A 3-2 Vote Stripped Away the 24-hour Warning That Kept People Out of Jail. Now a Coalition Is Mobilizing to Reverse It.
Advocates for people who are homeless are planning to fight back against Miami’s new “catastrophic” encampment bill.
In late July, the Miami City Commission removed the 24-hour notice requirements from an existing ordinance prohibiting encampments on downtown property. The amendment only requires local police officers to provide a verbal warning to people living in encampments and give them a “reasonable amount of time” to leave an area before they can be arrested for sleeping outside. The amendment passed by a 3-2 vote despite widespread opposition from local advocacy groups.
“It was within that 24-hour period that outreach workers would connect with people who are homeless, and this is the reason why there have only been two arrests of the homeless under the current camping within the last 18 months,” David Peery, executive director of Florida Coalition to Advance Racial Equity, told Invisible People in an interview.
“So essentially, they’re breaking something that was working, and now it’s going to funnel people directly into the jails,” he added. “It’s going to make outreach so much more difficult. It’s going to leave arrests … up to some unfettered, standardless officer discretion. It’s just a very catastrophic, horrible provision.”
A Campaign to Fight Back
To fight back against the amendment, Peery said FCARE is launching a new “Housing Not Handcuffs” campaign to educate the public about the new law’s dangers.
According to a presentation reviewed by Invisible People, the campaign aims to elevate the voices of people who are homeless during government meetings. The goal is to identify and coach between five and 10 people to speak up during commission meetings and coordinate their testimony with proposed legislation instead of just speaking at general public comment.
At the same time, advocates will push for a county-wide anti-criminalization bill and a Homeless Bill of Rights “to counteract municipal rollbacks” like the anti-camping law. Advocates also plan to prepare to litigate against laws that harm people who are homeless. Peery is raising $6,000 to cover the cost of taking the local bar exam so he can represent some of the homeless plaintiffs in court.
“Once politicians get drunk on these criminalization measures, or at least take a first drink on it, they can’t stop,” Peery said.
A City Already Seeing Rising Homelessness
The decision to fight back against Miami’s encampment amendment happened at a time when homelessness has increased across the city. According to the latest snapshot count, there are about 605 people who are unsheltered in the city, which represents an 11% increase since 2025. Overall, there are more than 3,600 people who are homeless in Miami, representing a 1% increase from the previous year.
Peery noted that part of that increase is due to neighboring cities, such as Miami Beach, cracking down on unsheltered homelessness. He said that has pushed people from other jurisdictions into Miami, which also inspired local commissioners to take further action.
Miami is also one of roughly 350 cities that have increased penalties for being homeless since the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, according to data from the ACLU. The court ruled that punitive punishments like fines, fees, and arrests do not violate the Constitution’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Local officials have described the amendment as necessary to help people who are homeless get into the services that are available to them. Commissioner Rolando Escalona, who drafted the amendment, told The Miami Times that the “goal is not to arrest anybody,” words that don’t seem to carry any weight for advocates.
“I understand what it is, being homeless. But we also need to be honest … I understand that people go through situations in life, but we are providing the resources that are needed for them to go to shelter,” Escalona said. “We are providing resources, not only beds, but we are [also] providing way more than that.”
Escalona’s words rang hollow for Peery.
“You don’t need that force because no one wants to be homeless,” Peery said. “Agreed. If you connect people with permanent housing, not just shelter, because shelter is pretty much useless for the chronically homeless, you don’t need force.”
Growing Opposition from Advocates and Medical Professionals
Other advocates are also concerned about the potential impact of Miami’s new amendment. The Miami chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America sent a letter to the city commission asking them to rethink the amendment.
“While it’s been clear for decades that such laws do nothing toward achieving our goal of ending homelessness, it’s equally as clear that exacerbating the vicious cycle of sending people to jail who have no place to sleep but on our streets is nothing but an exercise in profound cruelty,” the letter reads in part, according to a report by Prism. “These suffering souls get arrested, get released, get arrested again, on and on ad absurdum. Under this regime, the only outcomes are lives fraught with misery and the promise of an early grave.”
Matthew Pastewski, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine who provides street medical services to people who are homeless, told the Miami Times that the counterproductive amendment will make life harder for people who are on the streets.
“Jail makes medical problems worse. People lose access to medications,” Pastewski told the outlet. “They lose follow-up appointments, documents, belongings, phones and trust. They often leave sicker, more disconnected, and end up back on the street.”
How You Can Help
Now is not the time to be silent about homelessness in the United States or anywhere else. Homeless people deserve safe and sanitary housing just as much as those who can afford rent or a mortgage.
Poverty and homelessness are both policy choices, not personal failures. That’s why we need you to contact your officials and tell them you support legislation that:
- Streamlines the development of affordable housing
- Reduces barriers for people experiencing homelessness to enter permanent housing
- Bolsters government response to homelessness
Together, we can end homelessness.
