown Enhancement Team] members that may have been impacted will be given permanent housing and transportation.”
In an interview with the Herald, Rosen Gonzalez described the sudden relocation of the 53 people as abusive and said she believes it was political retaliation for the city’s removal of the referendum on the homeless services tax.
“We had been being warned by other elected officials and people in the community that there was going to be retribution if we moved forward and repealed the ballot question on the 1% tax,” she said. “But in my wildest dreams, [never] would I think that they would send 50 homeless individuals to a neighborhood where there are children and families with no oversight.”
A manager at Bikini Hostel, who did not want to be named, told the Herald that breakfast and dinner is being provided to the former Camillus House residents. The establishment is working out providing lunch services as well.
He went on to say that while this is a new situation for the hostel, he and his staff are eager to help their new patrons with anything they need, including offering help with laundry services.
The hostel is only at about half capacity with the new occupants, the manager said.
This article has been updated to reflect that the city of Miami stated it will be providing transportation services to the individuals who were transferred from Camillus House to Bikini Hostel.
Miami Herald reporters Aaron Leibowitz and Tess Riski contributed to this story.
