Feature Story
Maurice Ferré Park Homeless Problem
Residents of the Park West enclave met with Commissioner Joe Carollo, who chairs the Bayfront Park Management Trust, to find a solution.
Homelessness is one complex, divisive, and seemingly unresolvable problem many cities confront. Downtown Miami is not immune. On the contrary, despite what some politicians claim, the homeless population in Downtown is growing, and will continue to grow if the problem is tackled with slogans and unrealistic plans that sound good on TV.
Houston, Texas, has seen a 63 percent decline in homelessness. Accordingly, it’s lauded nationally as a model to follow. What is Houston’s formula? Getting everyone behind a common approach. Not easy. A New York Times special report notes: “Most cities have a sprawling network of government agencies, private landlords, shelters, religious organizations… And they all have different, often competing incentives and ambitions.”
Downtown’s Approach
The Downtown Neighbors Alliance organized a meeting to evaluate and propose solutions for Maurice Ferré Park’s homeless problem, a problem that affects the Park West enclave — five towers across the park: The Marquis, Ten Museum Park, One Thousand Museum Park, 900 Biscayne, and Marina Blue.
The meeting was held at the posh 900 Biscayne. A HOA Board member suggested starting small, taking one step at a time. We were not there to solve homelessness but fix a specific problem. The approach, he summarized in three letters: CCC — close, clear and clean. 1. Close the park at night. 2. Clear the homeless population after the park closed. 3. Clean-up after the homeless left.
Commissioner Joe Carollo arrived punctually at 3 pm. He chairs the Bayfront Park Management Trust, charged with managing Bayfront Park and Maurice Ferré Park. All those present knew that talking about the park without him amounted to an exercise in futility. You are the King of the Trust, quipped the Marquis’ Board President. Everyone laughed. Good start.
Maurice Ferré Park has become, in the words of Commissioner Joe Carollo, a homeless hot spot. On a recent recognizance visit, to which he invited Downtown Neighbors Alliance’s James Torres, they counted 89 homeless men and women, and a few dogs.
Personal Anecdote
Nothing like a personal anecdote to illustrate numbers. The 900 Biscayne Board member related an incident. His mother was visiting, and she took the kids for a day at the museums — Frost Science and PAMM. Afterwards, taking in the view of the park, a green oasis amid incessant development, Grandmother decided to take a stroll with the kids, and she was welcomed by the caressing breeze coming from Biscayne Bay. They had not walked more than five minutes before they came face to face a most disagreeable spectacle: A man squatting in the middle of the park, in the middle of the afternoon, defecated holding a syringe in a threatening manner.
Now, we can’t disagree that certain human functions are inevitable. Neither can we disagree that a place for these functions must be provided to prevent residents, adults and children, from experiencing such spectacle, and more important, to keep them from contracting a disease. Public health experts warn that such unsanitary practices can and do unleash disease and epidemics. Children are particularly vulnerable.
Pottinger
In Miami, under the Pottinger directive, relieving oneself in public places — life-sustainable acts — should not be criminalized, unless a public restroom is available within a quarter of a mile. The incident mentioned above occurred yards away from a public restroom. And that is not an isolated incident. I walk around the park every day, and every day, no hyperbole here, I see men urinating against the base of the beautiful sculpture Flora the Collector of Dreams. If only the artist knew that his donated creation attracted more urine than dreams, he would for sure turn over in his grave. The public bathroom stands, literally, steps away from Flora. What the law states: Urinating or defecating on public places if there is an open public restroom within ¼ mile should be immediately arrestable.
The Pottinger lawsuit was filed more than 30 years ago when Miami was a very different place. In 1988, an injunction was entered by the court to prevent the arrest of the homeless for simply being homeless and for the destruction of their property. After 10 years of litigation, a consent decree was entered, providing certain guidance to the City on law enforcement as it relates to homeless individuals (Pottinger Agreement). In September 2018, Judge Federico Moreno terminated the Pottinger Consent Decree, agreeing that the City not only complied with it over the years but, also, that it was no longer necessary. As opined, Pottinger was in place for 20 years and caused a revolution in this community as to the treatment and care of the homeless.
For a Downtown News feature in 2020, attorney Elena Bondarenko observed: “Essentially, all the life sustaining activities, are protected only to the extent that police have to offer shelter in leu of arrest — if the homeless individual agrees to shelter, there they go. If they do not agree — arrest is proper (and definitely not prohibited). The city is paying Camillus house for beds that are available daily in the shelter specifically to allow for police to offer them and do placements/enforce the law. These beds are largely empty, with only 2–3 occupied at any given time.” More on directives.
Defining the Homeless
A distinction must be made, explained Reverend Pedro Martinez, a downtown resident who has years of experience working with the homeless population. “We can categorize as follows: 1. Homeless that will accept help today (they will accept temporary shelter, permanent housing and relocation to be with family or friends). 2. Homeless that will not accept help today (these are the hardcore vagabonds, substance abusers and people who live a reckless lifestyle.) They are chronic homeless by choice. 3. Homeless having severe mental illness and do not understand they need help.”
