HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 2020-05-07 MinutesCity of Miami
City Hall
3500 Pan American Drive
Miami, FL 33133
www.miamigov.com
Meeting Minutes
Thursday, May 07, 2020
10:00 AM
Special Meeting
City Hall
City Commission
Francis X. Suarez, Mayor
Keon Hardemon, Chair, District Five
Ken Russell, Vice Chair, District Two
Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner, District One
Joe Carollo, Commissioner, District Three
Manolo Reyes, Commissioner, District Four
Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager
Victoria Mendez, City Attorney
Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
City Commission
Meeting Minutes May 7, 2020
10:00 AM INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Present: Chair Hardemon, Vice Chair Russell, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla,
Commissioner Carollo and Commissioner Reyes.
On the 7th day of May, 2020, the City Commission of the City of Miami, Florida, conducted
and broadcasted a virtual meeting from its regular meeting place in City Hall, 3500 Pan
American Drive, Miami, Florida, in special session. The Commission Meeting was called to
order by Chair Hardemon at 10:06 a.m., and adjourned at 1:44 p.m.
ALSO PRESENT:
Arthur Noriega, V, City Manager
Victoria Mendez, City Attorney
Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
ORDER OF THE DAY
Chair Hardemon: Pursuant to Executive Order Number 2069 issued by the Office of the
Governor Ron DeSantis on March 20, 2020 municipalities may conduct meetings of their
governing boards without having a quorum of members present physically or at any specific
location and utilizing communications media technology, such as telephonic or video
conferencing as provided by Section 120.545 (b)(2), Florida Statutes. Today's special meeting
has been called for the purpose of considering homeless issues, food distribution, the Miami
International Airport, and any and all actions that may arise from discussing these, including
but not limited to, the adoption of resolutions. Procedures for the public comment will be
explained by the City Attorney shortly. The members of the City Commission appearing
remotely for this meeting may be Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Joe Carollo, Manolo Reyes, Ken
Russell, the Vice Chair, and me, Keon Hardemon, the Chair. Madam City Attorney, may you
please state the procedures to be followed during this meeting?
Barnaby Min (Deputy City Attorney): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Any person who is a lobbyist
pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 6 in the City Code must register with the City Clerk and comply
with related City requirements for lobbyists before appearing before the City Commission. A
person may not lobby a City official, board member, or staff member until registering. A copy
of the code section about lobbyists is available in the City Clerk's Office or online at
municode.com. Any person making a presentation, formal request, or petition to the City
Commission concerning real property must make the disclosures required by the City Code in
writing. A copy of the City Code section is available at the Office of the City Clerk or online at
municode.com. The material for each item on the agenda is available during business hours at
the City Clerk's Office and online 24 hours a day at miamigov.com. Any person may be heard
by the City Commission through the Chair and upon registering pursuant to the published
notice for not more than two minutes on any proposition before the City Commission unless
modified by the Chair. Since this is a virtual meeting as authorized by the Governor of the
State of Florida, members of the public wishing to address the body may do so by visiting
miamigov.comlvirtualmeeting to upload their video comments or submit their written
comments via the online comment form. Members of the public may also call 305-250-5353 to
provide comments via the dedicated City of Miami public comment voicemail. Members of the
public may also pre -register to provide live public comment by phone during the meeting. You
may pre -register by phone by calling 305-250-5350 or online at
miamigov.comlgovernmentllivepublic-comment. All comments submitted will be included as
part of the public record .for this virtual meeting and will be considered by the City
Commission prior to any action taken. The City will accommodate any speakers desiring to
appear in person subject to all applicable emergency measures in place to prevent the further
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spread of COVID-19. Speakers who appear in person will he subject to screening for
symptoms of COV1D-19. Any persons exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19 will not he
permitted to enter City Hall. All interested parties are required to abide by all state, county,
and local emergency orders and are urged to remain at home and practice social distancing. If
the proposition is being continued or rescheduled, the opportunity to be heard may be at such
a later date before the City Commission takes action on such proposition. When addressing the
City Commission, the member of the public must first state his or her name, his or her address,
and what item will be spoken about. When the City Commission takes action or votes on any
proposition before it, it shall do so by roll call vote, which shall be recorded by the Clerk and
included in the record. Anyone wishing to appeal any decision made by the City Commission
Jroany matter considered at this meeting may need a verbatim record of the item. A video of
this meeting may be requested at the Office of Communications or viewed online at
miamigov.com. Please silence all cell phones and other noise making devices. Any person with
a disability requiring assistance, auxiliary aids, and services for this meeting may notify the
City Clerk. Please note Commissioners have generally been briefed by City staff and the City
Attorney on the items on the agenda today. The City of Miami is using Zoom to hold its May 7,
2020 Virtual Special City Commission meeting. Zoom is a cloud platform for video and audio
conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones,
and room systems. In order to ensure that the public has the ability to view the meeting, the
City's Communications Department will broadcast the meeting through all the usual channels
and avenues that are provided when a City Commission meeting is held fully in Commission
Chambers at City Hall. The meeting can be viewed live on Miami TV at miamigov.comlty,
through the City's Facebook page, on the City's Periscope channel, on the City's YouTube
channel, and on Comcast Channel 77. The broadcast will also have closed captioning.
Additionally, the City has not selected a virtual platform that requires the public to purchase
or download any additional software or equipment to watch this meeting. Aside from the Zoom
platform and that participants will be appearing remotely, the public will have no discernible
difference in their ability to watch the meeting. The City has developed several new methods
for ensuring public comment for a virtual meeting. The first option is to allow the public to
provide public comments via the dedicated City of Miami public comment voicemail by calling
305-250-5353 where individuals will be able to leave a two -minute message that will be played
during the virtual Commission meeting. The second option allows for the public to submit a
two -minute video to be played during the virtual Commission meeting. The third option allows
the public to submit comments via the City's online comment form. The comments submitted
through the comment form have been distributed to the elected officials and City
Administration throughout the day so that the elected officials can consider the comments prior
to taking any action. Additionally, the online comment form will remain open during the
meeting to accept comments and distribute to the elected officials up until the Chairman closes
public comment. The fourth option allows the public to pre -register to provide live public
comment by phone during the virtual Commission meeting. For all of the aforementioned
options, all of the comments received will be included in the public record of the meeting. For
these four options, the City also created a simple set of instructions explaining how the public
may submit their comments with either option. Those instructions are provided in the notice to
the public and published online at miamigov.comlvirtual meeting. Additionally, like any other
City Commission, the public may provide public comment at City Hall. The City set up a
terminal in the event members of the public travel to City Hall to provide public comment.
However, due to COVID-19, all speakers desiring to appear in person will be subject to all
applicable emergency measures in place to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Speakers
who appear in person will be subject to screening for symptoms of COVID-19. Any persons
exhibiting any symptoms of COVID-19 will not be permitted to enter City Hall but will be able
to participate through the remote options described earlier. These five public comment options
established and provided for -- for the virtual special Commission meeting comply, with Section
286.014 and Section 120.54, Florida Statutes. The City has published the agenda as well as
included in the notice to the public pursuant to our City Code the items and the topics that will
be discussed at the virtual special City Commission meeting. Additionally, the public has been
given the opportunity to provide public comment during the meeting and within reasonable
proximity and time before the meeting, be it the public comment voicemail, online public
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Meeting Minutes May 7, 2020
comment form, the public comment video upload, and the live public comment by phone.
Section 286.0114 (4)(c) of Florida Statutes specifically authorizes the City to prescribe
procedures or forms for an individual to use in order to inform the board or Commission of a
desire to he heard, to indicate his or her support, opposition, or neutrality on a proposition.
The City, through its five public comment options to provide five procedures and forms to
indicate, among other things, his or her support, opposition, and neutrality on the items and
topics to be discussed at the virtual Commission meeting. The City provided information on
how to submit comments in the notice to the public on a dedicated web page and via its social
media channels. Commissioners, please confirm you are comfortable with the notice provisions
as set forth in these uniform rules and procedure we have established for the virtual meeting.
Vice Chair Russell: Yes.
Chair Hardemon: Yes.
Mr. Min: Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much.
PUBLIC COMMENTS FOR SP ITEM(S)
7436 DISCUSSION ITEM
Office of the City
Clerk
PUBLIC COMMENTS SUBMITTED ONLINE BY MEMBERS OF THE
PUBLIC FOR THE MAY 7, 2020 VIRTUAL SPECIAL CITY
COMMISSION MEETING.
RESULT: PRESENTED
Chair Hardemon: What we'll do first is move into our public comment so that we can
gather all the information that we need from our public. And first I want to
acknowledge the public that is at the podium outside of City Hall. So let's check to see
if there's anyone there.
Unidentified Speaker: Not at this time.
Chair Hardemon: No? Okay. So, let's now move into the live public comment on the
telephone.
Manuel Otero (Innovation and Technology Web Administrator): Caller 1, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, you are now live with the Commission. Go ahead.
Lino Morales: My name is Lino Morales. I live over here on 888 Biscayne Boulevard,
Marina Blue. And I have been living over here for three years. When I came over, the
Maurice Ferre Park was having a guard that was in a car driving around, and the
park was safe and it was clean. I take my dog every night. I don't know what
happened. Out of the blue, the guard is not anymore over there. The park has been
declining and all the homeless have been taking over. You cannot go. They are
defecating, they are urinating, and it's not safe anymore. So, some of the people that
live with me over here have been afraid because they have been attacking them. And
now with the coronavirus, they closed the park. They moved all of them to the park.
Now they are congregating in the front. So if you are trying to solve a problem, you
are creating a problem. Because you have like 40 to 50 homeless at the front of the
park next to each other. And some of them, they are walking the street, they are going
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to the CVS (Consumer Value Stores) that is down here, and they are doing what they
are not supposed to do. So, that's my comment.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Otero: Caller 2, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, go ahead. You're live now with the Commission, sir. Sir?
Hello? Sir, are you here?
Mr. Otero: Let's go to Caller 3.
Unidentified Speaker: Okay, go ahead.
Unidentified Speaker: I don't want to talk, I just want to listen, at least not now.
Unidentified Speaker: Okay, Caller 2 doesn 't want to speak now.
Mr. Otero: Okay, Caller 3.
Unidentified Speaker: Hello, sir. You are live with the Commission. Please speak.
Ricardo Luces: (INAUDIBLE) allowing us to speak on this issue. My name is Ricardo
Luces. 1 am a resident of Downtown Miami. I reside at 900 Biscayne Boulevard. And
as a resident of Downtown Miami, I just want to say that the homeless issue is
becoming a very, very frustrating issue for all of us that live and work in Downtown
Miami. In 2015, I risked everything and I took everything that I owned and I used it to
invest in a property in Downtown Miami on the promise that it was a good
neighborhood, that it was a safe neighborhood and all of the problems of the past had
gone away. I took my life savings, I invested in the community by buying a property
and moving my family to Downtown. And all I can say is that since 2015 until present
day, this homeless situation continues to get worse and worse and worse. It is
creating a health issue, it is creating an environmental issue, and it is creating a
safety issue for those of us that live in this community. We have a beautiful downtown
area, but unfortunately, that beautifid area extends from Biscayne Bay to about two to
three blocks west of Biscayne Bay. After that, our city is literally being turned into a
third -world cesspool of decay, debris, health issues, and it's just -- it's got to stop. I
want to turn the Commission's attention to the park known as Maurice Ferre Park,
formerly known as Bicentennial Park. This is the park that lies between American
Airlines to the south and our two beautiful museums to the north. Millions and
millions of dollars were invested by this Commission and by the taxpayers of this
community to transform that park from what was a disgusting, horrible, dangerous
place known as Bicentennial Park to this beautiful park that we have now. And after
investing these millions of dollars, it has become clear that we are now neglecting this
park, specifically as a result of the homeless issue. When I moved here in 2015, up
until about last year, our Museum Park had rolling security in it. The rolling security
was there to enforce the safety of the people that use the park. They were there to
make sure that after 10 or 11 o 'clock at night when the park closed, no one moved in
and no one was there. And for some reason about a year ago, the rolling security was
taken away. When I contacted my commissioner about this because I saw the growing
homeless problem in the park, my commissioner's office responded to me, said, we're
not involved with that. You have to contact Joe Carollo because he's in charge, his
office is in charge of Bayfront Park and Museum Park. I contacted that office three
times via email, two times via phone, and no one ever responded to me. So that 's why
I signed up to speak with you all this morning.
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Chair Hardemon: Thank you so very much for your comments. Your two minutes have
expired.
Mr. Luces: (INAUDIBLE) of how each and every night Museum Park is --
Mr. Otero: Caller 4, you 're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Hello, ma'am. You're live with the Commission. Speak now.
Christine Michaels: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time. Can you
hear me?
Chair Hardemon: Yes.
Ms. Michaels: (INAUDIBLE).
Chair Hardemon: Yes, we hear you.
Ms. Michaels: Okay, thank you. My name is Christine Michaels, I am an owner here
in Downtown Miami at the Riverfront Condos, the Ivy Condominium, 90 Southwest
3rd Street. I've lived here for 23 years, originally still owning a condo on Brickell
Avenue, watching this area transform as high-rises go up. North of the river here, the
scenery has continued to decline. Very briefly, to give you my background and how I
know so much about the homeless situation. I own a walking tour company and
talking about the history and culture and architecture in South Beach and in Little
Havana. Many people have been very successful, people that (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
same thing in Downtown Miami, which I have refused given the growing concerns
that have been already addressed by other residents. When I got involved in South
Beach, it's just a little history. I was a volunteer for the Miami Design Preservation
League leading a tour, and just as I started, a homeless person passed me and with
his whip in his hand, slashed me across the face. Now, some people would be scared,
angry. I was not. This is my very first time in contact with the homeless, and my initial
reaction was I felt sorry. There was so much homeless in South Beach at the time. But
I got involved. I wanted to give them jobs and shocked to learn they laughed at me.
And they got more money tipping off the towing companies with cars illegally parked
and so forth. So, as I got more involved to learn more, I learned Miami at one point --
I forget the year, we're touted as having some of the best programs in this country.
And I was very proud that Miami did help so much. But as you all know, there is
plenty of help for those who want it, but it seems we are now enabling them. There
used to be tents under the bridges leading to South Beach. At one point, the City
disbanded them, which I warned them please don't. And what I predicted, happened,
they disbanded and they came into our neighborhood. And there was violence, there
was a stabbing here next to our building. I see drug needles and constant use of
drugs. I don't need to go into so much detail, you're very aware. The homeless is
getting worse. Obviously, legislation takes years. It's very difficult --
Chair Hardemon: Ma'am?
Ms. Michaels: -- especially with ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). The
homeless have --
Chair Hardemon: Ma'am, your two minutes have expired. Thank you very much for
your comment.
Ms. Michaels: I'd like to propose simply is --
Mr. Otero: Caller 1, you're live.
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Unidentified Speaker: Sir, go ahead. You are now live with the Commission.
Unidentified Speaker: Expired. You had two minutes, so they cut you off.
Ms. Michaels: Oh.
Unidentified Speaker: They cut you off. Sorry.
David Smith: Hello.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, go ahead. You're live with the Commission.
Mr. Smith: Thank you. Hello, this is David Smith. Fin the marina manager at the Epic
Marina located at 270 Biscayne Boulevard Way in Downtown Miami. It's been
established since 2009 and we 've been having issues with homeless camps underneath
the Brickell Avenue Bridge on the north side ever since. We've been fortunate to have
some help from the City of Miami Police Department and Brett Bibeau, who have
been instrumental. But it seems like everybody's hands have been tied as to really how
to combat the homeless issue. We've had numerous thefts. There's been several
overdoses causing deaths under the bridge, people being harassed, and it seems like
we're not getting the help that we need to enforce the camps and removing them. So
we are looking to get some sort of help. It doesn 't matter how many times we call the
police; the police show up and do what they do and the people show up an hour later
again. And it's just a vicious cycle and it seems like a cycle that doesn 't have an end.
And we need some help with this. Thank you.
Mr. Otero: Caller 2, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Go ahead, sir. You're live with the Commission.
David Perry: Yeah, hello. My name is David Perry. I live at 4101 Northwest 24th
Avenue in Miami, Florida. I serve as a class representative and a lead plaintiff in the
Pottinger litigation, representing people experiencing homelessness in Miami. I have
personally experienced homelessness in our city and I want to make two
(INAUDIBLE). First, (INAUDIBLE) want to be homeless. Homelessness is caused by
extreme poverty and is rooted in our affordable housing crisis. Miami ranks as the
second worst affordable housing market in the nation. Homelessness is a traumatic
experience where one is always vulnerable to theft, violence, the elements, sleep
deprivation, and the judgmental (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from your fellow citizens.
Trying to figure out how to eat, how to shower, how to find public toilets. I can assure
everyone in the City Commission that people are homeless here in Miami not because
of choice. People are homeless because of lack of choices. Second, even in normal
times, (INAUDIBLE) remain healthy living on the streets. Medications are frequently
lost. The research shows that the homeless suffer from higher rates of chronic
diseases. During the COVID pandemic, it is very difficult to comply with social
distancing rules when you don't have a home. When you see unhoused persons
crowded together, it's because they're huddled under bridges or in bus shelters to
seek relief from the sun. (INAUDIBLE) virus. I fbund that most persons want to be
tested and certainly always remain healthy. We ask that the Miami City Commission
fund hotel rooms (INAUDIBLE) on the streets. This is the only way to protect the
homeless in our community from the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) crisis. Also, connect all
homeless with case management services in order to provide permanent housing
solutions after the pandemic (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We also ask that the City follow
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines, install portable hand
washing stations, and properly maintain toilets at all homelessness encampments
throughout the city. And also, foster sanitary conditions on the street. Taking these
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measures will help reduce our homelessness problem as we move forward to
surmount this COVID-19 crisis. Thank you.
Mr. Otero: Caller 3, you're live.
Lena Carson: Good morning. Excuse me. My name is Lena Carson. I live at 670
Northwest 85th Place, Number 201. I'm a recent graduate of FIU 's (Florida
International University's) medical school and a co-founder of the Dade County
Street Response, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing medical
care and resources to Miami's most vulnerable communities during times of disaster.
First, just a few words about the public health implications of COVID-19 on
individuals experiencing homelessness. Individuals experiencing homelessness are
already at higher risk of infection due to higher rates of underlying health conditions
and due to the conditions that they're living in on the street, have fewer opportunities
for hygiene and other measures that would reduce risk of infection. And I think this
virus has just magnified the extent to which our community is only as healthy as the
most vulnerable members in our community. The -- what our organization has done
so far is basically put a band -aid. We have provided accommodations for the
chronically unsheltered to live safely in the streets. We've provided mass testing
through both the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) and the antibody testing. For
population sampling of the virus, we've handed out tents, we've handed out toiletries,
we provide hand washing stations with clean water, showers, mats, and clean clothes.
There are two things that we're asking for. The first is for the Homeless Trust to take
over this work and provide immediate emergency housing for people living on the
street. It is shameful that we, a small non-profit organization, and several other non-
profit organizations are being scrappy and providing these basic human needs for
people living on the street. And we should all be ashamed of that as members of the
Miami community, that has come to this. The second thing that we're asking is that the
City of Miami Police Department stop disrupting the temporary encampments that
individuals have set up to keep themselves safe and socially distanced during this
COVID-19 pandemic. We've given out tents for individuals to maintain social
distance from each other and to protect themselves from the elements. And we've
heard back from individuals experiencing homelessness that the City of Miami Police
Department has been slashing the tents. I want to direct you to the CDC website for
people -- for individuals experiencing homelessness, which explicitly states that
encampments should not be disturbed during this time as a public health measure.
