Prism14%
Mayor Eileen Higgins should veto change to Miami encampment ban that could worsen homelessness, advocates say 43%
By Alexandra Martinez59%
7/29/2026, 2:46:36 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 17 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Pessimism Bias, and False Dilemma, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 21.2% saturation with 137 hits. Analysis detected 836 faulty-reasoning hits from 645 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 42.7% and a BS Rank of 43% (13,467 of 23,603 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 57.10% of the article peer group.
Housing advocates are calling on Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins to veto recent amendments to the city’s anti-encampment ordinance, arguing that the changes would make it easier to arrest people experiencing homelessness while doing little to address the region’s housing crisis.
Higgins has until Aug. 3 to sign or veto the ordinance.
The Miami City Commission voted 3-2 on July 23 to approve amendments to the city’s existing ban on sleeping in public spaces.
The changes eliminate the requirement that police issue a written warning before arresting someone for violating the ordinance.
Instead, officers may issue a verbal warning and provide a “reasonable amount of time” for a person to leave before making an arrest, provided shelter space is available.
In an open letter delivered to Higgins, the Miami chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), joined by local housing advocates, attorneys, and community leaders, urged the mayor to veto the measure before the deadline.
The five-member commission would then need four votes to override a mayoral veto.
“While it’s been clear for decades that such laws do nothing toward achieving our goal of ending homelessness, it’s equally as clear that exacerbating the vicious cycle of sending people to jail who have no place to sleep but on our streets is nothing but an exercise in profound cruelty,” the letter says.
“These suffering souls get arrested, get released, get arrested again, on and on ad absurdum.
Under this regime the only outcomes are lives fraught with misery and the promise of an early grave.”
Higgins did not respond to Prism’s request for comment.
Jeff Weinberger, a Miami DSA member and founder of the October 22nd Alliance to End Homelessness, said the amended ordinance prioritizes enforcement over long-term solutions.
“Criminalizing [the homeless] and putting people in jail for violating these laws doesn’t help anyone,” Weinberger said.
Although the law prohibits arrests when shelter space is unavailable, Weinberger said that is not an ideal solution.
Many people avoid shelters because they may have to leave behind pets or belongings, face restrictive rules, or fear theft and violence, he said.
“If there was a promise of housing on the table, I think a lot more people would say, ‘Well, if I have to go to a shelter to get housing, and they’re promising me housing, then I’ll go to a shelter,’” he said.
“But that’s not part of the deal.”
The advocacy coalition also tied its opposition to the ordinance to Miami’s broader affordability crisis.
The open letter points to the ongoing legal battle involving residents of Silver Court Trailer Park , where dozens of households face displacement as the property is redeveloped.
Weinberger said allowing existing affordable housing to disappear while expanding enforcement against people experiencing homelessness sends contradictory signals.
“If you want to build affordable housing, great,” he said, “but in the meantime, it also means you have to protect the affordable housing that’s already online.”
The coalition argues that Higgins, who campaigned on expanding affordable housing, should use her veto authority to prevent further criminalization of homelessness, while prioritizing investments in deeply affordable and publicly subsidized housing.
Advocates with Florida Coalition to Advance Racial Equity (FCARE) also planned to hold a rally and press conference July 30 outside Miami City Hall, urging residents to ask Higgins to reject the amendments before the veto window closes.
“We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness,” David Peery, executive director of FCARE, wrote in an email.
“Homelessness is fundamentally a housing issue.”
For Weinberger, the broader issue extends beyond one ordinance.
“The crime is that we created a system that renders housing affordable for millions of people, and then we criminalize those very people for a situation that they didn’t create,” he said.
“This is the horrible irony that we’re looking at.”
Analysis
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