{"id":1176,"date":"2013-07-17T01:58:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T01:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/?p=1176"},"modified":"2013-07-27T00:10:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-27T00:10:59","slug":"miami-a-magnet-for-bigots-to-dump-homeless-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/miami-a-magnet-for-bigots-to-dump-homeless-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami–A “Magnet” for Bigots to Dump Homeless People"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NOTES BY NORSE:\u00a0\u00a0 Palo Alto politicians, eager to institute a city-wide vehicular home ban, wail about the City being a “magnet” for homeless vehicular dwellers–though they have no evidence for that.\u00a0\u00a0 Santa Cruz NIMBY’s argue the same thing, in spite of the report of the City’s Task Force on the Camping Ban, which studied the issue for three months in the winter of 1998-9.\u00a0\u00a0 Miami’s historic Pottinger settlement in 1998, requiring the police to stop arresting homeless people for “life-sustaining misdemeanors” (like sleeping, putting up a tent, urinating and defeacting, washing in public, etc.) rather to\u00a0 offer them a shelter space ( of which, of course, there were never enough–see below).
\nIronically, the court’s protection of the poor outside did result in a Magnet effect–but for bigoted bureaucrats, eager to dump homeless people.
\nDue to formatting problems, the initial story is repeated in part at the end of this post.posted on Monday, 07.01.13<\/p>\n

Other Miami-Dade cities deny \u2018dumping\u2019 homeless people in downtown Miami<\/span><\/h1>\n

BY KATHLEEN McGRORY<\/h3>\n

kmcgrory@MiamiHerald.com<\/a><\/h3>\n
When Miami Beach police officer Ysidro Llamoca encountered Jamie McNeil \u2014 shirtless, shoeless, unshaven and scruffy \u2014 the beach dweller was preparing to sleep again on the sand dunes of Lummus Park.Instead of hassling the homeless man, Llamoca offered to help. Fifteen minutes later, McNeil, 34, was in a white van operated by the city\u2019s homeless outreach team, headed for shelter at the Homeless Assistance Center in Miami.<\/p>\n

The treatment last week was a far cry from the claim that Miami Beach officers ferry their homeless people across the MacArthur Causeway and deposit them on downtown Miami streets. That assertion has been repeated by Miami Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff as part of his recent quest to banish homeless people from the struggling downtown business district.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve caught Miami Beach dumping people in the city [of Miami],\u201d Sarnoff recently told the Miami Herald, accusing Aventura, Surfside and Coral Gables police of the same practice. \u201cDowntown Miami has become the dumping ground for Miami-Dade\u2019s homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the cities he cited deny the claim. And while advocates for the homeless have long heard rumors about the practice, they say there is no evidence to support it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen it or received any actual reports of it happening,\u201d said Hilda Fernandez, executive director of the county\u2019s Homeless Trust.
\nThe more likely reason that so many homeless people congregate in Miami, Fernandez said, is that Jackson Memorial Hospital, the county courthouse and several crisis intervention centers are all located downtown. Downtown Miami also has a Greyhound station. The modestly priced bus service draws homeless people traveling to and from Miami.<\/p>\n

The Homeless Trust is scheduled to meet Monday to discuss, among other things, a proposal to fund more shelter beds in downtown and to finalize its budget.<\/p>\n

Claims of homeless dumping aren\u2019t new. In arguing the need to ban street feedings in 2004, former city manager Joe Arriola complained that Miami had long been a dumping ground for the region\u2019s homeless.<\/p>\n

The debate found new life in April, when the city commission decided to petition a judge for changes to a landmark 1998 legal settlement known as Pottinger v. Miami. The agreement prohibits Miami police for arresting homeless people for minor offenses without first offering them a bed in homeless shelter.<\/p>\n

Sarnoff, who also chairs the Downtown Development Authority, argues that the strict parameters of Pottinger have prevented city leaders from removing the 500 or so homeless people from Miami\u2019s streets. Most local shelters are at capacity, meaning police can do little to punish the homeless who urinate in the street or light cooking fires in public parks.<\/p>\n

Sarnoff pointed out that other municipalities aren\u2019t subject to the same rules, and said they sometimes resort to escorting their homeless residents to Miami. That claim, he said, is based on anecdotes he has head from Miami police officers and several of his downtown constituents.<\/p>\n

Miami Police spokesman Napier Velazquez said the department has \u201cno documentation\u201d of other municipalities releasing homeless people on the streets of Miami. The anecdotes, however, include a first-person account from attorney Jay Solowsky, who said he saw a Coral Gables police officer drop off a homeless person near 150 W. Flagler St. late one night in 2009.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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\u201cI observed a Coral Gables police car letting out a person who was very clearly homeless,\u201d said Solowsky, who works in Sarnoff\u2019s law firm and serves as a pro bono attorney for the DDA. \u201cI\u2019ve seen similar situations, but I didn\u2019t take note of which municipality was involved.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Coral Gables police, however, deny the claim.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s neither our policy nor our practice to relocate homeless people to other jurisdictions,\u201d said Officer Dean Wellinghoff, a department spokesman. \u201cTypically, we\u2019ll get calls regarding a homeless person blocking the entrance to a business. We\u2019ll just ask that person to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aventura Police spokesman Sgt. Chris Goranitis denied similar allegations directed at his department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is completely false and not practical,\u201d Goranitis told the Miami Herald. \u201cThere would be absolutely no reason to travel several miles to the city of Miami when there is a homeless shelter minutes from our city located at 1203 N. Federal Hwy. in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both departments, as well as the Surfside Police Department, say they have a relatively small homeless population. Outside of Miami city limits, only 124 people live on the streets north of Kendall Drive, according to the latest census from the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust. Another 66 live south of Kendall Drive.<\/p>\n

