There’s a plan to shelter homeless people displaced by downtown Miami Super Bowl fest
As people descend on Miami in the week leading up to Super Bowl 54, the National Football League and local Host Committee are giving a county agency $100,000 to provide temporary shelter to homeless people who sleep in and around Bayfront Park.
On Wednesday, the league and the committee notified local homeless advocates that both groups have agreed to make the contribution to the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.
“We are pleased to inform you that the NFL and the Host Committee will make a $100,000 [contribution] to the Homeless Trust to provide extended shelter care,” wrote Anna Isaacson, the NFL’s senior vice president for social responsibility.
Ron Book, chairman of the trust, told the Miami Herald the funding will facilitate shelter for 60 to 80 homeless individuals for 60 days. He said the conversation began with advocates from the American Civil Liberties Union expressing concern for a few dozen people who were displaced from the park when the area was fenced off to set up the Super Bowl fan festival that will run from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1.
Book said the money pays for measures that include expanding capacity for additional beds, meals, street-level outreach and case worker hours. The goal, Book said, is to connect people with resources that can eventually lead them to a more permanent housing situation.
“Our goal is when we get them in, we try to keep them,” Book said
Advocate David Peery wrote a letter to city officials outlining the concerns in early January. The letter was forwarded to the league.
“We urge the city not to resort to practices that seek only to hide the issue of homelessness, such as arrests, dispersal through police ‘move-on’ orders, or wholesale property confiscation and destruction,” Peery wrote.
Last week, multiple conference calls were held with members of the host committee, league officials, local advocates and representatives from the trust. On Wednesday, Peery and others were glad to learn of the initiative. Benjamin Waxman, an attorney with the ACLU, told the Herald he hopes the contributions become a model for the league taking socially responsible steps when activities around the Super Bowl displace homeless people in urban areas.
“It’s kind of unprecedented,” Waxman said. “I really applaud the NFL for coming together real quickly.”