And just, I mean, like, let's remember what the previous caller said in terms of
compassion and humanity. Nobody wants to be homeless. And we need an immediate
emergency solution for this. Thank you very much.
Mr. Otero: Caller 1, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, go ahead, you are now live with the Commission. Sir, go
ahead, you are now live with the Commission.
Armen Henderson: Okay, hi, my name is Dr. Armen Henderson. I'm a physician at
University of Miami Hospital. And I live in Miami -Dade County. Thank you for
having this meeting. First of all, I appreciate the time that you've taken out to address
this serious topic. I first want to talk about the way in which we 've engaged the
homeless population over the last two months. We've been working with a couple of
organizations, Dream Defenders, the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Trust, Dade County Street
Response and others, that we normally work in crisis situations. And so, when we
knew that the pandemic had first started, we knew that we were going to have to be
activated, just to fill the gaps where government organizations basically were not.
And so, we took on this feat at the beginning of March to figure out the best way to go
about talking and figuring out ways to address the chronically unsheltered and the
public health risks that they pose to people in Miami -Dade County. And so, you know,
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the first thing I did was reach out to the Trust and figure out what -- how can we
develop a good working relationship. And so, when 1 did that, I basically was shut
down. And since then, we've provided hundreds of tents, 500 or plus tents. We
provided hundreds of tests to individuals living on the streets. We provided toiletries
and thousands of masks. And we 've all the way up until today developed an actual site
where we're providing thousands of individuals with showers, handwashing stations
that don't smell like sewage, and also portable toilets that people service every day.
And so, you know, we're very invested in the health of this population. And so we're
here because we really care about this population. We want to make sure that the
people who are in charge and get paid to take care of this population are actually
doing their job. And so, you know, first of all, 1 want to say that most of the
individuals that live on the street right now are chronically unsheltered. The actual
shelters themselves are thoroughly crowded. There are really no resources for
individuals who, you know, live on the streets and have serious mental illnesses or
suffer from drug addiction, et cetera. And so within a pandemic, it creates a
particular higher risk because these are the individuals that are sleeping on the
streets. These are individuals that are also, you know, have to use the bathroom, et
cetera. And if we're not paying special attention to these individuals, then when we do
decide to open up the city, then we're going to have a problem. So, my
recommendations, based on what we've done over the past two months are number
one, to expand testing for all individuals living on the streets and in the shelters, to
provide basic protective materials like masks for individuals. There was no one
handing out masks for those who are chronically unsheltered. And the arrest of
homeless people for being homeless and stop breaking down tents. We actually have
data where, you know, the City of Miami and the County are actually arresting people
and putting them in jail. Normally during crisis situations, this is something that
we've done in the past., but because the jails are overcrowded and also are magnets
for infection, it's not something that we should be doing, and other cities have
adopted similar guidelines as well. We should urge the County to enact Chapter
288.1166, which allows professional sports arenas to be designated as shelters for the
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) of homelessness and establish local programs for addiction and
mental health. And then lastly, urge the County and State Attorney to release their
own recognizance and secure housing for those who have been given house arrest,
who cannot leave the jail because they don't have a verified address. So, those are the
things that I think that we should be doing. Again, the Trust is funded to do these
things, and we do feel like they should be held accountable. We should know where
the money is going and how they're spending it, and they should also be open to new
ideas. This crisis is not anything new. We've done it in the past with hurricanes. Every
year, we go through the same thing, and every year we seem unprepared because I
also work with the same community during hurricanes since 2017 as well, and we're
faced with similar problems. So, in closing, I just hope that we're able to figure out a
good way forward. We are down with working with the Trust to figure out new
options and other organizations to figure out how to spend the money, et cetera, and
we just want the best for those that live in Miami.
Mr. Otero: Caller 2, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, go ahead. You're live now with the Commission.
Unidentified Speaker: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 1990s. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Otero: Let's go to Caller -- Caller 3.
Joe Delrisco: Hi, good morning, this is Joe Delrisco, 6291 Southwest 6th Street. Good
morning, Mayor, Commissioners. You know, thank you for your time. The reason why
I'm calling is because, you know, there's a lot of chat regarding a property here at
63rd Avenue and 63rd Court and Southwest 6th Street. You know, the City bought all
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of these lots, 7 out of 11 lots, to turn it into a park. You know, some of the information
is that the park isn't going to come, that maybe part of it is going to be a park, the
other part is going to be used to build multi family housing, et cetera. And I really just
wanted to get an understanding. A lot of neighbors are going around. This is
becoming a really hot issue in the neighborhood. And I just wanted to get clarification
as to, you know, everything says it's supposed to be a park. We want a park. We
welcome a park. We thank you for authorizing the use of City funds to buy and build
parkland. It's great for our neighborhood. It's going to be great for our children, et
cetera. We welcome it. We just want more clarification. We want direction from the
Commission as to what's going to happen there. And I want to reiterate how 1 feel,
and how hundreds of people around here feel, is that we want a park and nothing
other than a park. We want our neighborhood to remain single-family residential.
Thank you for your time.
Mr. Otero: Caller 4, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: (INAUDIBLE), you can speak with the Commission. Hello?
Evan Yepes: Hello, I'm here.
Unidentified Speaker: Are you ready to speak? Yes.
Mr. Yepes: Okay, perfect. My name is Evan Yepes. Fin the property manager for the
Riverfront community here at 92 Southwest 3rd Street. We are 13.5 acre semi -gated
community property with 3 buildings and over 1,500 units. We are in a situation
where since my arrival six months ago, I've been working diligently to try and control
the homeless situation that is continuing to worsen just outside our community.
Unidentified Speaker: Hello, sir. This is Gary calling from the City of Miami. I'm with
the Commission live at hearing. I believe you -- good morning. I believe you put your
name down for --
Mr. Yepes: (INAUDIBLE) causes a lot of security and safety issues that our residents
are concerned about. We did have an assault last year on our property from a
homeless person where a female resident was physically assaulted right at our private
dog park. And since then, I've began to present numerous homeless incidents to the
DNA (Downtown Neighbors Alliance) meetings that are held on a monthly basis. This
led me to working with Commander Regueira and his team, who have a great set of
officers who help protect our area. But it just seems as though with the culmination of
trying to work with Vickers and Sergio Torres and the Human Services Department to
try to organize and make certain situations more aware to the public, it just so
happens that we feel that there needs to be additional funds put towards helping
support the homeless. I've worked with Vickers, I've worked with Torres, we've
communicated, we've been in meetings. I've also worked directly with Camillus
House, preparing to receive different donation packages for private investors who
want to kind of help the City in the effort to fund these additional programs for
Camillus House that will help get these homeless people off the street. The 2020
homeless support budget, I mean I understand that there was an increase, but the
$100,000 increase that you put there is enough only to support a homeless -- about a
hundred homeless people in an annual year. A hundred people. There is a Homeless
Trust that has a $55 million a year budget which I believe needs to be tapped into in
order to at least fund the programs that are necessary to help our streets seem safer
for our residents because when a mother can't walk her baby down the street, when a
babysitter, when a dog -- someone walking their dog can't go without being in the
center of the favela of Downtown, which is what it looks like. I just feel that this
Commission needs to step it up and make sure that we can do everything that we can
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to try and help the situation of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) out there. Thank you very
much and have a good day.
Mr. Otero: Caller 1, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, go ahead. You are now live with the Commission.
Ryan Soliman: Thank you. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Ryan Soliman.
I represent the Hyatt Regency, Miami, as well as the James L. Knight Center. I would
like to bring up the topic of we've had a big uptick in the presence of homeless in our
property during all hours of the day. In some instances, the encounters do become
aggressive and confrontational. We are being proactive, both at the Hyatt entity and
at the James L. Knight Center, by minimizing entry points and closely monitoring our
CCTV (closed-circuit television) systems and our security patrols to mitigate the entry
of homelessness. We are looking to work with the City or to try to address this issue
during these times, as we are still open for essential -- essential personnel.
Mr. Otero: Caller 3, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, you are on live with the Commission, please speak.
Unidentified Speaker: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), a resident of Downtown Miami, living at
50 Biscayne for the last 12 years. 1 am speaking on behalf of the DNA as delegated by
its President Amal. As we know, the City of Miami has the greatest number of
homeless in Miami -Dade County. I have been working with the homeless for 18 years.
The last five years, with the Homeless Department of the City of Miami Beach, they
are the equivalent to the Green Shirts. I do street outreach with their staff four to five
days a week. We engage homeless people with the goal of assisting them. We also hire
a number of homeless people that have been placed in shelter as part of the outreach
team. Based on my experience, these are the three categories of homelessness.
Number one, homeless that will accept help today. Thev will accept shelter,
permanent housing, and relocation to be with family or friends. Number two,
homeless that will not accept help today. These are the hardcore vagabonds,
substance abusers that live a reckless lifestyle. Thev are homeless by choice. Number
three, homeless having severe mental illness and do not understand they need help.
The City of Miami needs a no camping ordinance equivalent to the one in the City of
Miami Beach. Tents are not allowed and it is enforced by the police. Once again, the
City of Miami is becoming a tent city. Tent City is growing underneath 95 and other
areas of the city. Homeless by choice should not be condoned. We need to get ahead
of the curve before we return to the Tent City underneath 95 and avoid what is
occurring in other cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.
Homelessness should not be an acceptable lifestyle. It affects them and it affects the
life of all citizens, the quality of life and the economy. When we open the parks to the
public, we should close the public parks after midnight, maybe from one to sunrise.
Beaches and parks are legally closed in Miami Beach at night and avoid camping in
the parks. Many substance -- maybe we need to increase substance abuse programs,
rehab centers and work programs. Maybe we should engage groups that come to
Downtown to feed the homeless and inform them why their kindness is promoting
homelessness, not helping to reduce homelessness. Engage the residents to explain
why giving them money will most likely lead to promoting homelessness, substance
abuse, and a homeless by choice lifestyle instead of working to be independent. I
thank you for listening.
Mr. Otero: Caller 1, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, go ahead. You're now live with the Commission.
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Rick Madero: Good morning, everyone, my name is Rick Madero. We have property
in the Fairlane area and basically we have heard that there was going to be a park
that was going to be built on the 63rd Avenue area, which we are very much in
agreeance with. This is exactly what we would like to happen. Unfortunately, what we
have heard is that there might be a building going up as well after some kind of --
what can I say, some -- after some research. We have found that there might be some
buildings going up, not just a park. And we're definitely 100 percent against that. It
seems like it's supposed to be just a park, which all the neighbors, I believe, are for it.
Unfortunately, if this building goes up, it will affect our property values, which is
exactly what we don't want. There's a lot of people moving into this area that are
bringing up the prices and making the community a lot better. And we would think
that it's a detriment to this, you know, area if you were to put some kind of building
up there, low-income housing or whatever kind of building, especially without the
approval of. the residents. So, I mean, basically that's all I have to say. It would be
very, very, very, very, very bad if you promise one thing and do something else. And
that's exactly what we don't want. So, we want clear transparency. As you can see,
people are calling in and becoming involved and I think that 's a good sign that the
community is coming together and that's the way to do it. Keep the community
together. Don't work against the community. So all I say is, you know, please, if you
guys are going to do something other than a park; make it very clear, make us a part
of it, and absolutely, we do not want any buildings that are going to affect our society
here in Little Fairlane. And that's it. Thank you for your time, and please keep us
posted with anything that's happening around here.
Mr. Otero: Caller 4, you're live.
Unidentified Speaker: Hello, ma'am. You may speak now.
Nancy Carlo: Yes, hi. Hi, my name is Nancy Carlo. Nancy Carlo, 510 Southwest 63rd
Avenue. I'm calling in reference to District 4, Manolo Reyes. Basically, I'm calling in
reference to some properties bought between 63rd Avenue, 64th -- 63rd Avenue and
63rd Court, between 6th Street. These properties were bought for a park and we are
understanding from even City employees telling us that there is going to be a small
building being built in this land and this is the reason I'm calling. We as neighbors
have not received any notification of any such thing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of a park. It
definitely brings the value of the property up. I'm sure that you noticed that we've had
more people buying into the area and definitely bringing up the value of the property.
From my understanding, there is a whole bunch of neighbors that have sent letters to
Commissioner Manolo Reyes and they have not had any response. From what I hear,
they've had 130 something people agree that they do not want a building, that they
appreciate the park. And I'm really calling because I hear that we don't have any
response and we need something in writing telling us what is going to happen with
these properties because we're concerned about our properties. So this is basically
what I have to say. I'm sure that we know that other neighbors have been calling and
sending letters. We just appreciate something in return being said. We do not agree
with a building. We do agree with a park and we really thank the City for that and
Manolo Reyes for purchasing for that. But I really would not appreciate if something
is done without us being part of the committee or agreement to that extent. So thank
you very much fbr everything that the City does for us in the neighborhood. Thank
you. Again, my name is Nancy. Bye-bye.
Mr. Otero: We're moving over to video comment. Please keep in mind some of these
do not have audio.
Vice Chair Russell: It's illegible.
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Audrey Ardenes: Hello, my name is Audrey Ardenes on behalf of Miami Homes for
All. We're located at 1951 Northwest 7th Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33136. I'm also a
resident of the city of Miami. In January 2020, there were about 650 people
experiencing homelessness on our streets. They are some of our most vulnerable
residents. People don 't become homeless out of choice, but from the lack of affordable
housing and employment. They need support to deal with the trauma of being
homeless and to transition to permanent housing. Since the COVID-19 pandemic,
there may have been a significant increase of people experiencing homelessness in
our city. We're facing a public health crisis. Unfortunately, people experiencing
homelessness do not have a home in which to shelter in place. Many of them are over
the age of 50 with underlying conditions, putting them at an increased risk of COVID-
19. We recently published a set of recommendations developed by those with lived
experience of housing struggles, advocates, and service providers. In an effort to keep
all of our residents safe, we ask that you consider these recommendations, also
available on our website, as you decide how to move forward with allocating funds.
First, all unhoused individuals should have access to hotel and motel roans with
wraparound support services such as job or mental health counseling. Increased
investments in shelters should also be coupled with increased investments in family -
supported housing to augment the efforts underway by the Homeless Trust. Next, it is
critical that unsheltered persons have increased access to properly maintained
handwashing stations and portable bathrooms. Thirdly, we must increase testing
efforts and help outreach education with the aim of making testing available to all
who need it. And finally, there are many teams out in the city conducting testing and
ensuring the safety of those experiencing homelessness. They and the people they
serve need personal protective equipment to remain safe. This equipment for those
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) and for those experiencing homelessness will allow for
increased testing efforts to continue and will slow the virus. Thank you.
Unidentified Speaker: Hi, my name is Jeanette and I'm here to say that I'm very
grateful for something like this that we're actually able to shower and we get some
fresh clothes and cold water and new masks and sanitize our hands, things that are so
very important truing to keep healthy and clean out here in the coronavirus.
Everybody's scared of it. I mean, we're sleeping on the streets. There's no shelters.
The shelters, I mean if you're able to get into them, you got to know someone. It takes
forever to get into them, and they're sick as well. I mean, how can you properly
distance? I've been furloughed since March 23rd, still since March 23rd, it's very
hard to say, but -- I'm unable to say but I'mon my last few pennies. My stimulus
hasn't come in, my taxes, my CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic
Security) Act, my unemployment, nothing has come in. This is a really scary situation,
especially for a woman. Especially for a woman who really, doesn't -- I mean, who
likes to be on the streets? Nobody likes to be on the streets, but right now, there's no
housing, there's no nothing for people to help people. I think Florida needs to have
more programs in place for housing. Because it doesn 't matter if you go into a shelter
system, you're in there for what, 60 days? Most people, if you look at it, if they can
get a job and make $10 an hour, you are still not going to be able to get
(UNINTELLIGIBLE). You're not going to be self-sufficient. There's people in
wheelchairs who don't have disability. What kind of social services are there? There's
no case management. There's a church. There's churches that help. There's churches.
Thank gosh. Thank you for hearing me.
Unidentified Speaker: Alright, thank you.
Vice Chair Russell: It's impossible to read some of these. It would be great if we
could have them read to us.
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Mayor Suarez: Or they can simply he placed on the public record for us to review or
given to us in advance like the set of comments that were given to us in advance of the
meeting.
Michael Sarasti: We'll work on transcribing these and we'l1 do it that way for the next
meeting.
Carlos McGrath: Hi, this is Carlos McGrath from 500 Brickell, Apartment 1606, and
I'm speaking regarding homeless issues. So I've noticed an increase in homeless
people here in the neighborhood. And then, you know, of course 1 'll give some money
and whatnot, but 1 think it'd be interesting if the City came out with a one pager in
PDF and they published the website just with resources available in terms of shelter,
food, medical treatments, such as psychological and whatnot, so that we residents can
print and direct these people to what's available. Because I've been seeing them
daily, I don't know the information, they don 't know the information, so it seems that
there's a -- we don't have the resources readily available. So I think a one page or a
PDF document will be very helpful that we can print. I would even print a few and
always have it in my backpack. As I see one, I'll hand it out. Thank you.
Stephen Schnably: Hello, my name is Stephen Schnablv. I'm an attorney and
professor of law at the University of Miami, 1311 Miller Drive, Coral Gables,
Florida, 33146. I'm speaking today on behalf of attorneys representing persons
experiencing homelessness in the case of Pottinger v. City of Miami. 1 'd like to make
three points. First, we fully support the recommendations urged by Miami Homes for
All. These include offering hotel -motel rooms to all unsheltered individuals along with
wraparound services. In the meantime, providing handwashing stations, portable
bathrooms, testing, and health safety education for unsheltered individuals and
providing personal protective equipment to unsheltered individuals and to outreach
workers and case managers. Second, while we applaud the steps the City and the
Homeless Trust have taken to date, the scope and pace of these efforts must be greatly
increased. In addition, it is vital that there be transparency and full, timely, public
reporting by all agencies involved in implementing the recommendations. Third, it 's
vital that the Pottinger protections continue to be observed by the City as it promised
in Federal District Court last year and as embodied in the City's own regulations.
The Pottinger protections have one core purpose, to ensure that individuals are not
arrested or harassed or have their property taken or destroyed simply because they
are homeless. Observing the Pottinger protections in no way impedes the City from
taking the necessary steps to protect the health, safety and lives of this most
vulnerable population and of everyone in Miami in this time of crisis. Thank you.