The second largest concentration of unsheltered homeless people is on Miami Beach: 138 as of the Homeless Trust\u2019s January count.
\nBeach police spokesman Sgt. Bobby Hernandez said his department may have brought people across the causeway to Miami two decades ago, but doesn\u2019t do that now. The department follows the same rules that Miami does, he said, even though there is no court order requiring the Beach to give wide berth to homeless people. And an officer is on the city\u2019s homeless outreach team, along with several social services professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not dumping anyone in downtown Miami,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not true. What we have done is designate an officer to locate, identify and assist every single homeless person that we have in Miami Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Llamoca found a woman named Jennifer sprawled out on a green bath towel by the corner of 10th Street and Ocean Drive. Jennifer refused to go to a shelter that night, saying she preferred to sleep outdoors. But she promised to visit the homeless outreach team office the next morning.<\/p>\n

Llamoca knelt on the ground and looked Jennifer in the eye. \u201cI\u2019m not going to give up on you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Two blocks north, Llamoca struck up a conversation with Shawn Patrick Collins.<\/p>\n

Collins, who has been homeless \u201con and off\u201d for 15 years, said Hollywood officers had once dropped him off at the county line instead of arresting him. But he had never heard of Miami Beach police doing anything like that, he said.<\/p>\n

Some police departments like Miami Beach do bring people to homeless shelters in Miami city limits. Beach police officers brought 20 people to Camillus House in 2011, according to data collected by the shelter. The Aventura, Miami Shores and Hialeah police departments brought four, six and 15 people, respectively.<\/p>\n

Fernandez, the executive director of the Homeless Trust, said homeless people also wind up downtown because of the indigent healthcare services offered at Jackson Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Miami-Dade corrections officials used to release all inmates from the downtown jail at 1321 NW 13th St. As of last month, however, most releases are being done at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, 7000 NW 41st St.<\/p>\n

County leaders have spent several years working to combat what they call \u201cinstitutional homelessness.\u201d In 2008, a dozen healthcare, corrections and social service agencies signed an agreement with the Homeless Trust to help the homeless being discharged from their facilities. That agreement will likely be renewed this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want institutions creating homelessness,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

But Sarnoff says that isn\u2019t enough, and is pushing for dramatic changes, including revisions to the Pottinger agreement. He would like to give Miami police the power to arrest homeless people for some minor offenses, including possibly for repeatedly refusing help.
\nThose changes, Sarnoff hopes, would discourage both the alleged dumping by other departments and institutional homelessness.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re on a hamster wheel,\u201d he said. \u201cAt some point, the streets [of Miami] can no longer be an option.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nRead more here: http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/2013\/06\/30\/3479202_p2\/other-miami-dade-cities-deny-dumping.html#storylink=cpy<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a>
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Miami Considers Jailing Homeless People For Eating, Sleeping In Public<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

By Scott Keyes<\/a> on Jul 16, 2013 at 3:45 pm<\/p>\n

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\n (Credit: Shutterstock)
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Being poor could soon be a crime in the city of Miami.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

As though life weren\u2019t already difficult enough for people who can\u2019t afford regular housing, they could soon find themselves thrown in jail and their possessions confiscated if they\u2019re caught engaging in certain everyday activities in public.<\/p>\n

Before the late 1990s, Miami police frequently arrested homeless people for such \u201ccrimes\u201d as sleeping on park benches, eating on sidewalks, or congregating in public places.
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\nBut in 1998, the city of Miami came to a landmark agreement, known as <\/em><\/a>Pottinger v. City of Miami<\/a><\/em>, whereby police officers were instructed not to arrest homeless people they caught committing minor \u201cquality of life\u201d offenses, but instead offer them a bed in a nearby homeless shelter. This new emphasis on providing homeless people with housing has been remarkably successful. In the 15 years since Pottinger<\/em>, the number of people living on the streets has dropped<\/a> from approximately 6,000 to 351, largely due to more shelters and support.
\nDespite the program\u2019s success, one Miami City Commissioner wants to back out of the deal and resume arresting homeless people for living on the streets.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Marc Sarnoff wants the city to renege on its 1998 agreement and resume arresting homeless people. Specifically, Sarnoff and his allies on the City Commission have hired a law firm to try to modify<\/a> the agreement so police can arrest anyone who blocks a sidewalk, cooks a meal in a public area using a fire, litters, urinates or defecates in public, or engages in lewd conduct, rather than offering those folks a bed to sleep.<\/p>\n

Sarnoff argues<\/a> that homeless people in the downtown business district are a \u201cchronic problem.\u201d Indeed, as the Miami Herald points out<\/a>, \u201cMost local shelters are at capacity, meaning police can do little to punish the homeless who urinate in the street or light cooking fires in public parks.\u201d Instead of vying for more funding to support the hundreds of homeless people who reside in Miami, Sarnoff\u2019s solution is to jail them for living on the streets.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the criminalization of homelessness, read the 2009 report<\/a> \u201cHomes Not Handcuffs\u201d by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> posted on Monday, 07.01.13<\/h5>\n

Other Miami-Dade cities deny \u2018dumping\u2019 homeless people in downtown Miami<\/span><\/h1>\n
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Miami Beach police officers Pablo Jimenez, left, and Ysidro Llamoca talk with Danielle Wallace, Chris Bissett and Shawn Patrick Collins at Lummus Park on South Beach on Tuesday June 25, 2013.<\/p>\n

PATRICK FARRELL \/ MIAMI HERALD STAFF<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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