The majority of the homeless occupying Maurice Ferré Park falls into the second category, with a few in the third category. A resident walking his dog said: “Look around, vagrants breaking the law with impunity. Drinking and doing drugs. Sleeping on the benches. Camping out.”
Commissioner Carollo has been clear about the chronic homeless. It’s not an economic problem, it’s not that they lost their jobs. It’s drug addiction. And other cities sending their homeless with a one-way ticket to winter in Miami. Downtown News asked three men sleeping on the benches at MFP, two were clearly under the influence, were they Miamians. None was.
Cut to the Chase
Commissioner Carollo proposed to implement the CCC in September. Close the park at 10 pm and reopen it at 6 am. Conspicuous signage will be placed and at 10 PM everyone out. He will have the city bring a truck to clean up whatever is left behind. To enforce the new rules, Commissioner Carollo promised to deploy two private security guards and one police officer.
The plan Commissioner Carollo outlined was music to the ears of the Marquis’s Board President — a very vocal proponent of privately footing park security. And he pledged to donate, speaking for his building, two electric golfcarts for the guards to do their rounds. Also, he offered access to the Marquis to charge the carts. And wielding the old put your money where your mouth is, he further exhorted helping finance the park security. Commissioner Carollo welcomed the motion. He would match the funds three dollars to one, he said.
Differing Points of View
Of course, there will always be differing points of view. Claudia, an outspoken defender of the neighborhood’s quality-of-life, was not keen on footing the bill for security. She emailed Downtown News: “I do not believe any money should be given to the Bayfront Trust, an organization, which works without supervision and accountability. One person makes all the decisions! When Maurice Ferre Park is governed within a different and more transparent framework, like a conservancy, additional funds donated by condominiums is a possibility.”
Another resident objected paying for park security. “For that,” she said, “I pay taxes.” And another, requesting anonymity: “If you remove the homeless from Maurice Ferré Park, they will camp elsewhere, and return a month later to again be removed, and on and on in a never-ending musical chairs game. Measures such as the pondered CCC are band-aids not sustainable solutions.”
Love and Hate
You can love or hate Joe Carollo, but it would be remissive not accepting he is a man to reckon with. Anyone following local politics knows the man has clout. Some say he is authoritarian. Others say he gets things done when he is determined to get them done.
Most at the meeting agreed, Commissioner Carollo was determined to help solve the Maurice Ferrer Park homeless problem and help Downtown. “What he proposes to do and what he has already done is more than Ken Russell, our District 2 commissioner, has done in two terms. Go to Bayfront Park, you will see very few homeless people, certainly not camping,” a fan alluded to an ordinance that Commissioner Carollo championed. It grants residents, tax-paying residents, a modicum of safety around their homes. The ordinance passed last October. Among other things, it bans encampments on city property and makes obstructing sidewalks illegal.
Many downtown residents welcomed the ordinance. Many Downtown residents complain that the minute they step out, they are faced with people sleeping on the streets, encampments, and harassed by aggressive panhandlers, people under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and those challenged by mental health disorders. Fresh in their minds is Hammer Man. Armed with a hammer, the man went around destroying public and private property, because, he said, if he didn’t, he would attack people.
“Criminalizing the homeless population violates their civil rights,” opponents claim. Commissioner Carollo told Downtown News: Homeless individuals have rights, and so do Downtown residents. The chronic homeless want absolute freedom, but absolute freedom ends the moment it infringes on other people’s freedom. That is part of the social contract. “Sure,” he said, “we will be sued, but I am prepared to take this issue all the way to Supreme Court. The problem is some people don’t want a solution. Homelessness is big business in Miami. There is no incentive to end the problem.”
Long-term solutions?
Commissioner Carollo plans to build tiny homes in Virginia Key to house the chronic homeless who refuse to go to a shelter because they don’t want schedules, regulations, because the shelters will not allow them to drink and do drugs. They will be taken to the tiny home village. There, said the commissioner, they will have access to mental health professionals, drug-addiction counseling.
Cities around the country are providing tiny houses to the homeless. It is, many believe, better than a tent encampment, better than sleeping on the street, under bridges and city parks. As with anything, the devil is in the details. How the tiny houses villages are managed, reported NPR, and what regulations are in place can make a big difference in their effectiveness.
Alternatives?
A representative of Mayor Francis Suarez was also present at the meeting. He said that soon, maybe in six months, the mayor would announce a plan under the catchy title Functional Zero. It would eradicate homelessness. Downtown News asked if he could advance some of the measures to be taken. He would email the proposed program, he said. In effect, Downtown News got the flier below. It summarizes the program in two columns. The column to the right enumerates the projected steps, mostly more money to existing agencies for mental health, job-training, and housing assistance. The left column enumerates What We’ve Done: more shelter beds for temporary and extended stays, and top on the list is having offered 520+ free haircuts, because, the underlying philosophy, if you look good, you feel good.