Gilberto Lima: Hello, my name is Gilberto Lima, and I live at 900 Biscayne
Boulevard, Apartment 3105, Miami, Florida, 33132. I'm commenting on the homeless
issue in Downtown Miami. I live in front of the Museum Park, and that park has
turned into a homeless shelter. All the homeless people sleep there on the benches
because they -- because these benches don't have dividers like the bus benches do and
anything like that, they're just flat surfaces. All the homeless people just use that as
their beds. And apparently this is -- nothing is being done about it. They sit there, they
obviously use the park as their bathroom. And it's just that park, which was once like
sort of like a good investment to have in front of your property has now turned into
something that nobody wants to go to and something needs to be done about the
homeless people in the park. I don't see why it's legal for people to sleep outside in a
park or loiter in a park or just run around and make it a niess. Something needs to be
done about the homeless situation in front of the park and nothing seems to be done
about it. Nobody seems to care. In fact, there used to be a sort of like a park
attendant. They used to go in a golf cart. That's not -- that hasn't been there anymore,
and which is making the situation now even worse. And in fact, just recently now, I've
seen the homeless people -- and I don't know if it's due to the coronavirus situation,
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hut now they actually have tents. So now instead of the situation being better, it's
actually gotten worse. So yeah, 1 would like to see something being done about that.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Marshall Davenport: By the way, my name Marshall Davenport, and yes, I am
homeless. And during this epic -- this coronavirus, these are some of the things in
which myself and the rest of the homeless had to go through. Like the biggest problem
is no work or income for those who are homeless that are able to do for themselves,
you know what I'm saying to all income, making sure that the homeless have types of
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefit or insurance by the state
like such medical reasons. We couldn't even go to hospitals, you know, because of
restriction by the coronas and everything. As for someone being homeless such as
myself, it was a very hard thing to look at the environmental sciences of everyday life
for the state of Miami and West Palm Beach, Florida, to see how the President of the
United States and the State Governor announced up on TV a state of emergency need
to social distance, but never once did anything for the homeless, but left us homeless
out up on the street to die. And besides the point, all the other shelters locked their
doors upon no intake or anyone seeking shelter to get tested for the virus and
processed for shelter assessment. Another thing, I felt like it was discrimination by the
state of Florida towards the homeless and the State Governor and the President of the
United States. We were just being -- now we're just being able to run into this
program of Dream Defenders, which are enabling us right now to be able to get
showers, clothing, hygiene items, meals daily. Another thing is like I work for a labor
pool company but just here in the state of Florida, we are not even able to file for
unemployment, but yet we can file for income taxes. Personal information and
documents that got damaged due to rain and items being stolen behind the changes
due to this epic, who's responsible for that? And majority of the homeless lost
everything, I mean, a lot.
Debbie Dotson: My name is Debbie Dolson, 4205 Lennox Drive, Coconut Grove. I
would like to comment on SP.2. I'm a volunteer at the Coconut Grove Crisis Food
Pantry, and for the last few months, we have been struggling to safely find ways to
deliver to our many clients who do not own cars or who live on boats. And these
clients cannot benefit from the drive -through food distributions that are throughout
the City. So please implement ways, discuss ways to meet the needs of these residents.
Thank you.
Rodina Danica Conway: Hello. My name is Rodina Danica Conway and I would like
to share a little about homelessness as it relates to me, shed more light on my
experiences and put a face to the issues and struggles that are shared by so many. I
would also like to take this time out to acknowledge my late baby brother, Lloyd
David Williams Dassaw (phonetic), who passed away January 9th, 2018, by suicide.
My baby brother, David, feared homelessness more than death itself and was actually
known for having these feelings during his waking life. So for me, my plight with
homelessness has been a very strenuous and intimate fight, one I have faced since
aging out of foster care. And to be more accurate, homelessness is a fight I have faced
my entire life. There is more to homelessness than the loss of a home. I myself
struggle daily with social, emotional, and sometimes psychological issues, none of
which have stopped rnv ability to completely, support myself; but they have limited my
ability to fully function properly in this society. Homelessness is impossible. I do not
have family support or social support. Homelessness is not a fight that should be
faced alone and I would like to receive resources that does not allow so many unfair,
unrealistic, disqualifying criteria. I would like a fair opportunity to truly recover from
my past traumas so that I can grow into a strong pillar of my community and simply
give back. I would like help with correcting the many injustices I faced as a result of
homelessness, many of which hinder my progress today. I would like to see these
things made possible for everyone who suffers from homelessness before the
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pandemic, during the pandemic, and after the pandemic. To me, asking for help with
homelessness means opening doors that should not he closed. Thank you for this
platform. Thank you for this opportunity to be heard and I do pray that help is
coming. Thank you and enjoy your day.
Sarah Quinin: Hi, my name is Sarah Quinin. I'm a resident of 900 Biscayne
Boulevard. My phone number is 417-818-8035. And I'm calling to leave a message
about the urgent homeless matter that I understand is going to be discussed
tomorrow. The point that I'd like to make is that I regularly walk in the area and
through the parks in the area around 900 Biscayne. I've never had an issue with any
of the homeless people in the area.l know that there's a number that typically sleep in
the park across from 900 Biscayne. And they have been consistently polite and
pleasant to deal with. I've just never had any problems with them. My concern is that
since the City closed the parks, it's forced all of the homeless people that typically
sleep in those parks to congregate in a really small area. And I'm concerned that that
puts both the homeless people and those of us who have to, say, walk our dogs in that
area at risk because we're having to just interact with each other in such a small
space. And so I would ask that the City consider reopening the parks because I think
that that's going to be better for the public health. And I also would hope that the City
wouldn't take any draconian anti -homelessness measures that are ultimately going to
be harmful for the homeless community that's in the area. So thank you very much.
Mr. Sarasti: 1 guess that's the end of the video. Public comment will be sending
screenshots to the Commission shortly of the letters.
Chair Hardemon: Okay, we've all -- then we've heard from every new ideation of
public comment that we have. So, at this time, we're going to start the meeting. I'm
going to --
Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Chairman.
Chair Hardemon: -- acknowledge Commissioner Reyes and then Commissioner
Russell.
Commissioner Reyes: And I'm going to be very brief. I want to calm the concern that
those residents from Flagami had about the park and I don't know if somebody has
been spreading rumors that it's going to be half a park and half a building; that's not
it. It's going to be a park. It's going to be a size -- it's going to be half an acre and we
already have $1.3 million budgeted for it with the help of the Mayor and the
Commission and I've been able to set that money aside. And this is the signs that are
going to be placed, they're coming up this week. So don't let anybody, you see in
Spanish that we have a word, that when rumors are started, we call it (FOREIGN
LANGUAGE). And don't listen to rumors or anything until you are -- and everybody
that has contacted us, we have contacted personally. And we have talked to them and
we have participated in this. And it has been only three people. Thankyou.
Chair Hardemon: You're welcome. Commissioner Russell.
Vice Chair Russell: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And good morning. Before we close
public comment, I just wanted to recognize that we have representatives from both
Camillus House and Lotus House in the attendees section. I don 't know if they'd like
to speak at the public comment section or if they're available to participate during the
actual discussion item, but they may be interested in letting us know what the shelters
are doing during this time and be available for any questions we have.
Chair Hardemon: Okay, I'll acknowledge them just after I hear from Commissioner
Alex Diaz de la Portilla and Victoria Mendez.
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
SP.1 DISCUSSION ITEM
7422 A DISCUSSION REGARDING HOMELESS ISSUES.
Commissioners
and Mayor
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Note for the Record: For additional minutes referencing Item Number SP.1, please
see "Public Comments for all Item(s). "
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: My question was kind of the format for today's
meeting. How do you want to handle this meeting, Mr. Chair? Last week, as you
know, some comments were made and that turned into a much broader debate about
homelessness in Miami, which is obviously a very complex issue that has many, many
difficult questions and few answers that we've been dealing with for way before any of
us got here. I brought the issue up last week and 1 called for a special meeting this
week to kind of talk to it in the con -- talk about it in the context of COVID-19, what
we're doing to test, offering masks, what kind of protection we're offering those
members of that community to make sure that they weren't infecting themselves and
others in the community. So, that's sort of the context 1 want to have this debate. It
seems to me, based on the people that have been texting and calling and in my office,
I'm sure every Commissioner and the Mayor's Office has turned and will turn into a
broader debate about homelessness. But I want to not lose focus on what we need to
talk about today, which is the immediate crisis that we have on testing, on -- if we, in
fact, we have one, and those numbers that I had requested last week from different
members of our staff and from the Homeless Trust. I think we have members of the
Homeless Trust here. I spoke to -- my, office spoke to Judge Leifman a little bit earlier
today. He wants to -- he's on the call. So how are you going to handle this, Mr.
Chair? Are you going to have people speak or have our staff give a presentation as to
where we are with numbers in terns of testing, in terms of how many of these folks
have been sheltered in hotel rooms? And my understanding is only 18 have tested
positive. What are we doing with those 18? How many have been tested total? How
many will be tested? What kind of education is taking place within that community?
How other groups are being incorporated to work together with the Homeless Trust
and with the City of Miami? How much money, the City of Miami is spending? Well,
the list is a long list of issues that we need to address, but I want to be specific to
what's happening with, specific in light of the crisis that we're undergoing right now
with the COVID-19 pandemic that we're facing.
Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, that was great insight. We're
going to go each item by item. So SP.1, SP.2, SP.3. So our first item will of course be
SP.1. And now that we understand the color in which we 're looking through this lens,
well have the City, if they have some presentation they want to give us about the
things you just described, I'll allow them to do that. And then we can, as
Commissioners chime in back and forth, if there are any comments that need to be
niade by anyone, such as from Camillus House or even Judge Leifman, who for the
first time, this is my first time ever being somewhere and a judge enters the room and
I didn't stand. So, you know, I want you to know for the record I didn't do it
purposely.
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Steven Lei fman: I'll give you a waiver this time.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: We got a waiver.
Chair Hardemon: But so that's how we're going to do it. So I'm going to hear from
Victoria and maybe the Mayor if he has anything to say. And then I'm going to open
the floor for the City Administration to present on the SP.1 so we can have that
discussion the way that you described.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Victoria.
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): Chairman, I just wanted to -- there's one and just
one resolution that's already been distributed to you all, having to do with Farm
Share and District 1, District 2, District 4, and the Mayor's Office all donating
monies toward the Farm Share endeavor. And I just wanted to articulate that. It's
going to be under SP.2. But just in case -- I don't know if you think we need
additional comments on that, public comment on it. It is already incorporated or
encompassed in SP.2, but I just wanted to articulate that particular resolution that
may come out of the discussion. So thank you. Whatever you think is appropriate on
the -- on that.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, you wanted to be recognized.
Mayor Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just -- I'll be very brief as well on the
homeless issue. I think on the other two, food distribution and international airport,
I'll wait until those items are brought up. On homelessness, you obviously see that it's
a very complex issue, as Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla said. And you know, what
is interesting from the public comments is you see a divergence. You see our residents
at times who diverge sometimes from public health officials and others who obviously
want, and rightfully so, our homeless to be treated with dignity and respect. We also
are working on an initiative with the DDA (Downtown Development Authority) -- and
I thank Commissioner Reyes for his work on that -- County Commissioner Suarez and
myself, to come up with a plan to permanently house and self -sustain a certain
percentage of that chronically homeless population, which is the part that we've
struggled so much with after the adoption of the homeless tax. I do think at some point
after COVID hopefully passes and our economy comes back to normal, that we need
to talk to other cities that are not paying into the homeless tax. I think that 's
something that we ought to pursue. We should do it politically, you know, with our
friends and also put pressure, if need be, because it's -- you know, we, because of
Pottinger, because of the facilities, a lot of which are in the City of Miami; we have,
you know, 60 plus percent of the city homeless population -- the County's homeless
population in Miami. And so that's something that as our Downtown has grown,
creates tension between our businesses, between our residents and between this
population. I also think we need to figure out a way -- I know we tried to legislate it a
while ago, years ago, in terms of the homeless feedings, but there has to be a way to
channel this positive energy that all of these churches and groups are truing to do in
feeding the homeless, and link that up with people like Dr. Henderson, who are doing
great work in trying to provide services so that we can understand the population
better, know who they are, know what their issues are, whether it's medical, whether
it's substance abuse. And I think we need to combine that with the feeding so that we
can get everybody in one place, give them the showers and give them -- allow them to
live with dignity in a way that also doesn't create problems for our residents and for
our business owners. And so I think that's the fine line in the struggle. In the context
of COVID, which is what I know -- and I'm sorry .for digressing a little bit,
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, in the context of COVID, you know, 1 think what
you said at the last Commission meeting was perfect. You know, I think we do need to
make sure that the population is tested. We do need to make sure that they can be
housed. We do need to make sure that, you know, they not only not present a medical
risk to themselves and to others in that population, but to the general public. And I
think you articulated that last meeting where you said, I think you sort of put -- laid
down the law, if you will, and talked about our government really providing the
resources to be able to, at least on the testing side, to be able to test every single
homeless person. And I totally, agree with that. And I think while we 've made a
significant amount of progress as a society, as a city, and that's reflected in the lifting
of Pottinger and some of the statements that were made by the federal judge. I do
think that we have a ways to go. And I know, you know, at the end of the day, we're
talking about 700 (INAUDIBLE). We have to be able to figure out a way -- I think we
all agree, we have to be able to figure out a way as a community to take care of 700,
800 people. There's got to be a way for us to do that. We don't have, thankfully, you
know, Los Angeles or San Francisco 's problem with homelessness that are there in
the tens of thousands and when you're talking about 700, 800 people, we've got to
find a way to compassionately service that population.
Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Chair?
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Reyes, you're recognized.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, I agree with Mr. Mayor. I agree with you, and first and
foremost, I want to thank Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla to bring this issue which
is very important. And it doesn't only affect the Downtown area or any single district,
it affects all the districts. District 5 is a very, I mean, it negatively affected, District 3,
District -- my district, I have some, and this is a problem that we should address. And
I heard that you mentioned street feeding. Before Art Noriega became city manager,
we were talking about finding a place and a methodology that we could direct all the
feeding into a place and also -- also have a rough draft of a resolution trying to do
away with, not do away, but control street feeding, which is, I think that goes against
the hygiene of the city and it is very dangerous. And I also would like to hear from
everybody, and I'm glad and thank you, Judge Leifman, to be here, because I know
that we have a bunch of programs going on, and there are programs that have been
tested in other areas like Housing First and all of that. But my opinion, in my humble
opinion, is that we should not divert from why the meeting is called, but we should
take also all the other issues that affect our homeless population. And I have been all
the time asking myself why don't we work in a -- I would say, in a comprehensive way
that all these programs we can work together and try to use the funds efficiently. You
see, we have to look into best practices that they all the cities like Columbus, Ohio,
and that they have done in Utah, the state of Utah did a wonderful job, New York, and
all of those. And one thing that they have in common, it is a coordinated effort that in
some instances they have even included the church, and a coordinated effort between
the Homeless Trust, the cities, and as you well stated, Mr. Mayor, we have to
incorporate all the cities that that they also are affected by the homeless population.
Treating them like it doesn't mean that we have to treat the homeless in a very
negative way, treating them as they are, they are human beings, that they have
problems and trying to solve these problems using the already -- there are techniques
and there are policies that have been used in other areas that could -- we should
incorporate it. And also, Judge Leifman, he has an excellent idea. Hermanos de la
Calle has -- they have an excellent idea. That's the program that you and I
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) working on. But we should get -- we should get all the resources
together and then try to have a coherent, comprehensive program
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) this issue instead of being -- spending money this way and this
way without knowing what we want. That is my two cents on it. And thank you,
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla for bringing this up.
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Chair Hardemon: Okay, so at this time I'd like to acknowledge our City
Administration so that we can present any of these issues. Of what we're doing from
the City's perspective on the homelessness during COVID-19. And then from there,
I'll allow Ms. Collins and also Judge Le ftnan to kind of chime in from their
perspective of what they're doing to assist the City of Miami and its residents and the
homeless population during this time as well.
Arthur Noriega (City Manager): So, good morning, everyone. I want to allow Milton
to sort of address the issue of testing along with the members of the Homeless Trust
first, and then we'll get into the financial structure of it. Chris Rose will brief on the
numbers as soon as they're done. But Milton, why don't you step up and address that.
Milton Vickers: Good morning Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Your
homeless outreach effort during the Corona crisis has been very comprehensive. It
has taken place with a consortium of agencies which include the Homeless Trust, our
partners, very dear partners, Camillus House, Lotus House, Chapman Partnership,
our own Fire Department, and if I may, Mr. Chair, I'd like to compliment Sergio
Torres of our homeless outreach and Assistant Fire Chief Robert Hevia for their
assistance. They've been very key players from the City side in terms of how we
address this issue with COVID-19 and our homeless population. I'd like to put a
graph up in terms of our annual homeless contacts for the month of April. It shows
roughly 3,306 contacts for the month of April. For the month of March, it was pretty
much the same thing. We've stayed within a pretty reasonable range in terms of
contacts by our homeless outreach personnel.
Mr. Noriega: Milton?
Mr. Vickers: Yes?
Mr. Noriega: Oh, okay. The graph's not up. So, okay. There we go.
Mr. Vickers: All right. Our homeless personnel, the contacts with homeless outreach
and our homeless within Miami, which is roughly about 60 to 64 percent of the
homeless population countywide. On an average, our homeless outreach actually
touches a homeless individual at least five times during the month of April, same thing
with March and February. So there has been a continuous contact with individuals
regarding COVID-19. The next is our response to COVID-19 by our homeless
outreach, or our Green Shirts as they are called. Green Shirts average about 385
contacts per day for COVID-19 -- during the COVID-19 pandemic. What they're
doing is providing social distancing and providing information to homeless
individuals who are on the street. They have directed individuals who are homeless to
hotels and motels due to shelter restrictions. They provided hand sanitizers, gloves
and masks, and other safety equipment. The hand sanitizers has been 3,000 units, the
masks has been 5,000 units. We have had four porta potties around the City and 10
handwashing stations. At this point, I think it's very, important to note that although
we've done 800 meals to children at Lotus House, which is an additional partner of
ours as of this fiscal year, homeless outreach has also provided 800 meals to our
homeless on the street during this period of pandemic. Regarding COVID testing --
and I'd like to make sure we understand that this -- the numbers that are being
provided have been provided to us by the housing -- I'm sorry, the Homeless Trust.
There's been 535 total tested, 363 tests administered by our mobile teams, 18 positive
cases and 158 pending tests. I'd also like to keep in mind that these numbers will
change daily as additional numbers come in from testing and the results of these tests.
About 30 to 50 percent of the individuals who are unsheltered have refused COVID-
19 testing. All of the --
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I'm sorry, excuse me.
Mr. Vickers: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Vickers, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but there 's
a lot of data you're throwing out there, and I don 't know if the Chairman wants us to
wait till the end, but it's kind of going to get lost if we wait till the end. It's a quick
question. You keep on saying we, we, we. Is that we the City of Miami, or is we, and
then you said right now that the Homeless Trust provided you this data. Is this the
Homeless Trust? Who's we?
Mr. Vickers: We is the Homeless Trust.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so it's not we, it's the Homeless Trust. We
are the City of Miami.
Mr. Vickers: Okay, sir. I was addressing it in terms of the City being a vital member
of the collaborative that's providing services to our Homeless Trust -- I'm sorry, to
our homeless population.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so there's a distinction here that's important
to me and perhaps 1 don't know how you framed the entire -- your entire presentation.
