After debate over losing shelter beds, Miami-Dade OKs plan to buy hotel for unhoused seniors

Miami-Dade is moving forward with a plan to convert a Cutler Bay hotel into an apartment building for unsheltered people, though some local policymakers disagree that it’s the best use of county dollars.

County Commissioners voted 11-2 for a resolution by Commissioner Eileen Higgins to spend nearly $15 million to buy a 107-room La Quinta Inn on Caribbean Boulevard and retrofit it to provide rent-controlled housing to approximately 140 homeless individuals 55 and older.

The measure authorizes spending $7 million in county HOMES Plan funds and another $8 million from either Miami-Dade’s Food and Beverage Tax reserve or American Rescue Plan Act funds from the city of Miami.

Lobbyist Ron Book, the longtime Chair of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, which championed the La Quinta proposal and will manage the property, said the timing of the decision is crucial.

“We are on an urgent mission to humanely assist those on our streets as a new law prohibiting public camping and sleeping goes into effect,” he said in a statement thanking Higgins, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Commissioners who voted “yes” Tuesday.

“We want to ensure that vulnerable individuals in their later years can age with dignity. We are also steadfast in our commitment to be a good neighbor. We will work diligently with our partners to meet a critical need in our community and improve the quality of life for all.”

A memo from Miami-Dade Chief Administrative Officer Carladenise Edwards said the annual cost of upkeep and maintenance of the property, once occupied and operational, will be about $1.64 million.

That’s about $440,000 more per year than what local homeless services provider Camillus House said it needs to cover costs for 230 shelter beds. Ballooning costs have more than doubled the per-bed price, Camillus House recently told county and city leaders.

Book said his organization is working to “find some middle ground” to bridge the funding gap with Camillus House. Levine Cava said her administration is also working on the issue, which may require other localities to pay a greater share of the cost.

“We’re not done with that conversation,” she said. “We’re hopeful to arrive at a resolution.”

Adding a crushing sense of urgency is the looming Oct. 1 effective date of HB 1365, a law GOP legislators pushed through last Session that largely prohibits local governments from allowing people to sleep or camp on public property. The new law also mandates that counties and cities must round up and relocate unhoused people to areas with basic sanitary provisions, on-site security and bans on drugs and alcohol, with such sites only allowed to continue operations for a year before another locale must be chosen.

The Oct. 1 deadline is the same for the Camillus House funding issue, said Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, whose district contains the La Quinta and who has been the most vocal opponent of the hotel-to-apartments plan.

She joined Commissioner René García in voting “no” on the resolution Tuesday, again noting that the price the county was offering for the hotel is roughly 30% more than its appraised value.

That alone should raise eyebrows, she said, but it’s doubly questionable when Camillus House, one of the Homeless Trust’s partner organizations, is experiencing a funding shortfall that could put more people on the street and, not long after, in jail.

“I understand there’s a difference between housing and shelters … but beds are beds, and in two weeks our unsheltered are at risk of being incarcerated as a result of their poverty,” she said. “If it’s our goal to stop as many of those arrests as possible, our vote should reflect exactly that.”

García also expressed consternation about Camillus House reducing its bed offerings and complained that the Homeless Trust had not been transparent about its finances, echoing concerns that Cohen Higgins, Commission Vice Chair Anthony Rodriguez and Commissioner Kevin Cabrera voiced earlier this year.

Homeless Trust Director Victoria Mallette O’Brien previously said that the state of Florida and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development both regularly audit the agency. Commission Chair Oliver Gilbert has also repeatedly defended the Homeless Trust and the work that Book has done with the organization over the past 25 years.

Earlier this month, Book acknowledged that the Homeless Trust was indeed paying above the appraised value of the property.

“We don’t hide that,” he told Commissioners on Sept. 4. “But there’s a lack of housing availability, we don’t have the time or the money to build our way out of that problem (and) there isn’t another location in the county that works from a size, capacity and cost perspective.”

Levine Cava said as much in an April memo to Commissioners, noting that a “thorough examination” county staff conducted of other options in the district found “no alternative” was better.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado, a former Board member of the Chapman Partnership, the Homeless Trust’s private sector partner, pointed out that Camillus House is one of several organizations — including Lotus House, His House and the Miami Rescue Mission — that constitute Miami-Dade’s tapestry of homeless services.

While shoring up the Camillus House funding matter is important and urgent, she said, it should not stand in the way of what could prove to be a transformative undertaking for more than 10% of the county’s estimated 1,000 homeless residents.

“(Camillus House) has decided to raise the cost of their beds, and they’ve sent us this information. But it’s a lot bigger than that. It involves a lot of different moving pieces,” she said.

“I think we should have that conversation. I don’t think that conversation pertains to this item, because I think there’s a dramatic difference between putting a senior citizen in Camillus House to providing a senior citizen with housing.”