County demands $10 million from Miami Beach over homelessness fight

On any given night, there are about 1,700 people living at one of the 13 Camillus House facilities in Miami-Dade County, most of them in long-term transition programs. 

Providing emergency, one-night shelter is a small part of what they do.

“We’re in the restoration of life business,” said CEO Eddie Gloria. “We learned that shelter is just a temporary thing, that the real engagement begins when people need to come in and get into a therapeutic environment.”

Camillus House was in the spotlight last week when the City of Miami bused 41 people from Camillus House to a hostel in Miami Beach.

“We weren’t consulted,” Gloria said.

As Gloria explains it, the city and Camillus House had hit an impasse in negotiations over reimbursements. Camillus House wants to more than double the current rate to $67 per person, which it says is still not enough to cover the cost of services it provides. 

“Everybody’s got their budgets, so do we, and we got to take care of our people, our staff matters, their lives matter, and the people we serve matter,” Gloria said.

When the contract with the city ran out, Gloria said the city showed up with vans and removed the homeless people it had brought there. That incident happened just after the Miami Beach City Commission voted to cancel Referendum 8. Had voters passed it, the measure would’ve generated an estimated $10 million for the Homeless Trust by imposing a one-percent tax on restaurants and bars. Every city in the county except for Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, and Surfside already has a similar tax. 

On Wednesday, the Miami-Dade County Commission jumped on the issue, and several city officials came to testify at the meeting. 

“Obviously, the city of Miami Beach understands that there’s a need in this community, we are wanting to be part of the solution,” said city manager Eric Carpenter. 

The county commission demanded that Miami Beach should contribute $10 million to make up for what the referendum would’ve raised had it passed.

“If you do not like the funding that we’re considering, proffer something else,” said Commissioner Raquel Regalado. 

The meeting was contentious at times, including one exchange between Commissioner Danielle Higgins-Cohen and Board Chair Oliver Gilbert.

“I know that we’re not imposing a tax, I understand that we’re not doing that, but the voters of Miami Beach have not yet directed whether they want that for themselves,” Higgins-Cohen said. 

“I mean, that is a rich argument considering they took it off the ballot, they stopped people from considering it!” Gilbert retorted. “I was trusting the residents of Miami Beach to do the right thing, I didn’t ask them to implement it, I said let them vote.”

Gilbert explained that the county made a deal with Miami Beach: let the voters decide on the homeless tax issue, and we will give you redevelopment money for the North Beach area, but the city broke the deal by canceling the referendum. I asked Gloria what he thought of the county’s move to essentially fine Miami Beach. 

“I don’t know enough to say if that was the right move or not but certainly the county feels a certain way about it, the cities feel a certain way, I get it, it’s another game, we’re just the providers trying to make things happen on the ground,” Gloria said. 

Camillus House relies on funding from the Homeless Trust, which itself depends on tax revenue from the cities, which it is not currently getting from Miami Beach.