There's a clear distinction between what the Homeless Trust is doing and what the
City of Miami is doing. And 1 want to have that --1 want to know what the distinction
is. I want to know who's doing what. That's kind of the purpose of this conversation,
right? To see what our responsibilities are. Are we meeting our responsibilities? Is
the Homeless Trust meeting theirs? And are we working together? And who's doing
what in that relationship? In light of the COVID-19 testing, because last week I was
told that we had tested (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Now it's 535, new numbers that came in
obviously from the Homeless Trust. So it was said to us last week, albeit I understand
they weren't prepared because they weren't expecting the questions because we didn't
have notice or anything else, and that's not fair to them, to Mr. Torres that was doing
the presentation. But now, everybody's prepared for the questions that were asked
last week. So the distinction is important here. And things like, for example, what is a
contact? What does that mean? You said what percentage rejected a test? Are they --
how are they approached? So I think the details matter. Again, as Mr. -- as Mayor
Suarez said, we're not dealing with that many people. We're dealing with 700, 800
people in a city of our size and our resources. And the Homeless Trust, with the
amount of resources it has, should be able to address how to deal with 800 people
max. And I don't see that happening. So can you be more specific as you go through
your presentation and refer to the Citv's efforts as a city, and Homeless Trust efforts,
perhaps you can refer to it or let Mr. Book or Ms. Mallette refer to that separately or
if you want to do it together at least tell us which is what.
Mr. Vickers: Our City Fire Department through the mobile units have performed 136
tests thus far. That's through the mobile unit as of today. So that's the number, if
we're really talking about what City staff has done in terms of testing that would be
the number. Now in terms of our homeless outreach staff which is City staff',' and what
we consider a touch, or a contact, is when a homeless outreach staff a Green Shirt,
actually approaches a homeless individual, provide them with the instructions based
on the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) criteria of social distancing,
providing them with the information that they need in terms of availability of hotel
and motel space, that is considered a contact. And if we look at the total number of
contacts for the month of April, that would basically give us at least five contacts per
person, for that one month.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. Take it a step back. Let's go back to testing.
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Mr. Vickers: Okay.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Maybe we'll break it down into bits and pieces.
Testing. You said 535 people have been tested.
Mr. Vickers: Yes. That's based on the Homeless Trust data provided to us.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Total. That includes 136 that we tested?
Mr. Vickers: That's correct.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So they tested another 399 or whatever.
Mr. Vickers: That's correct, yes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. And how many of the ones -- and the only
the mobile unit was testing, there were no testings done at the Jackson hospital or
they didn't go to any of the walk ups or none of that happened, right? There was no
other kind of testing done by the City of Miami to this population?
Mr. Vickers: Okay. There were individuals that were referred by some of the shelters
to the drive-throughs.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Correct. How many?
Mr. Vickers: At Hadley Park and some of the others. That data we do not have at the
present. Other testing, the testing that's provided by the fire department or individuals
who were tested in shelter upon the shelter's request, individuals who were -- may
have been tested on the street by our mobile unit or individuals who our fire
department responded to a 911 call.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And that's 136?
Mr. Vickers: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay. And there's no overlap --
Mr. Vickers: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- there's no overlap between those and the 400 or
399 that the Homeless Trust tested?
Mr. Vickers: There is overlap, sir, simply because we have been working as a
collaborative. All of our numbers have been going into the Trust as well. So the Trust
is the clearinghouse in terms of actual numbers of individuals being tested.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, let me ask it a different way. In terms of
human beings, how many human beings, not tested twice or three times, have been
tested once?
Mr. Vickers: I'd say 535 --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay.
Mr. Vickers: -- all of the -- with all of the agencies. That would include --
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: The City of Miami.
Mr. Vickers: -- the City of Miami, yes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: How many tested positive?
Mr. Vickers: We've had 19 --18, I'm sorry, 18 tested positive thus far.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Have those 18 been --? Are they in the hospital?
Are they isolated? Where are those 18 people?
Mr. Vickers: I would ask that the Homeless Trust respond to that, but they have been
providing hotel space since the very beginning of the pandemic.
Commissioner Reyes: I have a question if I may.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I want to kind of get to the --
Commissioner Reyes: Sure, okay, okay.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- sort of just get to the -- but go ahead. Go ahead
and ask. I'll come back later (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Chair Hardemon: You're recognized, Commissioner Reyes.
Commissioner Reyes: I want to -- following your type of information you're giving.
But I want to know how many of those 500 and some homeless that were tested, they
are they from the city of Miami? How many of them are resident? I mean, are
homeless in the City, within the city boundaries? I think that we should know that, too.
I mean, I gather that everybody that you tested by you -- your people or by the
firefighters, they are chosen from the population that is now within City limits. But I
want to know how many within City limits, how many from Downtown, how many
from other areas like Overtown, and other areas, how many? You don't have to be
specific from which district, but just the total of how many of those homeless that have
been tested are within City limits.
Mr. Vickers: Mr. Commissioner, the data that we've gotten from our fire department,
a number of individuals tested from 911 calls or responded to 911 calls has been 780.
That's not necessarily tested, but a response, a COVID-19 response to 911. The
mobile units, a mobile unit going to individual homes and shelters has been 93.
Suspected coronavirus has been 19. And individuals taken to the hospital inside the
city of Miami has been 639. And that's all in the city of Miami.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, thank you, sir.
Chair Hardemon: Mr. Book, I see you've had your hand raised quite zealously. Make
sure you unmute your computer.
Ronald Book: Let me just -- I think I can help just a little bit in trying to respond to
both Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla's questions, as well as a couple of the
comments by Commissioner Reyes. So, first of all, you should simply know, and I'll
confine it to testing, we can come back to some of the other subjects. So we started
pushing to get swab tests the 1st of April. We did not want to go with the rapid test
because the rapid test, we believed in the first three or four days, can oftentimes lead
to a false negative and we didn't want to do that and we felt like it was important
enough to test 100 percent of our homeless population, both sheltered and
unsheltered, so we began. We started with receiving 144 and 100 swab kits, part of
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the nasal, part for throat swabs. We deferred on 144 of them, took the first 100, and
started testing April the loth. We have now established three mobile testing teams.
We've got the Lazarus team, which we call Team 1. We've got the Camillus Health
Concern, which we consider Team Number 2. And then our third team is Team 3,
which is run by a woman by the name of Jackie Master, who was a former Jackson
person that retired last week. She has run the clinic at the Homeless Trust Chapman,
number one center on North Miami Avenue, retired. We brought her in so that she
could begin running this third team. We are testing both sheltered and unsheltered,
but our main focus has been on the over 65, those with the underlying symptoms as a
prioritized basis. The week of the 14th, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla, we tested
77 individuals. The second week, which is week of the 27th, we tested 72. I went out
with our team a week ago, two weeks ago today. 1 needed to understand better why it
was taking us as long to perform those tests, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla. I
didn't understand why we had some days where there were six or eight people. I got a
very firm, clear understanding that day. First of all, close to half or more refused to
test. They don't want to test. Some will agree to test, and when you start with the
swab, because of some of the conditions that many of them have, they jerk back and
won 't let that swab go two inches up their nose. At the -- that day, I realized that we
had some people that were like that, and we didn 't have, with the Lazarus team that
day, throat swabs. We needed to make sure that the team, if you had someone that
couldn't take the nose swab, could take the throat swab. So now, the teams are
equipped with some of both. The third week, Commissioner, week of the 28th, we
performed 210 tests. And to the question, Commissioner Reyes, that you asked, I
cannot tell you that an individual that's living behind Macy's, that they have had a
street address in the City six years ago when they became homeless.
Commissioner Reyes: No, sir.
Mr. Book: Because we don't gather all that information, but 100 percent of these
were performed in the geographies of the city itself.
Commissioner Reyes: Oh, that's what I want to know.
Mr. Book: They were 100 percent. Now, your second question, Commissioner, dealt
with, were they at Jose Marti Park? Were they behind Macy's? Were they at
Bayfront?
Commissioner Reyes: No.
Mr. Book: Okay, if that wasn't --
Commissioner Reyes: That was not the question.
Mr. Book: -- because I was going to have to go back and extrapolate out some
information for you.
Commissioner Reyes: Let me clam this, Mr. Book.
Mr. Book: Yes sir.
Commissioner Reyes: What I'm saying is that you heard me mention Jose Marti Park
because I've mentioned Jose Marti Park in reference to the amount of homeless that
Commissioner Carollo is experiencing, because I said it very clearly, that this is not a
single district problem, it's a City problem. And every single Commission, I mean,
district, it is -- has a homeless problem, and you should know that. I mean, this is not
a city problem -- I mean, one district problem, it is a city problem. As a matter of fact,
it's a county problem.
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Mr. Book: It is, sir.
Commissioner Reyes: And that's what we are now -- what we are dealing here is with
those homeless that are within our city. And I do agree that we should, instead of
being concerned with this, I think that this should be incorporated to all the cities in
Dade County that they should be taking -- being active in the process of identifying, of
truing to develop some procedures or a policy in order to deal with this homeless
problem that we have in Dade County. But definitely we in the city of Miami, we have
the biggest burden because some of the cities, and you --1 mean, 1 haven't seen it, but
I've heard that some cities, they dump the homeless in our cities, you see, in the city of
Miami. And that's why 1 wanted to know, since we are — we have the largest
population, 1 wanted to know how many there were within our city, not because it is
Jose Marti Park, okay?
Mr. Book: I'm going to come back to Jose Marti in a few minutes.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes.
Mr. Book: This current week, which is week four of our testing efforts, through
yesterday afternoon, we had tested 63 this week. We've got a total recorded of 422
plus another 100 or so that you heard Mr. Vickers speak on. What 1 also want you to
understand --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Mr. Book?
Mr. Book: -- is of the 26 positives -- I'm sorry, yes, sir, Commissioner?
Chair Hardemon: Yeah, Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Book, but --
Mr. Book: That's okay, sir.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: You've tested 535, but you said a few minutes ago
that most of the -- a lot of the people don't want to be tested, but 535 seems to be a
pretty high number.
Mr. Book: Actually, it is a high number, Commissioner. It's over 10 percent.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, it's not over 10 percent of the --
Mr. Book: Total.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- of the total. So of the 535 were tested, how many
refused to be tested? What number? How many refused to be tested?
Mr. Book: The number that refused to test was -- give me a second. I've got that
number, Commissioner, and I apologize. It was, I want to say it was 50 --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay.
Mr. Book: -- it was about 50 give or take, almost half, Commissioner that wouldn't.
We only have had 26 total positive and to the best of my knowledge we have not
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) hospitalized.
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, no, wait, we have 18 positive according to Mr.
Vickers, 18 positive. You said that a large number refused to be tested. But at the
sane time, it's already been stated that we have 535 that have been tested. If we have
a universe of 700 or 650, if we have 535 tested, I don 't see the high number that
refused to be tested. 50, maybe 10 percent refused to be tested. To me, that's not a
high number.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: The real question is, and you went through the
different weeks that you were testing, but when did the crisis start and when did you
start testing? If only 10 percent refused testing, why wasn't this testing done earlier
and in a more vigorous way?
Mr. Book: Commissioner --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Why didn't we try to identify the issue early on
when we knew we had a population of well, 1,100 countywide, but you know, 650 or
so in the city of Miami. We knew that we had to test them. We knew that was
imperative first thing was to test them so we can isolate them and give them the
medicine they need and the help they need and to protect them and the rest of the
population. So, the most important thing was the testing. You talked about acquiring
120 swabs here and 100 swabs there for the nasal test, the throat test, you went back
and forth on that a little bit at the beginning. My question was, why wasn't there a
more vigorous effort in the beginning, from the beginning, to test a relatively small
number of people. 1 know that we've done in the city of Miami, we've had a number of
situations where we had buildings that we had to send crews into, what we call our
fire rescue SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team of testing, and we went there
and we tested 120 people, 140 people in three hours, in four hours. Why wasn't that
done with a very vulnerable population that has pre-existing conditions that can
spread the disease amongst themselves, that has low hygiene and other problems
associated with that population? Why wasn 't that done immediately?
Mr. Book: All right, well, first of all, let me touch something you touched but didn't
ask. We actually began our efforts way ahead of everybody else. We began back on
February 27th on the streets, Downtown, with our education materials, masks, hand
sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, social distancing message. We started to ask for tests,
Commissioner. There were no test kits. We couldn't get them. None of the other test
sites could get them. The reason why statewide there was a slow ramp up was the
State couldn't get the swab kits. They had test kits but no swab specimen gathering
kits. We were -- when the State got from the feds is when we ramped up. And we
ramped as fast as we could. And Commissioner, I will tell you that we are the only
homeless continuum in the state and likely the country with an aggressive testing
program. And the only ones trying to hit 100 percent. And when we get to the post
period, we've got another additional strategy for testing post that we believe will
benefit us as a community, if you will, when there's blowback, and not if but when it
comes. So I can simply tell you, we've been getting test kits faster than most of the
other test sites in all of southern Florida. And I spoke to Director Moskowitz again
yesterday. He assured me in another four days, we will have another 500 of those kits
on their way to us. We have asked for not fewer than 3,500 total. We've got just over a
thousand already in our possession or have been utilized.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so you have the most aggressive acquisition
of testing kits, yet you really didn't start your testing till the last two weeks.
Mr. Book: No, sir, we started four weeks ago.
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, according to your numbers, hold on.
Mr. Book: No, sir, four weeks.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Hold on. On a weekly basis, you told me the last
two weeks ago, the last week of April, I'm sorry, you tested 230 something people.
Mr. Book: That was week three, sir.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Week three, the last week of April 21 st, April 22nd.
When did you test the 200 something people?
Mr. Book: The 210 were tested last week, Commissioner.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Last week. Okay, so that's May.
Mr. Book: The week of the 27th.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Hold on, hold on. You've tested a total of 535
people.
Mr. Book: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: 210 of those 535 were tested last week.
Mr. Book: Yes, sir.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: So, that's -- I mean, the majority of an
overwhelming number were done in the last week. What happened in the month of
April?
Mr. Book: The first week of our testing, four weeks ago, we tested 77 individuals.
Week 2, when we tested 72, a bunch of those tests had to be thrown in the garbage
can. Unfortunately, they were gathered improperly. The gatherers used -- I don 't have
all the detail as to what contaminated those specimens, but they went in the garbage
can. So we don't take credit for something tested that was thrown in the garbage can.
That would be misleading to you and the community as a whole. So I can't tell you
that it was 50 or 60 specimens that went in the garbage can, Commissioner, but there
were several dozen that went in the garbage can.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: All right, so 77, 72 --
Mr. Book: 210 and 60 --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- 24 that you threw out, so that's 120 or
something. The point is that since we had the debate last Thursday, and I'm not a
cynical guy, Mr. Book.
Mr. Book: I know that, sir.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But the last week of your total testing, almost 40
percent was done in the last week since we first had this conversation last week. So it
appears, if I were a cynical guy, that there was a major ramp up the last week in
testing once the public questions were raised about the lack of testing. And 40 --
Mr. Book: Commissioner, with all due respect to you --
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And 40 percent --
Mr. Book: We started six weeks ago to beg for the swab kits.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But 40 percent of your test --
Mr. Book: As soon as I got them, we put them into place.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But I understand Mr. Book, but 40 percent of your
tests were in the last week. The other five weeks were --
Mr. Book: Commissioner, they started --1 think your Commission meeting was on a
Thursday, Commissioner.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: It was.
Mr. Book: We started -- we were testing a week ago, Monday that week. We got to
210 by working Monday through Friday last week. I'm not sure what point you're
truing to make other than we have been aggressive --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: The point I'm trying to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) --
Mr. Book: -- and the 10 percent testing of the total population exceeds the state
average by two percentage points and my staff has made clear to me that each week
we screen hundreds of individuals; less than 50 percent will let us test them. So let me
turn it to where I'm giving you that --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: The only point -- Mr. Book, Mr. Book the math
doesn't add up. If you keep on saying that 50 percent refuse to be tested, yet you have
535 tests and we have 635 homeless, the math doesn't add up. The math is that
(INAUDIBLE) --
Mr. Book: Well, here's where you're --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: -- 10 percent, not 50 percent.
Mr. Book: We are testing -- but remember what I said at the beginning. We test in
shelter and on the streets, Commissioner. We had 165 senior citizens that were
residing at Chapman, Camillus, Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Lotus House.
Everybody that was 65 years of age or older were in our first group of priorities. We
prioritized as we were suggested by the CDC and the State Department of Health.
And when we bargained for getting as many of those kits as we can, we're informing
them where we're testing. So we prioritize those over 65. And Commissioner, there
were 165 total, and we worked to isolate them in hotel placements as well. And
everybody we test on the street, we move into a hotel, all of them. So in answer to the
question of whether or not (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we are.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Everyone that tests positive.
Mr. Book: Or negative, Commissioner. We take them when they test. We don't know
their results for three or four days. We can't take the chance.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay, so that's what I want to know. So you test
them and you put them in a hotel room. So you now have 535 people.
Mr. Book: Yes, sir. And by the way -- no, we have a lot of people that will ultimately
agree to test but won't go to a hotel. Commissioner, I had a 77 year -old man behind
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the south side of Jose Marti Park two weeks ago Thursday. 1 begged him, he was the
last guy we tested. 1 begged him to let us take him to hotel. He wouldn't go.
Chair Hardemon: So, let me stop here for one moment. I understand that we have lots
of questions for Mr. Book. But I want to give at least Judge Lean and Ms. Collins,
and I don't know if there was any other representative that needed to say something to
add to the conversation, give them the opportunity to make their brief presentations,
and then thus, if we don't have any questions of them, we can release them, because
I'm sure Mr. Book is going to be requiring lots of our attention. So Judge Leiftnan?
Mr. Leifman: Thank you very much, and thank you for the opportunity to be here. I
know these are really difficult times, and I appreciate everyone's interest in this topic.
1 do know that the Homeless Trust is acting incredibly aggressive to address these
issues. We have regular conversations. In fact, some ways they're doing a better job
and more focused testing than the nation is doing as a whole. I will tell you when it
comes to people with mental illnesses, we have set up protocols working with the City
of Miami Police Department and the providers. When we do find an individual with a
serious mental illness and/or substance use disorder who has tested positive and has
refused to self quarantine, we have a procedure in place where we work to either
Baker or Marchman the individual. They call either me or my CIT (Crisis Intervention
Team) coordinator. We then contact a specially outfitted and trained officer, so no
one walks into a situation unprepared. If the person is meeting criteria, they will take
the individual for a Baker Act assessment over to Jackson. We let Jackson know that
they're coming in because they may be positive and we work the process. The Baker
Act court is open and operating fully and so if the person refuses treatment at that
point, a hearing will be set up and a court hearing will be established and individuals
who are refusing treatment that are meeting criteria generally do meet the criteria for
an involuntary commitment. So we do have that part in place and it's been
coordinated extremely well. It would help if we could get our building finished. We're
a little bit more than halfway done. I'm a little bit nervous. The legislature was
incredibly generous, thanks to some of the folks that are participating today in
allocating a substantial appropriation for the facility. I don 't know if the Governor is
going to veto the money given the virus, so it's something that we are monitoring.
Part of the problem, as Mr. Book has mentioned, is that there is a substantial number
of people on the street with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders that
are just refusing to get treated. And so we need the capacity of this building to be able
to move more people off the street that are refusing into this facility to get them the
services that they need. Before the virus, we were scheduled to open in April of next
year. I don't know where we're going to be when the dust settles, but the facility itself
construction -wise, is a little bit more than halfway done. And it's going to be amazing,
and it's going to help us with some of this problem. It's a very, very complex
population. And you know, one of the things that I hope we might be able to do a little
bit better job is, we almost need one person that has a list of this population that we
can deal with every single day and see if we're coordinating all of those services that
they need to make sure that everybody is, you know, who 's touching them, what's
touching them, and what's not working, what's working, and change strategies for
things that aren't working. But I will tell you that there are resources out there.
