Miami, state evict homeless amid COVID-19 pandemic. What were they thinking?! | Editorial

Obviously, there was a failure to communicate.

In a blatantly thoughtless act, workers showed up Wednesday morning at a long-standing homeless encampment under an Overtown overpass, posted a metal sign in the ground saying anyone on the premises was trespassing, then forcibly removed the people — yes, the homeless are people, too — to who-knows-where.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The workers, of course, were following ill-thought-out orders, gathering the heap of belongings left behind in the makeshift tents set up along Northwest Second Avenue and 11th Street in Miami. By Wednesday night, the Greater Miami ACLU and Southern Legal Council, sent a letter to the leaders of Miami, Miami-Dade County and the Florida Department of Transportation, calling the eviction an “indefensible and inhumane assault.”

A group of local activists, the Dream Defenders, captured on video the poorly conceived mission and posted it on social media. Outrage, including the Editorial Board’s, ensued.

Kicking homeless Miamians out of their “home” in the middle of a pandemic is ridiculous. Doing so without a clear plan as to where to house them, testing them for COVID-19 and getting treatment for anyone testing positive is sheer — and dangerous — lunacy.

For hours, it was unclear who had ordered the camp cleanup. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez wanted it known that the county had nothing to do with such an careless action. Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, told the Editorial Board that his agency, charged with ending homelessness in the county, had no knowledge that a homeless community would be upended.

“We were kept in the dark and were not given any warning,” he said.

A clarification from Miami city staff given to the Editorial Board said that: “This cleanup was coordinated by the Neighborhood Enhancement Team (NET) and several other City of Miami Departments … and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). This was a cleanup that has been planned for several weeks due to the unsanitary conditions.

“This was not a break down or removal of an encampment,” the explanation from the city states.

The clarification continues: “City staff discarded trash and/or contaminated items that were on the city right-of-way. FDOT was responsible for clearing any items that resided on FDOT property,” which means, under the overpass.” So the area was cleared out.

So, basically, it was the “break down or removal of an encampment.”

The city’s explanation recognizes that CDC guidelines “do recommend not disbanding encampments during a pandemic.” But those guidelines, the explanation states, also require social distancing at 12 feet within encampments. “These guidelines were not being adhered to at this encampment,” the city said.

However, we are not persuaded that dispersing homeless residents into the wider community, offering them, perhaps, only one night in a hotel and, most important, failing to test them for the coronavirius was a smart move. Especially in a city that, so far has moved with all due caution to protect residents.

This could have been handled much more humanely by alerting homeless agencies that such an action would take, finding the homeless accommodations and leading them to coronavirus testing.

Miami blew this one.

This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 6:00 AM.