By Amelia Orjuela Da Silva | July 28, 2026
The Miami Times
After hours of emotional testimony and debate, the Miami City Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday, July 23, to eliminate a written-warning requirement before police enforce the city’s ban on public encampments. Supporters say the ordinance streamlines the process, while opponents argue it accelerates the criminalization of homelessness.
Sponsored by District 3 Commissioner Rolando Escalona, the ordinance passed on second reading with Commissioners Christine King and Damian Pardo voting against it.
Under the amended ordinance, officers may issue a verbal warning to a person sleeping or maintaining an encampment in a public space and provide a “reasonable amount of time” for the person to gather their belongings and leave. If a shelter bed is available, it must be offered, but refusal to accept would qualify as grounds for arrest.
Escalona maintained his proposal aims to connect unhoused people with resources while keeping neighborhoods safe and clean. According to the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust’s January 2026 Point-in-Time Count, the overall homeless population in the county increased 1% over the previous year from 3,615 to 3,648 individuals, while the unsheltered population rose 38%. Within the City of Miami alone, the number of unsheltered residents increased by 11% from 546 to 605.
The decision also follows the adoption of the state’s encampment ban, also known as HB 1365, approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024.
Commissioners’ discussion
During the meeting, Escalona pushed back against claims that the ordinance would trigger widespread arrests.
“We’re not taking anybody to jail,” Escalona said before asking City Attorney George Wysong to clarify the change.
Wysong noted that public encampments are already illegal in Miami.
“What is essentially changing here is the requirement for a law enforcement officer to provide a written notice,” Wysong said. “That’s the step that we’re making it easier for the officer.”
He emphasized that under the ordinance, police cannot make an arrest if they determine that a shelter bed or other government assistance resulting in immediate housing is unavailable.
David Gilbert, director of the city’s Human Services Department, noted that 80 additional shelter beds will soon open at a new navigation center in unincorporated Miami-Dade County.
Escalona said business owners and residents in his district, particularly near Flagler Street and Northwest 12th Avenue, face persistent encampments.
“You have 20 people sleeping outside a business, and we are getting calls every single day because they don’t leave,” Escalona said. “That is not fair to the businesses. That is not fair to the residents.”
He added that under previous rules, individuals often relocated only a short distance after receiving a 24-hour notice.
Commissioners King and Pardo raised concerns over officer discretion regarding what constitutes a “reasonable amount of time.”
“Because how are the officers going to know what is reasonable?” King asked. “Would I give you a verbal notice and 10 minutes later, is that reasonable? Is it 24 hours? What is reasonable?”
Wysong responded by saying that a reasonable timeframe is “as quickly as they can remove themselves from the sidewalk and remove the obstruction.” He added that police policy mandates safeguarding essential items, including medication, IDs, eyeglasses and phones, before clearing a site.
Pardo said he trusted police officers wearing body cameras but remained troubled by the discretion created by the ordinance.
“For me, there is this slippery slope that I’m not comfortable with,” he said.
Advocates packed the room
Dozens of advocates urged commissioners to reject the proposal.
“This 24-hour written warning period isn’t just a little red tape or bureaucratic hurdle. It is essentially critical to connecting people with shelter and with housing,” said David Peery, executive director of The Florida Coalition to Advance Racial Equity (FCARE). “We need that period of time in order to engage a person, meet them where they’re at to verify and determine their eligibility, and also to connect them through the homeless management information system.”
Peery pointed out that two major facilities — the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery and the Better Way Miami Navigation Center — will open soon, offering solutions without relying on police.
“What they’re doing is facilitating arrest,” Peery told The Miami Times. “How can arrest remain the last resort when they’re expediting it? That’s a contradiction.”
Peery noted that Black residents comprise 18% of the county population but 60% of its unhoused population, arguing the policy will disproportionately impact people of color.
“So guess who’s going to be locked up when we start doing these mass arrests? It’s going to be pretty much people of color,” he said. “These are racial policies, if not racist policies.”
Other community leaders echoed those points. Chaplain Stanley Young of Freedom Prison and Jail Ministry asserted, “Homelessness is not a crime,” while Florida Justice Institute Executive Director Michael Langley cited Miami’s worsening affordability crisis, arguing the city should address the root causes of homelessness rather than rely on enforcement. He urged commissioners to “use evidence over ideology.”
Trey Santorine, a University of Miami doctoral student who received a 2025 grant from the National Alliance to End Homelessness to study Florida’s camping ban, presented data from a survey of over 600 unhoused individuals across Florida, including nearly 220 in Miami. Santorine stated that 32% of unsheltered respondents had already been arrested — a rate jumping to 47% among those with severe mental illness.
Most significantly, Santorine argued, arrests rarely resulted in stable housing.
“Ninety percent of people who were arrested said that they returned directly to the streets,” Santorine said, noting only 18% received post-release assistance.
“The human cost of this proposal is high, and the financial cost is even higher,” he added, citing the steep expense of incarcerating individuals in Miami-Dade.
Following the vote, Peery said FCARE requested a veto from Mayor Eileen Higgins and is weighing legal and legislative options.
“This so-called idea of forcing people into accepting services or threatening with jail never works because housing and homelessness are social justice issues. They’re not criminal intent issues,” Peery said. “Miami cannot arrest its way out of homelessness.”
Homeless Trust objects
Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, condemned the ordinance, saying it undermines decades of progress.
“All this does is further criminalize the act of homelessness,” Book said. “We consider it the oldest trick in the book. It doesn’t work.”
Book warned that shifting costs to the criminal justice system helps no one.
“Taxpayers are going to spend more money on housing people in the jail and in the courts, and no one’s homeless situation is going to be resolved,” he said. “It doesn’t provide services. It doesn’t provide shelter.”
Book highlighted ongoing collaboration between the city and county — including expanded street outreach, shelter beds and weekly strategy meetings with Miami Police and Jackson Memorial — making the new ordinance frustrating.
“We have never had a better working relationship with our partners in the City of Miami. This is counterproductive,” he said.
He pointed to neighboring Miami Beach, which passed a similar law in 2023, arguing that aggressive enforcement simply displaces people.
“Their belief on Miami Beach is if you arrest someone five times, they’ll finally stay on the mainland,” Book said, adding that Miami Beach’s 12% drop in unsheltered individuals directly contributed to Miami’s increase.
Book said the Homeless Trust communicated with Escalona’s office before the ordinance came up for a final vote and offered feedback on the proposal.
“My staff communicated with the commissioner’s office over the last two weeks,” Book said. “They did make some minor modifications, but they did nothing to change the overall outcome of what this ordinance does.”
While acknowledging that the ordinance prohibits arrests when no shelter bed is available, Book said he remains concerned that the city lacks the capacity to meet that requirement consistently.
“I have very few beds available right now,” he said. “The problem is far larger than that.”
Furthermore, Book predicted the vague “reasonable amount of time” language would invite legal trouble.
“I think most judges will toss these out because they know it’s ridiculous and absurd to think that you can arrest your way out of homelessness,” he said.
Reflecting on the Trust’s 35-year history, Book noted that Miami-Dade reduced its unhoused population from over 8,000 to under 1,000 through housing and supportive services.
“What this is going to do is make us go backward, not forward,” Book said. “I’m in the business of ending homelessness in a legitimate way, and you can’t do it by arresting people. You just can’t.”