Getting people to accept them is more of the problem than the resources themselves at
the moment. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them.
Chair Hardemon: Does anyone have any questions for the judge? None at the
moment, then, Your Honor, thankyou very much.
Mr. Leifman: Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Then I'll recognize Ms. Collins.
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Constance Collins: Thank you so much. First of all, 1 want to say thank you to many
of the Commissioners on this call who brought resources to Lotus House. This has
been an unprecedented time, enormously challenging. We are -- with all of your help,
with the help of the Police Department, with the help of the Fire Department, with the
help of the Homeless Trust, with the help of Mr. Vickers at the City of Miami, we are
safely, sheltering a little over 480 women and children, nightly, during this pandemic.
Lotus House has become not just shelter but homeschool and afterschool and with a
whole host of arts and activities and programmings for our 250 children that are with
us. It has been beyond challenging, to say the least, to operate, and yet we have the
good fortune of a new facility that allows for space, the six-foot social distancing for
everyone that we're sheltering, both in rooms and in common spaces with adjustments
to our protocols. We have added public health nurses, we have added operations staff
we have added programming staff in an effort to address the needs. We are seeing
enormous demand from women and children for shelter, many with domestic violence
issues. Our countywide domestic violence beds are inadequate for 2.7 million people,
but we are able to shelter those who do not need an undisclosed location. And we are
taking new people in throughout the week as others make their moves out. So, I just
want to say thank you to everyone for making that possible because we don't do it
alone. It is a partnership with all of you, and it's deeply appreciated. I want to
mention that last fall, on the dais, the City Commission indicated that Lotus House
would get close to $400,000 in funding. We have received about $150,000 of that
funding. We desperately need the balance. Delivery of safe, supportive shelter for
high special needs women and children truly needs to be a priority. 1 know that it's so
easy sometimes to focus on those who are visible out on the street, but please know
that for all those that you see, there are many, many women and children who are in
desperate circumstances and who literally are surviving by being invisible right now.
So, I would just ask that you continue to try to find the resources that we were assured
last fall and that we think about the long term here, what a catastrophe it would be for
so many women and children to be out on the street camping with all the others that
are there now. So again, I know these are extraordinary times. This is a time where I
feel like we are adjusting for the long term to a new normal in which, as I said,
nothing is normal about it. And it requires extraordinary vigilance on the part of
shelters like ourselves, extra support services to do what we do, and close
collaborations with all of you and we certainly appreciate everything you're doing.
Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very, much. Mr. Russell, you have questions for Ms.
Collins?
Vice Chair Russell: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, Constance. Could
you go through that breakdown of the nearly $400,000 that was discussed back in the
fall? It seems like almost a year ago already. I know the City came through with its
portion, but I believe the balance we were discussing within a mix coming from the
DDA and the CRAs (Community Redevelopment Agencies).
Ms. Collins: I mean, yes, on the dais the discussion was, $100,000 would come from
the DDA, $100,000 would come from the, I believe it was the Omni CRA. A portion
comes in public service money. Mr. Vickers probably knows a bit of the details in
terms of the City. Many of the Commissioners, the Mayor, and the City Manager all
dedicated some funds from their anti poverty initiatives and other funding, and in
some cases, their political donations to the shelter. So it came from a lot of different
directions. But yeah, we're very much in need. And we were assured that mid -year,
more funding would come for the beds that were contracted for with Health and
Human Services. And I know this is a difficult time. I'm keenly aware of that. But
anything that you all can do would be deeply appreciated.
Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Thank you, Ms. Collins, and 1 appreciate the good
work you do at Lotus House. I'na very familiar with it and I appreciate the sacrifices
you make. That commitment from the Downtown Development Authority and the
Omni CRA, when was that commitment made to you?
Ms. Collins: It was made during the final budget hearings for the City of Miami last
October or September, I can 't recall the exact date. I think it was actually September
26th, now that I remember it. It was my birthday.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: September 26th of last year?
Ms. Collins: Yes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: And why were those dollars not sent to you? It 's
the first I hear of it because I wasn't chairman of the Omni CRA back then. I think
Mr. Russell was, and that was way before my time. I wasn 't even elected. So why
wasn 't -- why weren 't those dollars sent to you back then?
Ms. Collins: I guess my understanding and maybe someone else can speak to this was
that the CRA was never able to get a quorum to take the matter up at last fall.
Vice Chair Russell: Mr. Chairman?
Chair Hardemon: I want to recognize you, Commissioner Russell, and then
Commissioner Reyes.
Vice Chair Russell: Thank you. That particular item was a four -fifths, so we moved it
back down to a 25k allocation at the time cause that's the most we could do with the
quorum we had at the time.
Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Reyes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I have no problem getting quorum. So, so we'll --
we'll address that the next time we have a CRA meeting. We haven't had that
problem.
Ms. Collins: Thank you so much.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What I normally do with quorum issues, like a
meeting that I held, I held it during these Commission meetings to make sure that we
catch everybody here so they can't have lunch and they're stuck having the meeting
during the lunch hour. So we'll make sure we have quorum and we'll address that
issue. Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: I'll let Commissioner Russell respond and then I'll come back to
you, Commissioner Reyes.
Vice Chair Russell: Thank you. And that -- so that was a partial from the CRA, the
DDA, we got into transition time and then you know where we are at this point. So I
look forward to that part. I don't believe we passed a resolution at the DDA at the
time, but we had talked about it on our dais having intention.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Right, because it wasn't transition time, it's back
in September and transition time happened in January four months later. So you had
September, October, November, December to allocate the dollars in the DDA. I mean,
I think DDA probably had a number of meetings, I think four meetings, maybe three
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during that period. But I'm not a member of the DDA. I can't speak for the DDA, but 1
think Commissioner --
Commissioner Reyes: But you're very close to it. I think that with your, I mean, CRA
to CRA and DDA, we should be working hand in hand because we have similar
problems and we can help each other a lot. And we are, I mean, most likely we are
serving the same type of people, same area. From the DDA side, I'm going to ask
Cristina. Cristina, I think that this hasn't -- not even -- wasn't even taken to committee
when it was presented because from what I heard, I heard this a couple of days ago
and it never went to a committee during that time before 1 was elected chairman.
Cristina Crespi: Hello everybody. Yes, it did go to committee. Constance made a
presentation and that went to the executive committee as well, but they decided to
pause and take a hold based on the restructuring that was going to come forward with
your chairmanship. And so that's something that we need to bring back to the board
Jroconsideration.
Commissioner Reyes: But when was that decided? Because I wasn't elected until
January. I mean, when was it decided to wait for the transition?
Ms. Crespi: I would have to say probably December, but I need to go back and look at
that.
Commissioner Reyes: Well, it was December, but there was not even the notion of that
there was going to be a transition. I mean, nobody thought that it was going to be a
transition.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What was happening in November and December
was a big battle who was going to be executive director of the DDA. There was no
transition. There was no transition all the way to past the New Year. There was an
internal debate inside the DDA at the time. It wasn 't anything to do with the timing or
the transition.
Ms. Crespi: The committee members weren't comfortable with allocating a dollar
amount to Lotus House at that time. They wanted to discuss it further at committee.
And what was discussed was possibly a change of committees, a change -- a
restructuring internally. All of this that you're saying was all in play at that time. And
so we need to bring that back to the board and discuss how to move that forward.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Correct, Ms. Crespi, but you said something that
was because of the transition. That's not the case.
Ms. Crespi: I meant in the chairmanship. Chairmanship.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: No, that wasn't the case. This was because there
was a battle for who was going to be executive director of the DDA at the time under
a different chairman. That has nothing to do with the transition from one chairman to
the other, which occurred in January of this year. Correct? It was an internal DDA
decision by the Board of Directors of that DDA, not the current DDA, correct?
Ms. Crespi: Yeah, at that time, yes, that's correct. But this particular issue was
discussed at two committees that were -- that decided to wait and pause until all of
this was resolved, so yes.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, okay.
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Chair Hardemon: All right, so now what we'll do is we'll move back to our -- well,
we're still under SP.l, of course, discussing the homeless issues. Are there any further
questions or any further discussion regarding the homeless issues under SP.1 ?
Hilda Fernandez: Mr. Chair, if I may?
Chair Hardemon: You 're recognized.
Ms. Fernandez: Hi, Hilda Fernandez with Camillus House, 1603 Northwest 7th
Avenue. Just wanted to add to what Constance is saying. This has been a very
complex period for homeless agencies. It 's taken safe sheltering to a new level, as you
can imagine. But we wanted to explain that we remain very much committed to
ensuring that the street homeless that are served by Camillus, not just the sheltered
homeless, and we have a little over 410 here and another 20 at our Somerville
Apartments, that the street homeless that we have historically served as part of our
mission continue to be served. So we made a decision from the very beginning to
continue to keep our day center program open. It is the only day center program, as
you know, and it provides services to those that have not made it into shelter. So we
do still continue to provide showers and clothing in a very safe, social distancing safe
approach. We do continue to provide breakfast and lunch to the street homeless. We
still continue to provide mail service. So you know, we've remained committed to
making those services available because we know that at the end of the day, anything
we can do to keep them clean and safe and healthy and eating is going to certainly
help avert any potential disease. By the same token, we've always continued -- we've
made a choice to continue to accept placements into our facility and in fact are
probably more filled right now than we have been in a very, very long time. Because
no matter what, we know that a homeless person is going to be safer inside our
facility than they are going to be out in the street. And that has been a challenge
because as you can imagine, we have to screen everyone and make sure they're not
bringing disease into a congregate residential setting where one infected person can
create a major impact on such a tightly housed environment. We do a lot of intensive
work inside with the people that we have here, and we have a hugely robust cleaning
program, everything from ozone generators, to sprayers, to you name it. We actually
retrofitted space on our campus so that we would not have to impact and make -- and
not, you know, have to take over any of the resources that the Trust is making
available in terms of quarantine and isolation. So we actually created quarantine
spaces in our site. We did reverse pressure rooms with UV lighting so that if we had
someone suspected of having COVID and was being sent for testing, we could
actually keep them in our facility to leave the beds that are being made available and
the hotel rooms being made available by the Homeless Trust available for the street
homeless and others that didn't have the capacity to do that. We -- our homeless
prevention program and we run the homeless prevention helplines funded by the
Homeless Trust for the County is still open and we are still getting calls. We're
blessed that the Governor's Order that no evictions can happen has slowed the calls
in there, but we know that many of the people who are facing eviction do not have
legal eviction notices in many cases. And so those are the clients we're getting calls
from, people who, you know, didn't have a legal lease, that have been a month, the
ones that where their landlords can try to force them out. So we are continuing to
accept calls because we know the employment situation is what it is. And that brings
me to the last issue. That has been a challenge for our clients as well. I mean, our
goal is to prepare people to move on, not to stay here forever. And right now we've
had, you know, clients lose their jobs and then employment market is what it is. They
cannot go out to get a job. And heck at this moment, they can 't even go out to find an
apartment even though they were ready to move out. So it is an interesting moment for
us in even the homeless community and trying to address the needs of the clients we
have within our walls, keeping them safe. We are strictly enforcing, Mr. Mayor, your
do not go out orders. So the only way that our clients can leave campus is when they
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have to get a pass and have to have a doctor's notice or some appointment they can
prove because we want to keep them inside. We want to make sure that they're not
bringing infection into our facility as well. I'd be happy to answer any questions you
have. We, of course, have been doing -- working with our Lazarus team and the
Homeless Trust to do the testing out on the street and continue to be available. For a
while, we actually hosted a physical site in the corner of our property for street
homeless to go and get tested, where they can have a place to go get tested if they
needed that as well.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you, Ms. Fernandez. I have a question for you, and also,
Chief Colina, it's good to see you, see you back working healthy and strong. And so
nay question to you first is, I know there's a number of different terms that we've been
using. We've used homeless, we've used street homeless, and some other things. And
so my first question to you, Ms. Fernandez, is how is it that you all define someone
who 's homeless? Chief Colina, I want you also to answer that question. Because what
I've -- obviously, I'm, you know, I'm from the background where you don't just
assume something about someone, you see someone on the street and you assume that
they're homeless. I'm assuming that -- so I'm wondering if you have a way that you
determine when someone is in fact homeless from your perspective as a care provider
and then from the policing perspective, because of course you have to observe
Pottinger and things of that nature. So because someone, for instance, is on a street
and they may have a tent that was provided to them from someone else, free of
charge, and they may be in that tent doing things that they're allowed to do by law or
things that they're not allowed to do by law. How is it that each of you are
approaching these individuals to determine who is in fact homeless? Because there
are people that, for instance, I'll give you an example, a very real example. In
Overtown, we have places where now -- where there are -- especially more now, there
are tents next to residential homes on public streets or sidewalks where the people
who are in those tents are regularly engaged in drug use and sex. And you know,
those are not allowable things under Pottinger or the law. And so to race to call, you
know, to kind of blanket everything as a homeless issue versus these other issues, how
is it that the police is approaching those individuals to make sure that none of those
things are happening, so that the people who are in fact homeless, who are not
breaking the law, can live honorably, versus the people who live in those communities
who have to deal with these things and their children walking by. So Ms. Fernandez
and then Chief Colina.
Ms. Fernandez: Certainly, Mr. Chair. You know, the Camillus House, like Constance
and Chapman and everyone else, participates in the local system of care, and that
system of care has something called coordinated entry. So, you know, we rely on your
outreach teams, the Green Shirts, who are out there and can see the people on a
regular basis to identify whether in fact they are people who are homeless versus
people who are trying to, you know, play, around the system or out there doing
something else. It's a known fact, we've seen it historically, 20 years ago, 25 years
ago, as the first homeless encampments were being shut down, the huge ones under
395. You know, you do see a lot of things happening when you have those kinds of
congregations of individuals. And a lot of those activities, especially the very illegal
ones, are not being done by homeless people. Listen, homeless people do not have a
lot of ready cash to buy a lot, a lot of drugs. So they're not the ones necessarily
selling them. They're not the one, these folks that are little, you know, these homeless
folks are a little mentally ill are not being handed thousands of dollars worth of drugs
to sell. That's, you know, drug dealers are not that stupid, unfortunately. So the
bottom line is you have -- it's a reality that when you see these congregations of
people, regrettably, you will have other illegal activities move in to be under the cover
of these groupings of people and use the advantage of the groupings of people to
commit these other activities. And certainly Chief Molina -- Colina can speak to that
because we have had to call, you know, when we've observed in our -- you know,
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we're a community member as well. We want our community in our neighborhood to
he clean and, you know, and not have those kinds of issues. And when we 've observed
that and we have called the people that are -- when the police comes in and does their
sweeps, the people being taken away are not homeless people. They're people who
are coming and using these congregations of homeless to do other things, other, you
know, illegal things. But again, the chief can speak to that, but we, you know, the
system in place right now with the Green Shirts, these Green Shirts are out there, the
outreach workers, they're out there every day. They know who the homeless are. They
know the people that are sleeping and are really sleeping out on the street and eating
out of the garbage cans and unfortunately doing whatever they need to do Jrolate
daily living because they are seeing that through the course of their daily outreach
process. And we have to rely on that. Our Lazarus outreach team is out there and they
know because of the constant engagement, those people that in fact are homeless and
require the services, in our case, those individuals that are severely mentally ill.
Chair Hardemon: So then Chief Colina -- so that was a, first of all, great answer.
Thank you very much, Ms. Fernandez. So then when you approach this situation
where you're seeing officers, for instance, they're in areas where there are high levels
of encampments that are by people who are in these tents or who are not in tents, how
is it that the officers are determining whether or not someone is in fact homeless or
there's someone there that is possibly engaging in these illegal activities?
Ms. Fernandez: 1 would hope, you know, and I think they do have a good working
relationship with the Green Shirts, with the outreach teams who are really going to be
(INAUDIBLE) and have been a very good, I hope, resource for the police department
in trying to separate one from the other. You know, and I even think we have awesome
police officers, especially our NROs (Neighborhood Resource Officers), that know
who the homeless are and they can differentiate when they see a new ,face in the
crowd and try to figure out who that new face is. Because our NROs are really, you
know, they're down the street, they're doing the work, you know, many times
alongside of our Green Shirts. And, Chief you can obviously speak to that. But I think
our police officers, especially the ones that more frequently are called to respond to
this, are the ones that are more familiar with the faces that you see there often, the
homeless faces you see there often and can really tell when there 's someone in the
crowd that really isn't -- there's a question whether in fact they're legitimately
homeless or not.
Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Chair?
Chair Hardemon: Hold on, I'm waiting for Mr. Colina to respond.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Jorge Colina (Chief of Police): Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon to
everyone. So there's a few different elements in the question. First, just based on a lot
of the public comments that you've heard, I think you heard kind of both sides where
you had people that were advocating for the homeless and mentioned what they
thought was aggressive behavior on the part of the police. And then you heard other
residents express their dissatisfaction because of not enough action on the part of the
police. And so ultimately, I think we all know, because it's been discussed for years
now, what a difficult, delicate situation is. What I think is critically important, just for
everyone to be mindful of is that there was a lawsuit in 1998 -- 1988, class action
lawsuit launched against the City of Miami for using the criminal justice system as a
means to handle homelessness and not only was that improper it is inhumane. It is not
illegal to be homeless and so that creates a challenge for us. It's very simple for
people to default whether someone in the park and they're homeless, you're not
supposed to be in the park, go arrest them. There's certain protections that come with
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Pottinger, but even putting Pottinger aside, you know, obviously, you know, the 14th
Amendment of the Constitution, equal protection clause speaks to we're going to treat
people equally and we're going to apply the law fairly. We can't have the law apply to
one type of person or group of people and not another. We can't go into a park and
arrest someone for not practicing social distancing and not arrest another group of
people for not practicing social distancing, for example. Now something that is
overtly illegal, like a drug use, that is a felony, clearly there arrests can be made.
There are some violations of the law that as you know, Commissioner, are not
misdemeanor exceptions, where you cannot make a warrantless arrest. There are
many of those. There are some exceptions that exist, but unless it is observed by a law
enforcement officer, there are misdemeanor violations that you cannot arrest unless
you observed it yourself Other violations, and really 1 think the most obvious one is
drug use, sale, et cetera. If that is observed by a police officer, that person needs to go
to jail. We have made arrests in the last couple of months. There has been, Jro
example, like I got the state a couple of days ago, in Little Havana, there's been 69
arrests that have been made. In Downtown Miami, there's been 84 arrests that have
been made of the homeless for criminal offenses, not for being homeless, obviously,
but for criminal offenses. Now, the reason that this discussion is being had today is
specifically germane to COVID-19. If that is the concern, I can tell you that there is
no more dense area for COVID-19 positive people than the Dade County Jail. And so
if the thought is that we want to deal with the potential spread of COVID-19 by
sticking somebody in jail, I can tell you that that's probably not the best strategy. I
hope that this, for the most part, answers your question, Commissioner. If there's
something more specifically that you'd like me to address, let me know.
