‘Months before we can restore normalcy.’ Miami-Dade officials plead for federal COVID aid
South Florida elected officials, including Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, spent part of Saturday morning at a food distribution site on Miami Beach pleading, “praying and beseeching the federal government to come to our aid” as the COVID-19 pandemic surges through the state.
Levine Cava’s pleas were echoed by Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson at the food distribution site at 22nd Street and Collins Avenue.
The officials held a video press conference to urge Congress to extend a stimulus package to help fund ongoing food distribution events, help residents facing evictions, as well as fortify a battered economy largely unique among communities.
South Florida, Gelber noted, is reliant on the hospitality industry that serves the tourism industry. But as travel visits have fallen due to the pandemic’s spread in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and the Florida Keys, that industry and its contribution to the state’s coffers can’t sustain without significant aid.
“We need these stimulus funds more than ever,” Levine Cava said via Zoom, since she has to quarantine given her recent coronavirus diagnosis. Though vaccines are on the way, “it will be many months before we can restore normalcy,” she said. She also said people need to do their part by wearing masks to help reduce the spread.
Florida has the third highest number of total confirmed cases in the country after Texas and California, according to the New York Times COVID-19 database. Miami-Dade leads the state in the toll — 241,051 confirmed cases and 3,896 deaths as of Saturday.
In addition, COVID hospitalizations are up 40% from two weeks ago, and about one in 10 COVID tests are coming back positive each day, according to the latest county statistics.
At a Friday press conference Levine Cava, a Democrat newly-elected to a non-partisan post, told reporters she hasn’t been able to get Gov. Ron DeSantis on the phone to discuss how his administration could help Florida’s most populous county deal with the state’s largest COVID-19 outbreak.
At Saturday’s conference, she put the focus on those most in need. “Tens of thousands of people across Miami-Dade County are literally at the breaking point trying to get by,” Levine Cava said, noting that the lifting of eviction moratoriums will prove devastating to not only the thousands who have lost income and jobs and can’t pay their rent but also landlords who have bills to pay.
“We have only begun to see the devastation caused,” she said.
She also noted that South Florida is ranked the most food insecure metro-area in the country, NBC6 reported.
The food distribution site at 22nd and Collins in Miami Beach donated $50,000 at the Saturday event alone, Richardson added, pointing out that the site had held more than 180 food distribution events with $5 million-worth of donated food for some 100,000-plus meals to residents in need.
That’s the case county and state wide. “You can see how the dollars add up,” he said, as the officials hoped Congress would act to expand, rather than reduce, funding.
“The demand is so great. We need all the help that we can get,” Suarez said, stressing the need for bipartisan support.
This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 12:10 PM.
