Michael Hamilton’s home is now rubble. He’s been sitting and sleeping on his front lawn for two days after the city of Miami demolished his home on Northwest 45th Street while he was still inside.
"I didn’t even have any shoes on," he said, adding that he was told to he had to leave at that moment.
On August 18, he got a 10-day notice to vacate his home because of unsafe conditions. The warning meant he had until Friday, August 28, to leave -- but instead, the crews came two days early, leaving him nowhere to go.
Hamilton has lived in the house for about 60 years. He says all he was able to save was his birth certificate and a few documents.
"Sadness not as much as anger. It makes no logical sense," he said. "I don’t see how any of this is due process of the law."
His neighbor’s grandson posted what happened on Facebook, outraged that the 70-year-old is now on the street.
"Birds were pecking at his feet," Keith Lorren said. "He was outside in the grass and the heat with no water, no food and no home. This is an outrage."
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The city sent pictures of the home before it was demolished and says it was unsafe and had several code violations.
"Several attempts were made to contact the property owner during the last 13 months to no avail," the statement said in part. "The city of Miami takes the safety of its residents very seriously and for that reason the Department of Human Services is working diligently to relocate the resident to a hotel.”
But Hamilton says he and his family were never contacted. He was saying at a hotel as of Friday night.