Chair Hardemon: Yes. One question I do have to ask before 1 call on Commissioner
Reyes, the tents that are being provided by different organizations for individuals who
are accepting them on the street, they -- those tents, for instance, give, if you will call
it privacy, to a lot of activities that residents who are living next to these individuals
who are staying in those tents are complaining of these illegal activities that are being
-- that are happening. Are officers at least checking to see if -- if who's in the tents or
if things are going on with the tents? Because, you know, I understand the officers
drive vehicles now and they typically drive their vehicles down the street where there
may be tents and they're not necessarily getting out of their vehicles. So do you have
some sort of policy that requires officers to step out of their vehicles and actually do
physical checks on if anyone is inside of a tent, if they're asleep in a tent, like
basically welfare checks. If I, for instance, as an individual, if I was right now out
front in City Hall, parked in the parking lot, and I was asleep in my car, I'm sure an
officer would at some point come knock on my window and ask me, am I okay? Ask
me to roll down the window, ask me all these different questions. I don 't think that it's
a result of my color as much as of what I'm doing, where I am. And so is that being
done necessarily with those who are in tents near people's homes? And then I'll
recognize Commissioner Reyes and then Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Hardemon: No, I want to get the response back from --
Commissioner Reyes: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Mr. Colina: So, two things with the tents. First, we've checked with City Legal and we
still have been given the understanding that as long as there is some space on the
sidewalk -- because first let's discuss whether it's even legal to have the tent. So, what
we have been advised, and if that changes, then certainly we'll enforce differently. But
what we've been advised is that as long as there's still a space to have been able to
maneuver around the tent on the sidewalk, that that is allowable. That's one element
of the tent. The second element --
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Chair Hardemon: 1 would assume that would he for homeless individuals. So you
mean the --
Mr. Colina: For homeless. Yes, sir.
Chair Hardemon: A person has to be homeless in order for them to have a tent on the
side because I can't pitch a tent on the sidewalk.
Mr. Colina: That's correct. Yes, sir. That's an important distinction. That is right. For
someone that is homeless, that they would have the ability to have a tent as long as
the sidewalk isn't entirely obstructed. If it is, then that would not be legal to have a
tent on the sidewalk, homeless or not. You cannot completely obstruct the sidewalk. In
terms of the wellness check, so if that is a genuine desire to check on someone's well-
being, obviously that's acceptable. If it's being used as a means to disrupt someone's
right to privacy, that's problematic. I can tell you quite honestly that we are not
aggressively checking inside someone's tent if it's closed, is the truth. Certainly, and
quite -- and I'll be honest, I'm not even sure of the legality. And so I would defer there
to our legal and if they say that we have the ability to go in those tents just to see
what's happening, that would be important for us to know. I don't know if that would
be legal or not or how search and seizure would apply to someone who is staying
inside a tent and that tent is closed.
Chair Hardemon: So, and this is for Madam City Attorney if you're listening, you
know, one of my biggest concerns is that we use the term homeless too loosely
because someone who is committing -- if someone is in fact committing crimes and
parading around as if they are homeless but they're not in fact homeless, we've given
them the title of homeless, which our homeless deserve more protection than -- in
certain circumstances, than individuals who are parading around as homeless. And
then two, if we are doing these welfare checks, because welfare checks not only
protect the person who is inside the tent, but also the person who is outside the tent. If
in fact, for instance, there were a bunch of tents and we were having a parade or a
public function and there were tents lined up, every single one of those tents will
probably be checked. Now, some of those tents will probably be moved. In fact, if we
had in front of City Hall right now, 45 tents, I'm sure that people will be checking for
welfare and for safety those tents. The question about whether or not they can be
moved is -- that's a different question. But what I believe is that we have spaces within
our communities. Some are very important for homeless to gather safely and for them
to be in a space that makes them comfortable. And then we have other spaces where
there is a mix of people who are not homeless, who are drug users and abusers. They
have homes, but they choose to be in these areas where there 's a proliferation of drug
use and drug sales. And it's now masked with the donation of tents that gives them the
space and the privacy they need to use drugs. And my biggest fear of all of this,
because what one man does to his body, I believe it's his decision, except when you're
— you know, when it affects someone else. My, biggest worry in this is that just like
what happened in Overtown a few years ago when a young kid ingested a drug that
causes death, that one day we go looking for someone, we go looking for a child, we
go looking for someone that's missing and that person is found inside of a tent that no
one has checked for three months. And so, you know, these are my biggest worries
when it comes to this. So you know we would appreciate, or at least I would, that the
police department get some guidance as to how you go about, and you from the State
Attorney's Office, so I'm sure you understand the seriousness of it, how they go about
welfare checking, how they go about approaching people and not assuming that
they're homeless, but gathering the facts to determine whether or not they're
homeless, because the law affects us differently. And I don't want someone to be
treated -- to be given the privilege of the treatment that homeless should get, when
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they're in fact someone who's just there to break the law and make the circumstances
more difficult for homeless people.
Ms. Mendez: Commissioner, we'll do additional research just to make sure that we're
all on the same page and with regard to this issue. Obviously, the same way that a
police officer can knock on a home, they could knock on a tent. So it 's not like if you
are totally prohibited from making some sort of contact, but we'll make sure that we
discuss this further and that we're giving the proper legal advice and guidance to the
police with this regard.
Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Reyes.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, that's a very good point that you had Commissioner
Hardemon. My question is that, and it is --1 have a couple of questions I want to ask,
if you allow me to comment to them -- and comment to the other question later on
after this. But it seems to me that there is a -- that the police department, given the -- I
mean, all the bad press that we got at the time at the time about the treatment of the,
and rightly so, in some instances, of the homeless, that I do understand and I agree
wholeheartedly that they have to be treated humanely and they have rights that they
cannot be trampled. But it seems to me that there is an interpretation of Pottinger that
has to be clarified. For example, Chief Colina, if I am defecating in the middle of the
street or the middle of the sidewalk, is that grounds to get me arrested?
Mr. Colina: If it's observed by a police officer, it is.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, fine. If I'm urinating in a — in plain sight, and if I'm
urinating, will I be arrested?
Mr. Colina: You being the homeless you mean?
Commissioner Reyes: No, being me, Manolo Reyes, it's on the street and I feel like
urinating and I just go and I do my thing right there, you know, at a corner of 42nd
and Flagler, for example.
Mr. Colina: Yes, you, Manolo Reyes, if an officer sees you, you will be arrested.
Commissioner Reyes: I'll be arrested. If I am engaged in sexual activity almost on
plain sight, I'll be arrested?
Mr. Colina: Yes, you would.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, Madam City Attorney, does the ruling on Pottinger
precludes those — I mean, homeless people that are defined, or they are, I mean,
homeless from the police department to arrest them? I mean, I want just a yes or no.
Ms. Mendez: It depends. And let me clarify. I just need to clam a couple of things.
Commissioner, if anyone, anyone is observed having sex on the streets, they will be
arrested.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Ms. Mendez: So don't worry about that part.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Ms. Mendez: With regard to life sustaining activities, we cannot arrest anyone who is
homeless if they do not have a proper bathroom to go to. That is why through your
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programs and programs within the City, we've been able to provide for bathrooms
within, I believe, a one and a half mile radius of certain places. If -- and if someone is
observed going to the bathroom near -- and they're homeless near one of these
bathrooms that they could have gone to, then they will be arrested because they're --
so it's just, there's a caveat. We need to be sensitive to the fact that most homeless do
not have bathrooms and we cannot arrest for that. But if they do have access to a
bathroom, a public bathroom, then that is something that they could be arrested for.
Commissioner Reyes: And now that we are going through the program in Downtown
Miami, that we're placing bathrooms, 1 mean, most of them, we are going to get some
permanent and some of the porta potties that they are going to be within walking
distance, the police could have forced those going to the bathroom, I mean, doing the
basic life necessities at a place that it is not in public view. You see, what I think it is,
and 1 am going to recommend this, and we have talked about it, and we did, Madam
City Attorney, I think that there is a need to create a uniform manual for police
officers. You see, we should reassess and educate our police department on how to
treat the homeless without violating Pottinger and without violating their rights.
Because we people, we have rights too. You see, I have the right not to be jumping -- I
remember when I started working at the school system at 15th and Biscayne
Boulevard. I had to jump over feces that they were all over the sidewalk. I have the
right not to -- and that is also a danger because that could be a lot of diseases that
could be spread out. We should reassess our policies because in my opinion, in my
opinion, and rightly so, some of the police officers, they are gun-shy because they
don't really know when to enforce laws or any, 1 would say, ordinance or anything
when it conies to homeless, you see. 1 think that they don't know how to act and I'm
requesting that a uniform manual that has to be done by your department, it have to
be done by you, that will -- and Chief Colina, you will have to retrain and say, listen,
if you watch this, it is legal, it is not legal,, you can run it to the judge -- through the
judge or to everybody there and say, this is legal, this is not legal, you see, because I
don't think that homeless or not homeless, anybody has a free reign of doing anything
that affects the population. Your right will end when you start trampling on mine. You
see, we all have rights. And I know that homeless, as a matter of fact, I believe it is not
a crime and I will fight for it, for their rights. But we have rights also, you see? And I
think that that manual is necessary and that training is necessary to clarify because
most of the of the population and the residents says what about me? I cannot walk in
the street without somebody coming and (UNINTELLIGIBLE), okay. Chief Colina?
Mr. Colina: Yes, I -- and I think, Commissioner, that you, you know, obviously like
you stated it is your opinion and you're certainly entitled to your opinion.
Unfortunately, none of our opinions matter when it comes to Pottinger specific. So
they are in fact life -sustaining misdemeanors that are outlined in Pottinger that says
specifically someone that is homeless and does not have otherwise the ability to go to
a bathroom, for example, does in fact have the right to urinate where you or I would
not. And so in that regard, there actually is additional rights that are afforded to the
homeless that do not apply to me or to you. That's just the way that the agreement
reads. Not having somewhere to lay your head and you've laid it in the park, for
example, and the park is closed after hours, I wouldn't be able to do that, the City
Attorney wouldn't be able to do that, you wouldn't be able to do that, but someone
who is legitimately homeless would. And so there, it may seem like a natural conflict
and perhaps it is, but the law is clear on what is allowed. We have ordinances in the
City of Miami that say, you can't urinate in public and you can't defecate in public, et
cetera. But the reason that the City Attorney says that it's a little complicated is
because it is complicated. Sometimes that applies and sometimes it doesn't. That's
just the way that the law is laid out.
Chair Hardemon: Chief --
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Commissioner Reyes: Chief hold on a second. Let me ask him that, please. Let me
address this. Chief I am not saying that it is --1 mean, they don't have rights and we
have rights and all that, that is not complicated. It is complicated, it is complicated,
but if for example I just gave a specific example in Downtown Miami we have
bathrooms all -- I mean, all over the place and the City Attorney, she stated clearly
that if -- not a homeless, anybody it is caught, I mean, urinating or defecating or
doing whatever, that person should -- could be at least that they should be told not to
do this. You don't do it because if you keep on doing that, I am going to take you in,
you see?
Mr. Colina: Yes. And that happens. If there's --
Commissioner Reyes: I mean, if that happened, okay, if that happened, but it is not --
it is complicated, Chief And 1 know it's complicated and maybe you feel alluded when
I said that the police officers are gun-shy. I have talked to police officers and they
have told me, you see, we don't know what to do. You see, I don't know -- this is
Pottinger. I mean, when you Pottinger, everybody says, hands off, hands off. And I
think that probably some people, I'm not talking about every single homeless, but
some people are taking it to extreme and we should have some rules that say that, and
a clear interpretation, what we can do, what our authorities can do, and what they
cannot do. And the only way to do that, it is by getting together with the judge, with
everybody, and say, listen, this is -- this is, I mean, a conduct that we cannot allow,
and we're going to try to avoid it because we have also residents that we have to
protect. We have businesses that we have to protect. We have to protect the homeless.
We have to protect the rest of the population too. And the homeless should be treated
the way that every human being should be treated, with rules --
Mr. Colina: I agree with you.
Commissioner Reyes: -- and with rights.
Mr. Colina: And I agree with you, but let me tell you, Commissioner, the officer that 's
telling you that they don't know, I'm sorry, they're just using that as an excuse for not
wanting to take action. Because they have been trained, and they do know what the
law is. When an officer is refusing to enforce the law, that officer is violating policy.
They know what Pottinger is.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, but would it hurt if we have a manual specifically stating
what it is permitted, what is not permitted, so we don 't have any confusion.
Mr. Colina: The City Attorney's Office can create --
Commissioner Reyes: That's what I'm asking.
Mr. Colina: But you know, they can do that, but we have plenty of literature --
Commissioner Reyes: Oh, okay.
Mr. Colina: -- and we have reoccurring training that we do every year. We have J. C.
Perez from the City Attorney's Office that performs a lot of that constant training and
with the legal updates. And so --
Commissioner Reyes: I'm not criticizing you, Chief.
Mr. Colina: Oh, no, no, I'm not taking that as a criticism.
Commissioner Reyes: And I'm not criticizing the department.
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Mr. Colina: No, listen, 1 am admitting --
Commissioner Reyes: What 1 want is to clarify --
Mr. Colina: I am admitting that if an officer isn't doing their job, they're not doing
their job. It isn't about the training. So I'm not taking it as a criticism. I'm criticizing
my own officers. If they're telling you that they don 't know, that's not true. They do
know; they've been trained. They're choosing to not do their job because they don't
want to engage a homeless person. That's different --
Chair Hardemon: And Chief --
Mr. Colina: -- than not understanding the law.
Chair Hardemon: And Chief and I think that comes to the crux of the issue.
Mr. Colina: Yeah.
Chair Hardemon: So, this is in the Overtown area, you know, we're in the
neighborhood of Ms. Fernandez and her facility. And so the City of Miami, of course,
helped build this spectacular building, it costs tens of millions of dollars to be there to
provide services to the homeless. There's not many buildings that are like it in many
other municipalities within Miami -Dade County. And so just near there, you 're going
to have a lot of people who are in tents that are near that building and also near
residences where people, they live, they pay property taxes, et cetera. And so when
you have an officer that does not want to engage a person who they see, for instance,
defecating or urinating, whatever it may be in the street, because they're going to
assume that they are homeless. And all I'm asking on behalf of my residents is that
officers do engage. I know that many officers don't want -- and the truth of the matter
is this, officers do not want to engage someone who is -- who they perceive to be dirty,
or they perceive to be disheveled, or they perceive to be mentally ill, because they
don't want to have to deal with that person. Because if they have to arrest that person,
they put them in their car, they have to transport them, they have to write reports,
they're in their care and their possession at that time. And then those officers are
responsible for cleaning their own cars, et cetera. And they just don 't want to go
through that hassle. That's the real world of policing when it comes to individuals.
And so that's why you have these individuals who are not homeless that hide amongst
the homeless and commit crimes because they're least likely to be checked. And so
here, what I'm saying is that, you know, I know that a lot of people that where in the -
- we quickly will say homeless, but that is something that you have to determine,
especially if you're an officer witnessing a crime that would be committed by
Commissioner Reyes if it was him, but not by someone who was homeless. You have to
engage and ask questions to ensure that the person is homeless in order for them to be
afforded those beneficial -- those additional benefits. Because if not, then they're
doing things in our community that are not allowable under the law for individuals
who are not in their -- in the homeless position.
Mr. Colina: Agreed. Absolutely.
Chair Hardemon: So that's what we just want to ensure that our officers are not so
hands off as to getting to know the people. You should know the people.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Mr. Colina: Absolutely.
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Chair Hardemon: You should know when someone is homeless. And 1 know that we
have individuals that provide a tremendous service that help Ms. Collins, that help
Ms. Fernandez, that help, you know, other agencies. And obviously, you just want to
ensure that police officers are on the every day -- the same police officers that'll stop
me for having a scooter on the sidewalk, but then drive by, you know, a bunch of tents
without -- that are equally on the sidewalk, on the sidewalk where you can ride bv,
that same officer that writes the ticket for that person on the sidewalk, he should be
engaging someone who is in a tent to say, hey, are you supposed to be here?
Commissioner Reyes.
Commissioner Reyes: Yes, and now the other part of my question, I said 1 have two
issues that 1 wanted to address. Ms. Collins, how is your budget made? I mean, how
much you receive from us, from the County, from the Homeless Trust? I mean, how
much are you receiving from everybody? And congratulations, I visit your — the -- I
mean, the project that you have is fantastic and I congratulate you for it. It is
fantastic. But how's your budget being made? Ms. Collins? Hello?
Ms. Collins: You were going in and out.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, okay. I just want to know where you get your money
from. That's it. It's as simple as that.
Ms. Collins: Okay.
Commissioner Reyes: And how much you get per (INAUDIBLE)?
Ms. Collins: Well, about -- okay, I get -- I have a budget of a little over $9 million a
year.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Ms. Collins: And approximately $3.2 million comes from the Homeless Trust. A
portion of that is for rental subsidy money that gets passed through to guests. The
balance comes from the community and different grants that we get from many
different sources. We are constantly reaching out at the federal, state, and local level
for support for everything from job readiness training to child and family therapies.
The Children's Trust is an important contributor to our child and family therapy
programs and our parenting classes as well. So, it's like a patchwork quilt, actually,
that we are constantly sewing.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, that's good to know because the services that you are
providing are very important. And very important because you take every abused
woman and with their children and everybody else. So they know that they don't have
to put up -- they could go to your premises and they will be assisted. I congratulate
you for it. And we should help you. We should help you.
Ms. Collins: We would appreciate it.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Russell.
Commissioner Reyes: Thank you.
Vice Chair Russell: And thank you, Commissioner Reyes. We were talking a few
minutes ago about the public defecation and urination issue. And I wanted to bring
that back around to the COVID-related issue and offer a chance for us to work
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together. 1 think the DDA model of the Pit Stop Program, the public restroom, which
is meant for everyone, also has a significant impact on urination and defecation in the
streets. The permanent installation, which is now being moved, was serving over 100
people per day. And we know that has an impact in the streets in a positive way. When
we do a temporary bathroom situation that is not constantly manned and cleaned for
security and health purposes, it can be detrimental during this time of COVID. For
example, if someone's not there cleaning it between each use, that bathroom could
become a vector for transmission. So I would really like to accelerate our plan to
install more public bathrooms throughout the Downtown area. And I'd love to work
together with you on that. I know the Mayor has committed 300,000 from the City. I
believe Bob Dickinson and Camillus has also committed 300. And we were talking
with the DDA as well. We can be near a million dollars to really put a dent in this
situation in a quick way so that as the next season comes around, if we can get these
built relatively soon, we can minimize the potential for a bathroom situation to be a
transmission situation.
Commissioner Reyes: Mr. Russell -- Commissioner Russell, I would love to work with
you. I think that I would like to pick your brains also and I know that you 've been
working and it is your district and I think that we should partner. I mean, as a matter
of fact, we all should be working together. You see, we are in the same boat and we
should be rowing together. And what affects one affects the other one, but especially
you, you are welcome. Any, any, any suggestion, anything. And 1 would love for you to
come and visit us in meetings and express your -- speak of your mind. And maybe you
have ideas that we are not doing. I mean, we are not, at this time, we are not
analyzing or anything, you're welcome. And 1 really appreciate that help on
expediting the number of bathrooms. I think it's the most important that we have all
those pit stops all over Downtown. The more, the better. Thank you very much. And
you're welcome to work. I mean, I'm looking forward to working with you.
Vice Chair Russell: Thank you. I'd love to set a goal of putting in three to four more.
Commissioner Reyes: Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's work together. Let's work
together, okay?
