17th Street – nestled between Jackson Memorial, a major U.S. safety net hospital, and Camillus House, the largest homeless shelter in South Florida – is empty. There are no bicycles or tents belonging to the individuals who typically inhabit the area. There is no line outside of the Three Sisters where people usually wait for a meal. The street is quiet and desolate.
We visit 17th Street every Saturday morning with Miami Street Medicine, a student-led medical team that brings healthcare to the streets. When we began, 17th Street was a hub for patients; individuals overlooked by the healthcare system congregated there, yearning for the chance to secure a shelter bed, seek resources from our team, or access food from the surrounding organizations. Miami Street Medicine has always hoped that 17th Street would be empty because everyone was able to find housing. Instead, it’s empty because the police came by and herded everyone away.
“The police came by this morning. They told us we had twenty-four hours to pack up our things and leave or that we would be arrested. I was respectful. I told them okay and that I had to go to work but that I would be back by three in the afternoon. I really need this job; it’s all I have to help get me back on my feet right now. When I came back, everything I had to my name was gone. They threw out my tent. My mother’s ashes were in there.”
This is just one of the many horrific stories that followed in the wake of Governor Ron DeSantis signing House Bill 1365 this past March. House Bill 1365 bans public sleeping and camping, which include residing overnight in an outdoor space, erection of temporary shelters, the presence of bedding or pillows, and storage of personal belongings. In essence, this bill bans being homeless. Enforcement involves street sweeps, which start with an increased police presence. Unsheltered individuals are given two choices – vacate the area within twenty-four hours or face jail time. To guarantee compliance, the next step is deploying water trucks. The streets are sprayed with jets of water, washing away any remnants of the people who may have once called that area home.
In a recent statement, DeSantis claims, “The legislation I signed today upholds our commitment to law and order while also ensuring homeless individuals have the resources they need to get back on their feet,” however, this sentiment provides false hope. While the bill allows for counties to designate certain public areas for encampment sites, the logistics behind this are complex, and there are several difficult hoops to jump through. Another layer to this is that individuals or businesses who encounter public sleepers can sue the county or municipality, with full recovery of court costs and attorney fees. Local governments lack adequate funding and resources to establish encampments or provide more shelter beds. Existing shelters are usually already full or only able to provide a bed for 24 hours. This leads to a never-ending and unjust cycle of street sweeps, arrests, and punishing homeless individuals simply for existing.
When a street sweep occurs, people who are unsheltered are left without options. HB 1365 comes with no allocation or investment into affordable housing, shelter beds, or social services. When the police give the ultimatum to “leave or go to jail,” and there’s nowhere else to turn, jail becomes inevitable. Our jails are now filled with people whose only crime is being homeless. Although their bail is set low, at only $50 to $100, this is an impossible amount for people who are living penny-by-penny. Individuals unable to afford bail languish in jail, often indefinitely, leading to overcrowded incarceration facilities.
Street sweeps can also have lasting psychological, emotional, financial, and physical effects on our unsheltered population. People lose their important paperwork, money, medications, wheelchairs, all of their clothes, you name it. “Some of our patients spend months trying to get their paperwork and documents together, and in one sweep, they’re back at square one. The hope deteriorates and it takes so much more for us to help raise the morale to try to start again,” says Hana Abdulla from Miami Street Medicine. Studies show that forced displacement of unsheltered people is associated with higher rates of mortality, hospitalization, and physical injury, as well as decreased management of chronic medical conditions, substance use disorders, and mental health.
A bill that aims to end homelessness, like HB 1365, appears great on the surface. However, forced encampments and criminalization of homelessness have long been found to be inhumane, ineffective, and expensive. “HB 1365 is a thinly veiled attempt to force cities to return to failed policies of criminalization and forced encampments,” says Alana Greer, a lawyer with the Community Justice Project, a Miami-based law firm that aids in social justice movements. Greer adds: “This deeply flawed law does not fully come into effect until 2024, yet reports of increased sweeps have already emerged. We need our local leaders to chart a path forward that rejects criminalization and recenters the humanity of our neighbors.”
As a community, we must extend compassion and support to those experiencing homelessness, offering them a path toward stability and self-sufficiency. To start, it is imperative that we recognize and address the distressing human rights violations stemming from ongoing street sweeps. In the short term, we can spread awareness that House Bill 1365 is not slated to take effect until October 1st, 2024. It is essential that police refrain from conducting any further street sweeps prior to the law’s official enactment.
Long-term solutions, including Housing First, have had well-documented success. Housing First models not only show increased housing retention and improved mental health outcomes but also economic benefits that exceed the cost of the program. A particular program in North Carolina found that Housing First saved the city $2.4 million in one year, with a marked decrease in jail time, hospital stays, and emergency room visits. When comparing the $16,479 it costs to house a person for one year in a Housing First program with the $47,057 it costs to incarcerate a person for one year, it is evident that investing in supportive housing is both a more humane and fiscally responsible approach to this complex societal issue.
Right now, Miami stands at a crossroads in its approach to homelessness. Street sweeps and the criminalization of homelessness represent a regression into punitive measures that only exacerbate the suffering of our city’s most vulnerable residents. As a community, we must stand together against these sweeps and instead embrace compassionate, evidence-based solutions that uphold the dignity and well-being of our people.
We must work together to build a city where 17th Street is empty, not because its inhabitants have been forced to relocate or have been put in jail, but because everyone has found a home. It is time for Miami to stop sweeping homelessness under the rug.
Madison Guido and Karen Weinstock are medical students.
