It’s time for Miami Beach commission to shoulder its responsibilities on homeless | Opinion

On Friday, the Miami Beach City Commission will hold a second vote on a development agreement for a proposed luxury condo complex in South Beach. If approved, the plan would result in the shuttering of Bikini Hostel, a hostel across the street that currently houses more than 100 homeless people, a possibility that has revived the debate about the city’s questionable treatment of homeless people.

This is the bill’s second reading, and if the previous 6-1 vote is any indication, the approval is all but certain. But the vote is more than a development deal in the works; it’s an indication of how much responsibility the city will — or won’t — shoulder for homelessness issues that face all of Miami-Dade County.

Last November, the commission voted to rescind a question on the ballot that would have imposed a 1% food and beverage tax to fund homeless and domestic violence services. More than 20,000 residents had already cast ballots during early voting when the tax question was removed.

Had the measure passed, the tax would’ve applied to businesses that sold alcohol for consumption on-site and whose annual revenue exceeded $400,000, with the money going to the Homeless Trust, a county agency that provides homelessness and domestic violence services countywide.

Miami Beach has contributed lump sums totaling $10 million over the past two fiscal years to the Homeless Trust and has agreed to pay up to $5 million annually beginning in year 2026 through 2039. But all of Miami-Dade’s municipalities already levy the food and beverage tax, with the exception of Surfside and Miami Beach. It’s only fair that Miami Beach do the same to address a problem that doesn’t stop at the city’s borders.

The Homeless Trust relocated homeless individuals to Bikini Hostel shortly after the commission removed the tax measure from the ballot. Was it retaliation? Ron Book, chairman of the Homeless Trust, told the Miami Herald Editorial Board that negotiations with Bikini Hostel had begun “90 days prior to the referendum being taken off the ballot” and that the timing was nothing more than a coincidence.

Now the commission, under the guise of the development deal, will be able to evict about 100 homeless people from Miami Beach by tearing down the hostel. The Miami Herald previously reported that the Trust will have a plan to resettle the hostel’s homeless.

“No city can be exempt from the work of ending homelessness,” said Victoria Mallette, executive director of the Homeless Trust. “Especially a city that shoulders so many unsheltered homeless.”

Commissioner Alex Fernandez, who voted to approve the deal in the first vote, acknowledged the fundamental issue: “We don’t have facilities in Miami Beach to help the homeless.” The city does have a Homeless Outreach program, he noted, saying it’s a “model to address homelessness that others have traditionally looked to replicate nationally.”

The hostel, he added, “isn’t an appropriate site” in part because homeless people need “access to services that provide a continuum of care.”

The Homeless Trust says the hostel’s residents do have access to care — at the hostel. “There is a full complement of support at the hostel. We have multiple entities there on a daily basis, helping move people through the continuum,” Mallette said.

One commissioner, Laura Dominguez, has another idea for the Bikini Hostel: to designate it as affordable housing. On Wednesday, commissioners referred that proposal to the Public Safety Committee to be heard on September 10. If the city won’t allow homeless residents at the hostel, at least Dominguez’s idea would preserve the property for sorely needed affordable housing.

Friday’s vote, when it’s likely the development will be approved, won’t end homelessness on Miami Beach. It will merely displace it. And sadly, that’s exactly what some commissioners seem to want.

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This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 3:43 PM.