Vice Chair Russell: Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Carollo.
Commissioner Carollo: Yes, have any of the homeless organizations done any survey
as to where the homeless that we have here are coming from? Clearly, they're not
from Miami -Dade County, not all of them. And from what I've been able to do on a
limited basis, I get the impression that the majority are from somewhere else. Can
anybody answer?
Chair Hardemon: Mr. Book, you're recognized.
Mr. Book: Wait a minute.
Ms. Fernandez: We can hear you, Ron.
Mr. Book: Hi. Okay. I cannot, Commissioner, tell you the precise number. I will get
that for you. But we all know that the homeless population is a transitory population
and all -- a large percentage of our total do cone from somewhere else. We have a
large percentage that leave here and go somewhere else. I get the question. I will
work to get you as precise as we can. We take that out of our HMIS (Homeless
Management Information System) system, Commissioner. And we will -- Vicky and I
will get with Sergio and Lazaro and make sure we give you that right number.
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Commissioner Carollo: The reason I'm asking this is that if we were at a level playing
field with all other major cities across the country, it's one thing, but we're the only
city in America that has something like Pottinger to deal with even if we 're gotten
through the lower court and they're appealing it now. So what I see that's happened
is that other cities across our state and many and other parts of our country
understand that and we're getting sent people down here that are not from here, that
have not lived here, that have not -- no community ties whatsoever here and we're
having to take care of them and it's creating a huge burden in our community. We're
taking care of a lot of people for New York, Chicago, other parts of the country,
Jacksonville, Orlando, you name it. And it's not fair. Now, I'm all for being as
humane as we possibly could be in a society to homeless people. But when you have
beds available and you're asking homeless people and offering them shelter and a
better way of life and they're refusing, 1 believe that we certainly have a right to get
them off the streets. Mr. Book.
Mr. Book: Two things. First of all, my staff has pointed out where I had a number
correct. On our last head count., which is the point in time survey, Commissioner,
which would have been the January count, 67 percent of our surveys said they've
been in Miami -Dade for a year or longer; 11 percent, four to twelve months; 8
percent, one to three months; 39 percent said they came here because of family and
friends; 25 percent refused to answer; 15 percent, employment. On the Pottinger
issue, Commissioner, you and 1 have had a bunch of conversation over the years on it.
And you know how 1 feel about it. I personally think that if Pottinger were fully in
effect, there were things that could be done, my opinion as a lawyer, which different
from what my friend George Wysong has opined at the police department, and I have
to respect his role as a lawyer. He's advising his client, which is the police
department, and you as a Commission. My understanding of Pottinger was while we
had talked about those life -sustaining things that they're allowed to do within the
geographic confines, part of what got me to testify on behalf of the City in the last
federal case that Doug Harrison, if you will, asked me to testify on from the City
Attorney's Office was because I felt like we had gotten to a point in Pottinger where it
was working to hurt our efforts to end homelessness in our city. So I don't disagree
with where you 're at on it. And I'm hopeful that Ms. Mendez's' effort in the appellate
courts together with Mr. Wysong will ultimately prevail and we can move to this next
place where we hopefully encourage more to come off the streets. Nothing more
frustrating to me.
Chair Hardemon: I want to recognize Chief Colina and then I'll recognize Ms.
Collins.
Mr. Colina: Just real quick to a point that Commissioner Carollo made and Mr. Book,
you know, I'm of the opinion as well that there are elements, quite a few elements' of
Pottinger that do make it more difficult for us to provide services to the homeless. And
one of them, for example, is we don't have the ability to place someone a mile, more
than a mile, outside the City of Miami limits. So if there was an organization out west,
for example, that was willing to offer wraparound services and temporary shelter to
transition into permanent shelter, we wouldn't be able to do that right now under
Pottinger. It has to be in the City of Miami and only a mile or less out. And quite
frankly, I don't know if the idea is to get somebody help, whether it's psychological
and get them shelter and a roof over their head, we should be able to access resources
across the county, not just in the City of Miami.
Commissioner Carollo: What I see is that this whole homeless issue, it's become a
business for some people. This is not for some, especially attorneys, about truly
helping homeless individuals. It's about a business, because I don't see those same
people being concerned about any other city. And this is the only city in America that
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is facing something like this. Now, if this is so much the law of the land, why are we
the only city that is still facing this? Maybe someone can answer me. Why does not the
rest of America be bound by some of the same conditions? Maybe any of our fine
attorneys can answer that.
Chair Hardemon: I want to recognize Ms. Collins while the attorneys think about that
question.
Ms. Collins: Okay, thank you.
Commissioner Carollo: You know, having said that, while they're thinking about an
answer, Chairman, you've made some statements before that I think they're right in
target and this goes beyond any of the homeless organizations that we have. This is
internally within the City and it's the Manager that's going to have to step in and
decide if he's going to change the culture or if it 's going to stay the same. And we
have a problem whether we want to admit it or not and anybody can come and attack
me, you know, they are going to feel offended because they want to keep doing it, that
nothing gets done. Because as you said, Chair, there are some officers that don 't want
to deal with that. Their supervisors don 't push it. And if it doesn 't come from the top
of the police department, certainly the lower rank officers are not going to feel that
they can take action. And they're not going to want to put people in their cars that are
not going to smell good, could urinate, and this is all before COVID-19. Now with
this pandemic, it's much, much worse. I'm going to give you an example in my
district, on Memorial Boulevard, from 8th Street that it goes up, the area in
particularly 8th Street to 10th Street. It's taped with the yellow police tape. That
whole median strip, that's a park, is closed up. If you or I, Chairman, would go in
there and throw ourselves on a bench, I guarantee you that a police officer would
come by and get us out. But you have homeless that are going in there and residents
are calling and complaining because of what's going on. It's a park that's closed, but
no one's taking action. This is different than going into another area that we've
discussed where a homeless guy will go to sleep at or what have you. So what rights
do the normal, average, tax paving residents and citizens of Miami have? Don't they
have rights too? Don't they have rights to have a good quality of life in their
neighborhoods where they're not afraid that the minute they're walking out of their
homes, they're being panhandled or something's being said to women, or worse. And
this is the point that I'm making. And I, for one, have had people that don't even live
in the city of Miami have the audacity of using that to blame me for other reasons that
have nothing to do with this. Just like some of you get blamed for homeless in your
own districts. But in the meantime, I'm not in a position other than what I'm doing
here to do anything about it. When -- I will tell you, when I was mayor, we were very
humane with homeless. And we didn't have any of these problems with Pottinger and
it was the same Pottinger that we had. The difference is that we won now in the lower
court and it's only on appeal. So I do not understand how we've gotten to the point
that we've gotten today with Pottinger.
Chair Hardemon: Ms. Collins.
Ms. Collins: Thank you. I want to address actually, Commissioner, your comments
about who we're serving. I can't speak for other shelters, but I can tell you for a fact
that this shelter at Lotus House is a tiny, tiny fraction of those we shelter that are
coming from out of state. The vast majority are residents of our community, typically
from Little Havana, Little Haiti, Liberty City, Overtown, Downtown, and all across
the City. And the very few, I would say in the range of 3 percent, who may come from
out of state more recently are fleeing domestic violence in large part, or they have
family here and family took them in but were unable to keep them. So, as much as I
know that it's sometimes challenging to think about homelessness in our own
community, we do have a desperate need for affordable housing, particularly Jrothe
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working poor and those who are extremely, low income, those who are living on
disability or social security. We do have a need for extended hours of child care so
that mothers who do have children can be working and self-sustaining. We do have a
need for ready access to healthcare. All of those factors contribute to homelessness in
our community. And I know this is challenging for all of us. That said, at least from
what we see, the vast majority are from right here in Miami.
Commissioner Carollo: Well, maybe the ones that are going to your shelter, that 's
like you said, it's a very small shelter. But what I have found in the street are a lot of
individuals that are very white looking like you, like 1 am, white, red, that speak only
English. The white, red is the alcohol throughout the years, the abuse of alcohol, in
some cases combined with drug usage, that when 1 stopped and talked to them, they
freely tell me they're from another part of the state of Florida, another part of the
country, and they're not from here. And these are not, you know, women that have
come here that are abused. These are men that have heard that this is paradise for
them, that the police doesn't do anything here, that there's some law that lets them go
anywhere they want and do what they want, and that they 're going to get meals the
minute they throw themselves out in the streets. And this is the problem that we 're
having. And if this is where we're going, we might as well put signs up for the whole
country to send, you know, those who are homeless to us. You know, send greeting
cards to San Francisco, send them over here. Why not? I mean, this is what we 're
going to become then. I mean, I cannot, you know, with any kind of logic, understand
how in the world regular residents have no rights whatsoever. And we're not talking
about just going out there and grabbing people and not being humane and locking
them up or throwing them out. No, we're not talking about that because if that was the
case, the City of Miami would not have been spending tens and tens of millions of
dollars throughout the years. We're talking about being humane with them, but at the
same time, my God, we should not be in a position that we 're opening up our city to
people that are coming from all different corners of our state or America. Right now,
the City of Miami has approximately 17 percent of the population of greater Miami -
Dade County. But we have four times the population of homeless. We have closer to
65 percent of the homeless population of Miami -Dade County. There's something
wrong there. Now, I'll tell you what else is happening. And this is one that I'd like to
see if we could take some action on it today. Miami -Dade County, their main jail
facility, it's out in the western part of the county. That's where they have most of their
inmates. When they let them out, they don't let them out over there because they don't
want the unincorporated areas and the cities around it to get upset. They drive them
and spend the extra money, to have guards bring them over to the City of Miami and
this is where they get loose. They're at the door in the City of Miami limits. So,
Madam City Attorney, I'd like for you to draft something to the County and take the
preliminary steps that we would have to do to see how that could stop and give them a
notice on it. And if this doesn't get us anywhere, this is one that I'd like to -- you to
research all legal avenues that we have, including suing the County and going to
court to stop this. Why should all the people that are being let out are being let out
here in the City of Miami proper?
Ms. Mendez: That is a very good point. We've tried to talk to the County about that in
the past, but we could definitely work on this for you, Commissioner.
Chair Hardemon: So, regarding SP.1 --
Commissioner Carollo: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and bring it to the next City of Miami
Commissioner meeting next week so we can discuss it and vote upon it.
Ms. Mendez: Yes, Commissioner, we will.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you.
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Chair Hardemon: Commissioners, are there -- is there any other discussion regarding
SP.1 ?
Commissioner Reyes: No.
Chair Hardemon: Seeing none, thank you so very much. Mr. Book, you want to add
one last thing? You're muted. You must umnute yourself.
Mr. Book: 1 wanted to say to you, Mr. Chair, and to the Commission, to the Manager.
In the 25 and a half years that I've had the privilege of leading the Homeless Trust,
while we have always had an extraordinarily good relationship with the City, with the
management, with the police department, with the NET (Neighborhood Enhancement
Team) office, there has never been a period of time that 1 can say to you, to the entire
Commission, that we have worked more closely, more cooperatively, more in the
totality of what we do than during the last nine weeks. That includes every one of our
providers: Lotus, Salvation Army, Rescue Mission, Camillus, Better Way, all of our
providers. And that the fact is that when the testing, Commissioner Diaz de la
Portilla, when the testing is done, that's driven in a collective way, but scheduled by
your City folks. We are, I can tell you, Mr. Vickers, Mr. Casamayor, Mr. Noriega, the
Chief that's what we've had. I can't tell you that it has ever worked like that in the 26
years in spite of the cooperative relationship. Mayor Gimenez, Deputy Mayor Kemp
have given us the leeway to continue to do what it is we do year round. But it wouldn 't
work if we didn't have that cooperative partnership and we work and play off of one
another. And when there are needs that your folks have had, we 've tried to respond.
When we've had needs, they've responded, starting with issues we had early, with the
wash stations and the toilets. They've just jumped, and I'm just remiss, Mr. Chair,
Commissioners, if I don't say thanks to all of your folks and to the 476 staff people
that all of our providers and the Trust have put towards this effort. I thank you all.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much, Mr. Book.
Mr. Book: Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much, Ms. Collins.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I have -- I have -- I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, just one
quick question to Mr. Book before he leaves us.
Chair Hardemon: Yes.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I would like when all this is over, when hopefully
sooner rather than later, that you provide us a complete report of the timeline and
time frame for the testing, for how you housed our homeless during this crisis. I think
it's important for us to have all the information of how it worked, how that
relationship that you touted right now worked during a time of crisis, and if there's
anything that we can do better to have a better relationship with the Homeless Trust.
But we need to have that information. I think there was a dearth of information here,
a conversation at least with me. I think we needed to have the public meeting to be
able to, you know, air it out, and sort of get a feel for where we are. And I still don't
have answers to a lot of questions, but this meeting has gone a lot longer because it
went off the subject, it went to the realm of the homelessness issue, which is very
complicated, has a lot more questions than answers, and it will take days for us to
debate every possible aspect of that very, very, very broad debate. I wanted to have a
more specific debate about what you were doing about with COVID-19 testing, what
you were doing with handing out of masks, with housing, which I never got an answer
to how you were housing, and how that process works. And if there's anything that we
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can do to work in a more collaborative manner with the Homeless Trust to make it
more efficient. We have -- you mentioned Mayor Gimenez and you mentioned Deputy
Mayor Kemp. Well, they only have a small percentage of the homeless problem. We
have the majority of that problem in our city and we 're the face, all of us collectively,
not one of us, but we are the face of the City of Miami, the Mayor and the
Commission. And we have to be accountable to the people we represent. And 65
percent of those homeless people are in our city. They're not in the rest of the county.
So it may be easier for Mayor Gimenez, who's actually the face of the county, to say,
we don't have an issue, we work okay, because they don 't really have the problem
that we have. So, I think we are entitled to have more answers and more concerns
than anybody else in the whole county, and any other city, and the county itself,
because we're the ones that are bearing the negative aspects of that population and
their problems and how we address their issues. We want them to be protected, we
want them to be healthy, we want them to be tested, but we also want, as
Commissioner Carollo said, the rest of our residents to be protected and to be
healthy, and also to be taken care of. We have to find that balance, and that difficult
balance is what we as elected officials, particularly those of us that represent areas
that have a large percentage of these people in their districts. We have the
responsibility to be accountable to the people that elect us. So when we ask you the
questions, we ask them because we want answers. And to be honest with you, Mr.
Book, I haven't felt that I've gotten all the answers that I needed today or in the past.
I've only been a Commissioner for five months, six months, and this crisis hit us. So
it's in times of crisis that you know how organizations are made, what they're made
out of, how they can rise to the occasion and address the issues that need to be
addressed. I still don't know how you're housing them, this population, how you're
moving them when they leave shelters to hotel rooms, how you're tracking them once
they test positive, how you're tracking them once they test negative, and perhaps test
them again because they may be exposed to an environment and they may now be
positive. If you have any plans ,for additional testing, antibodies testing, or others
testing down the line, what are you going to do to take care of this population moving
forward? Not only what you've done in the past, but your plan of action. I think it's a
good idea for you to share what you want to do, what your trust wants to do, what
you're thinking of first of all, what you've done, and then what you're doing, and
then what you want to do down the line. And then after all that passes, and hopefully
we emerge from this pandemic in a better place, God willing, we will then have a
report from you that says, this is what I did, this is what my trust, our trust did, and
this is how we handled it, that's how we worked with your city. But this confusing of
what the Homeless Trust does and what the City of Miami does, and Mr. Vickers
coming before us and talking about we, we, we, and then I find the we is you and not
us, and that confusion has to end. We have to be -- we can have collaboration, but the
statistics are the statistics. Who does what within that collaboration? Not every team
member is equal. Some team members perform more than others. Sometimes you have
a great quarterback, sometimes you have a great running back. So we want to work as
a team, but not every player in that team is as talented or does as much work. And we
want to know what each member of this team, not only all the organizations that you
work with, but also the cities you work with, the county you work with. And again,
bottom line is, the City of Miami is a majority of this population. We have the majority
of the responsibility. And that's my only point, to make sure that we continue to
collaborate together, but that you give us the facts, the numbers, and the figures that
we need to make intelligent decisions moving forward for the people we represent.
(MULTIPLE PARTIES SPEAKING IN UNISON)
Chair Hardemon: First, one second. I want to allow Mr. Book to respond and then I'll
recognize Mr. Kemp. And it's interesting because I'm used to seeing him as police
[sic] chief and so it, you know, it escaped me that he's with Miami -Dade County and
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he's our deputy mayor, so I'm sure he'll he speaking on behalf of the County. So Mr.
Book?
Mr. Book: I'll be quick. Commissioner, I will get you -- Ms. Mallette and I will get
you an interim report because I think the things you want, you need to know now and
then at the end. We have been working diligently to submit to HUD (Department of
Housing and Urban Development) what we hope to become another one of our
national best practice models. But I want you to know something. We have over 600
beds under contract that we are putting people in every single day, and the vast
majority are coming out of the City, and we are taking them off the streets to do that.
We focused early on that vulnerable over 65 population. We had to take all of them
out of shelter, all of them off the streets. Now we are with the balance of that
population. And Commissioner, the first hotel we contracted with was the Dunn in
Overtown. Why? Because we wanted to send a message. Black -owned hotel, run by a
woman, owned by a woman. It was important to us to keep people employed. We have
that one. We have the ALF (Adult Living Facility) in North Miami with almost 90
beds. We've got the Red Roof and we've got the Inn in Homestead we're putting
people in. And if we need more, I can assure you, Deputy Mayor Kemp will tell you,
we have been authorized to contract with more when we run out. We've got a little
over 100 beds open now, and we are filling them. And Lazaro and Sergio are driving
that effort. And we take every one they send us. And as it relates to Dr. Henderson, the
three people he has recommended to us, we took as well. And two, 1 believe of the
three didn 't end up wanting to stay. We are driving it with a coordinated plan,
Commissioner. 1 get your message, give me 24 to 48 hours to get you that full report,
and we will send it to every one of the Commissioners. You will all get it collectively
with all those numbers and programs. And then from there, you 've got questions,
bring it back to us. We want to be responsive to you. You are our partners, and you've
got it. The bulk of the population is in your city. Our job is to make sure we're
responsive.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much. Mr. Kemp, you 're recognized.
Commissioner Carollo: Chairman.
Maurice Kemp: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Commissioner Carollo: I just heard Mr. Book say that we had some 100 beds
available. My question is, this is to our administration, our City Manager, our City
Attorney, our police chief why are we having homeless out in the street that we 're not
bringing to those hotels where there are beds available? Can somebody in our City
answer me this? Because --
Ms. Mendez: I defer to the Administration on that, Commissioner.
Mr. Colina: Yeah, I don't know if from our Health Services Department, if Milton
wants to comment further. The biggest problem we have, Commissioner, is not a lack
of beds. There oftentimes we have space. The biggest issue that we face with the
homeless that we have is those that are shelter resistant, that either suffer mental
illness or have the drug dependency issues that you and the others are very well
aware of. And so those that are resistant are the ones that we really struggle with
trying to find help for, because even with services available, even saying we can
provide you shelter and feed you and bathe you and get you clean and get you a
haircut, a lot of times they don't want to come in. It's one of the issues, by the way,
that we have with these feedings. I know that people think that they're doing a good
thing when the church groups come out on Saturday, for- example, and they provide
all this, food. They bring more food that they can even eat. And that food stays on the
street, Jroexample, and that becomes a health problem. And they think that they 're
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doing a good deed, and 1 understand it, but the truth is, what that does is, it allows the
homeless to stay out in the street instead of coming in to look for those services, get
fed, where then we have an opportunity to hopefully treat some of them with the
mental health professionals that they have, offer services, et cetera. There 's a lot of
things that are difficult about the problem. I can tell you one that I don't think
anybody would really disagree with is this issue of people coming in and feeding on
the weekend when we don't even have our Green Shirts here to provide help. It's a big
problem for us in a lot of different ways.
Commissioner Carollo: Let's get an ordinance. Let's have the City Attorney draft an
ordinance for next meeting that we have that this has to stop in the City. Madam City
Attorney, can you draft an ordinance to that effect?
Ms. Mendez: Commissioner, we need to research that a little more. There are certain
implications with that, but if I can brief you on it, we will -- if we can, we will. If we
cannot --
Commissioner Carollo: Yeah, but see, here's the problem. All that I'm getting are
excuses, no, no, we can't, we can't, we can't. And we are the ones that have to face
our residents that can't understand why their quality of life is being affected this way
and we don't do anything about it. Now, the Chief touched upon something that I
think is very important to zero in on. That those that are not wanting to go to shelters
or those that are dependency on drugs or have mental issues with drugs sometimes
and because of the drugs. We're not talking here about what in America we have
always looked upon as true homeless. Those that are falling into hard economic times,
they can't afford to feed themselves, or their family, and are homeless because of that.
He's pointing out to people that even though we're offering help, they don't want it.
They want the life of being out in the streets, using their drugs, drinking, having their
sex under the bridge, panhandling, harassing people for money. I'm going to give an
example. You could go there now, you could go there at night, you 're going to see it.
On 8th Street and 12th Avenue, there's a guv there that's been there for at least two
years, if not more. He 's many nights, he's dead drunk or drugged out on the parking
lane or in the sidewalk. No one does anything with him. He's not from here. He gets
violent at times with people when they don't give him money. And I haven't seen
anyone take action with this man yet. So what are we supposed to do with people that
don't want help to have a hotel room, a shelter, because they have drug problems,
sometimes as I stated associated with mental problems because of the drugs. Are we
supposed to just let them live like that, terrorize the rest of our residents? Don't our
people have a right to a certain quality of life too? We're not talking about being
inhumane with people. We're talking now that we're offering them something better,
safer than where they're at. But how can I be told that we can't do that? My God,
what kind of society have we become?
Ms. Mendez: Commissioner, with regard to your regulation of the feeding, we can do
a certain time, place and manner restrictions and control the cleanup and all that. So,
we'll work on our ordinance with you with regard to that, okay?
Commissioner Carollo: But why do we have to allow it, period?
Ms. Mendez: We can't ban it. We can't ban it. But we cannot ban it, but we can
regulate it appropriately. So well work on you with legislation (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Reyes: Commissioner, we have -- we already have been working -- we
have, Madam Chief Attorney, you know that we have a draft of a resolution also just
stating what you are saving and I would like to work with your office.
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Ms. Mendez: We will -- we need to -- we need to draft something that has been
constitutionally upheld.
Commissioner Reyes: That's right.
Ms. Mendez: And there are certain legislations across the country that have been so
we'll work on this with both of you.
Commissioner Reyes: And also one thing that we want to avoid is what happened in
Jacksonville, you see. It happened in Texas also, that the court reversed the
legislation. And I've been working on it and I'm more than glad to work with you and
all the Commission in doing that. But we have something -- we already have a draft
that I've been working on.
Chair Hardemon: Okay. Thank you very much, everyone. Seeing there's no further
discussion on SP.1, I'm going to move to SP.2. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Mr. Kemp: Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman.
Chair Hardemon: Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. I'm sorry, Mr. Kemp, you didn't have the
opportunity to speak. You're recognized.
Mr. Kemp: Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Although it's virtual, it feels good to
come home. On behalf of the mayor, I'd like to reemphasize that the County fully
supports the Homeless Trust and the continuum. While nobody would deny that we
have a serious homeless problem in Miami -Dade County, like every major city in this
country, the Homeless Trust and the continuum has done an incredible job. Twenty-
five years ago, we had 8,000 unsheltered and less than 1,000 beds. Now we have a
little more than 1,000 unsheltered and more than 8,000 beds. When it comes to the
COVID crisis, which like I'm sure the mayor and his administration is dealing with
every day, I live the COVID crisis every day. And I can tell you that the continuum
and the Homeless Trust has been extremely proactive in trying to protect this
extremely vulnerable population. They've done things that I don't think have been
done anywhere else in the country. They were ahead of most people in isolating,
testing, and providing alternative housing for homeless people who are positive or
suspected of being positive. So I just want to reiterate that we filly support the
continuum, we fully support the Homeless Trust, and we're ready to partner with any
and everybody who wants to help this population. Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you very much.
SP.2 DISCUSSION ITEM
7423 A DISCUSSION REGARDING FOOD DISTRIBUTION.
Commissioners
and Mayor
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Chair Hardemon: Seeing no further questions, we're going to move on to SP.2, food
distribution.
Commissioner Reyes, if you 're speaking, you 're on mute.
Commissioner Reyes: I'm sorry. First of all, I want to thank Commissioner Alex Diaz
de la Portilla for bringing this issue back that we were doing that -- dealing with that
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Meeting Minutes May 7, 2020
before, and because the process was not right, and we defer to this, and you brought
it. Thank you very much.
SP.3 DISCUSSION ITEM
7424 A DISCUSSION REGARDING MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.
Commissioners
and Mayor
RESULT: DISCUSSED
Chair Hardemon: So, are we having any further discussion on SP.2, or are we moving
to SP.3?
Commissioner Reyes: I -- no. Mr. Chair, I want to be excused because I am dealing
with some contribution for the -- supposed to do some food distribution and I don't
want to keep those donors waiting. So whatever you decide, guys, you are -- you have
my full support.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you vet); much.
Commissioner Carollo: Then if I could have the City --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well take it as a proxy then I guess.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay, that's right. You have my full support.
Chair Hardemon: Commissioner Carollo, you're recognised.
Commissioner Carollo: (INAUDIBLE) City Attorney read a resolution I have on the
airport. That we've been asking people to take action and we haven 't even gotten a
reply back. But in the meantime, we're hearing that Carnival is selling cruises
beginning August Ist, which means that you might be getting additional people
coming through the airport, coming to our community. The same ones that brought a
lot of coronavirus cases originally to our community. So, Madam City Attorney, if you
could read the resolution that have, I'd appreciate it.
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NA.1
7438
City Commission
NA - NON -AGENDA ITEM(S)
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, WITH
ATTACHMENT(S), PURSUANT TO SECTION 18-72 OF THE CODE
OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, AUTHORIZING
THE ALLOCATION OF GRANT FUNDS IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO
EXCEED FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($5,000.00) FROM THE
DISTRICT 1 COMMISSIONER'S SHARE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI'S
("CITY") ANTI -POVERTY INITIATIVE ("API"), FIVE THOUSAND
DOLLARS ($5,000.00) FROM THE DISTRICT 2 COMMISSIONER'S
SHARE OF THE CITY'S API, FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS
($5,000.00) FROM THE DISTRICT 4 COMMISSIONER'S SHARE
OF THE CITY'S API, AND TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS
($10,000.00) FROM THE MAYOR'S SHARE OF THE CITY'S API
FOR A TOTAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED TWENTY-FIVE
THOUSAND DOLLARS ($25,000.00) TO FARM SHARE INC., A
FLORIDA NOT FOR PROFIT CORPORATION, FOR FOOD
DISTRIBUTION TO INDIVIDUALS OF LOW OR MODERATE
INCOME, SPECIFICALLY INDIVIDUALS IN THE CITY WHO HAVE
BEEN OTHERWISE NEGATIVELY IMPACTED BY THE NOVEL
CORONAVIRUS ("COVID-19") PANDEMIC; FURTHER
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND
EXECUTE ANY AND ALL NECESSARY DOCUMENTS, ALL IN A
FORM ACCEPTABLE TO THE CITY ATTORNEY, FOR SAID
PURPOSE.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-20-0141
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Manolo Reyes, Commissioner
SECONDER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
AYES: Hardemon, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Carollo, Reyes
Commissioner Reyes: And I move it, which is the resolution where everybody's been
provided -- offering $5,000. I don't know if you also offered a contribution, and I
think the Mayor also offered a contribution.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: I think -- if I may Commissioner, I think that I
offered $5,000. I think the Mayor was coming in at 10.
Commissioner Reyes: At 10.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: But we're open -- we're open for any other
Commissioner who wants to come in and offer from their own offices, you know,
$5,000 for Farm Share for all the great work that they've done. We would love to
have every other Commissioner join us if they have those dollars available in their
budgets. But otherwise, if they don't, then you got my five that you -- from your --
your five and I think Mayor Suarez had ten.
Commissioner Reyes: Okay.
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): District 2 -- District 2 has five as well.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: That's incredible. So District 2 has five, so that's
25.
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Commissioner Reyes: Twenty-five, that's good.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: What about District 5? Do we have anything from
District 5? Do we hear --? I feel like an auctioneer.
Commissioner Reyes: You're doing a great job. Keep going, keep going.
Chair Hardemon: You guys take all my money then you want to spend it too.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) that's on the floor, right? Well, so it's been properly moved and
seconded by Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla. It's been properly and duly
noticed and it's in regard of SP.2. Is there any further discussion on the motion that's
on the floor? Seeing none, all in favor, say "aye."
The Commission (Collectively): Ave.
Chair Hardemon: Against? The motion carries.
RESOLUTION
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION DIRECTING
THE CITY MANAGER TO MEET WITH THE MAYOR OF MIAMI-
DADE COUNTY AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE MIAMI
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ("MIA") REGARDING THE NEED FOR
SCREENINGS AT MIA AND COMPLIANCE WITH GOVERNOR
RON DESANTIS' EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER 20-80 RELATED
TO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT-COVID-19-AIRPORT
SCREENING AND ISOLATION, SPECIFICALLY WITH RESPECT
TO THE SCREENING OF PASSENGERS ARRIVING AT MIA;
FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO REQUEST A
DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY TO THE CITY OF MIAMI ("CITY") IN
COORDINATION WITH THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AVIATION
DEPARTMENT ("MDAD") TO TAKE ANY AND ALL STEPS
NECESSARY TO ENSURE THE SCREENING, APPROPRIATE
ISOLATION, AND QUARANTINE OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY
EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER 20-80; DIRECTING THE CITY
MANAGER TO REPORT BACK TO THE CITY COMMISSION BY
MAY 21, 2020 REGARDING ALL ACTIONS HE HAS TAKEN;
FURTHER DIRECTING AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY ATTORNEY
TO TAKE ANY AND ALL ACTIONS NECESSARY TO
ACCOMPLISH FULL COMPLIANCE WITH SAID EXECUTIVE
ORDER; FURTHER DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO TRANSMIT
A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION TO THE OFFICIALS NAMED
HEREIN.
ENACTMENT NUMBER: R-20-0142
MOTION TO: Adopt
RESULT: ADOPTED
MOVER: Joe Carollo, Commissioner
SECONDER: Alex Diaz de Ia Portilla, Commissioner
AYES: Hardemon, Russell, Diaz de Ia Portilla, Carollo
ABSENT: Reyes
Victoria Mendez (City Attorney): Yes, Commissioner.
The Resolution was read by title into the public record by the City Attorney.
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Chair Hardemon: You're recognized Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla to you. Please
note that you're muted. Please note that you're muted.
Commissioner Carollo: We can 't hear you. You 're on mute. You're on mute.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Is that better now? I have a question of our City
Attorney. We -- her and I had a conversation when I did my briefing yesterday about
the possibility of us suing the County. If we discussed it earlier on another issue, but
yet another possibility of suing the County if they don't comply. I have the same
concern Commissioner Carollo has led on this effort, has expressed concerns in
public forums, he's expressed in Commission meetings, in interviews that he's done.
I've got the same concern; I agree with him 100 percent. That kind of screening that
should have been done from the beginning at Miami International Airport for a lot of
these residents, not only of the people that are arriving from high case states like
Connecticut or Michigan or New York or New Jersey, but from countries like Peru or
Brazil, it's just common sense to be screening them at least for fever if they're coming
in and they're spreading COVID-19 in our community. And the County has been very
reluctant to do that. So we can do resolutions. I agree we need to continue to push
through resolutions and legislatively, but is there any legal recourse that we have?
Our city borders the airport. We gave up the airport many, many decades ago. We
probably should have kept it in hindsight. But in reality, you know, seriously, there is
a serious concern that these people are corning here and not being screened when
they get off these planes, and just adding to the crisis, in my opinion. So what legal
recourse do we have? If you could give me your opinion on that, we can't force them
to do it. Can we, through the courts, force them to do it, or at least to do some of it?
Ms. Mendez: Right now, we're trying to negotiate with regard to this. We don't think
at this time that we have a cause of action. Maybe if we get a little more information,
maybe more epidemiological studies with regard to this, maybe we can have a cause
of action later on. At this point right now, we don 't have enough information to see
that we have a cause of action at this moment. That's why part of this resolution is for
us to look into further action if possible. But we need a little more time to research
any cause of action with regard to that.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay.
Commissioner Carollo: What the resolution says is for us to, through our Manager,
sit down, talk to them, and we're giving the City Attorney's Office any and all legal
avenues available to take action. So that lthink covers what you're saying.
(COMMENTS MADE OFF THE RECORD)
Chair Hardemon: I'm sorry about that, someone was walking by speaking. Okay, so
there's' a resolution. Is there any further discussion on the --? Well, I don't
(UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Is there a time frame, because obviously this is
very time sensitive, so is there a time frame for when she's going to come back to us
or the Manager will come back to us and say what -- I spoke to them and they're not
interested or they don't want to do it or what's the timeframe?
Ms. Mendez: Right now there is no timeframe. If you would like to place a timeframe
for the Manager first to meet --
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Well, it's Commissioner Carollo's resolution. I
mean, ifyou will --
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Commissioner Carollo: I don't mind any timeframe that you would like to put on it.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Whatever you think, Commissioner. 1 think a
couple of weeks, maybe.
Commissioner Carollo: That would be fine.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Yeah, 14 days or come back to us. Or maybe that's
not -- that's too much time.
Commissioner Carollo: Look, our community has gotten to where it's at with the
coronavirus cases, 36 percent of all the cases in the state of Florida are here in
Miami -Dade, while we only have 12.5 percent of the population, three times the cases
of our population. And every study that has come out is indicative that it's because
it's been brought to us through the airport. In fact, there was one last study that the
Miami Herald published a couple of days ago. And it talks about what myself, and the
Mayor, together with Dr. Marty had talked about in early March of this year that we
probably had all kinds of cases here already because of the traveling. And in fact, that
Miami Herald study confirmed that and it confirmed that the cases we got were
because of people traveling, coming back, and in particularly, from New York, outside
of Europe. So, I haven't, you know -- we've sent two resolutions already, one to the
Governor, one to the Mayor of Miami -Dade County. We haven't gotten any response
from either one. The only thing that 1 heard publicly was for the Mayor of Miami -
Dade County talking about that he sent a letter to President Trump wanting people to
be tested on that 15 minute test on the antibody before they would come to Miami.
Well, he knows first of all, that for the President to be able to do that, he would have
to do it in all the major airports in America. Where are we getting the tests from? We
don't have them. Even the Mayor of Miami -Dade County only has a few hundred tests
that he's been using for the survey that he's been doing with the UM (University of
Miami) to do that. Furthermore, the antibody test, what it does is tell you if you've
had it in the past, not if you presently have it. So that's not going to do anything. What
we need to do is what, my God, even countries that we here call the third world, we
think we're the first world. Those countries that we call the third world, they're doing
this in their airport. Anybody that comes in, they're taking their temperature. They're
asking them the appropriate questions to see if they're short of breath, have they had
fever, other things to make sure that there's not anything there that they could be
carrying the virus. And then to inform them that if they're coming from certain hot
spots like New York, New Jersey, based on the Governor's emergency law, they have
to be in quarantine for at least 14 days. All the information we keep getting shows that
that has not happened or is not happening for the most part in planes coming from the
airport. The Mayor recently forwarded me a copy of an email that he was sent by a
passenger that came from overseas. They were in shock that they were not asked nor
anybody in their plane, any questions, their temperature was not taken, and
furthermore, they said that half the people didn 't have masks when they got off the
plane, and they were on top of each other during the immigration process. So, in a
day and time that is so simple to do this, I mean, the Israelis, I was just reading last
night, have a whole system that you could just walk right through and it'11 tell you if
you have the temperature. There are other systems in the market that could be used
also where you don't even have to use the gun thermometer to get close to people. So,
I do not understand why our -- the Miami -Dade mayor is refusing to take action in
something that has been the gateway of bringing the coronavirus into our community.
It has infected now close to 14,000 confirmed people in Miami -Dade County and has
given us hundreds of deaths.
Chair Hardemon: Right now we have a motion that was made by Commissioner
Carollo. Is there a second to his motion?
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Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Second it.
Chair Hardemon: Seconded by Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla. Is there any further
discussion on that motion that's on the floor for SP.3? Seeing none, all in favor of that
motion, indicate so by "aye.
Ms. Mendez: Chairman?
The Commission (Collectively): Aye.
Chair Hardemon: All against? The motion carries. Madam City Attorney?
Ms. Mendez: Chairman, I just wanted to confirm that you felt that this item was -- that
we didn't need additional public comment because this item, any resolution that could
come out of this item, we gave everybody, a chance to -- I just wanted to confirm that
for the record.
Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla: Okay.
Chair Hardemon: I don't know if we have anything else on the agenda. Is there
anything else that any of you -- as I like to say, are all hearts and minds clear?
Commissioner Carollo: I have no problem if anybody wants to opine any further from
the public on this item so.
Ms. Mendez: No, 1 -- as long as we all agree that it was --1 just wanted to confirm
that it was properly within the SP -- SP.3. Everybody was given an opportunity to
comment on any issues having to do with the airport during this time. So that's fine. I
wanted to also confirm that you have all received throughout the meeting, all the
written comments. You've -- I know that with regard to public comments, so that's all
a part of the record. I also wanted to confirm that even though there was just one
letter that was illegible at the beginning, all the other letters were legible. One --
another one came in in Spanish, so we're going to have to transcribe all that for you
to have, but it was just two items that you weren't able to read. They did --
unfortunately, they did send written, that written material, but we'll make sure that
that's also a part of the record. And I think that covers all that.
Chair Hardemon: Madam City Attorney, if you're comfortable with the way that the
public comment was handled, then we're comfortable with it.
Ms. Mendez.: Yes.
Chair Hardemon: The video that was put of the -- maybe that was their artistic
expression that they wrote, and then they wanted to video the actual pages. We 've all
seen that across social media when people drop cards that have words on them, and
they don't say anything. So, you know, that's what they chose to do, and I'm not here
to limit how they choose to express themselves. It wasn 't offensive. So, other than that,
if there's not anything else, this meeting is adjourned.
Commissioner Carollo: Thank you.
Chair Hardemon: Thank you, everyone.
Ms. Mendez: Thank you, everyone.
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ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 1:44 p.m.
END OF SPECIAL MEETING
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