8/7/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
Project for homeless draws ire of West Hill neighbors
Site has history dating back to Desert Caravan Inn in 1950s
The Inlander
The Center Square
The Daily Beast
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The Spokesman-Review
Project for homeless draws ire of West Hill neighbors
By Greg Mason
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
An attempt to locate supportive housing for homeless people near a residential community is being met with fierce opposition from neighbors convinced the effort, however well-intentioned, will destroy their neighborhood.
It’s a familiar tale in Spokane that’s playing out once more – this time, over a property atop Sunset Hill that’s largely existed as a hotel.
Discussions are ongoing in the effort to transform the Quality Inn on Sunset Boulevard into an emergency supportive housing facility run by Catholic Charities Eastern Washington.
Catholic Charities’ Catalyst Project would convert the Quality Inn into 87 rooms for 100 to 120 adults. The facility will not be a walk-up shelter or offer walk-up services; rather, rooms will only be available through referral from local community partners.
The Catalyst Project has received partial funding approval through the state Department of Commerce’s Rights of Way Initiative.
The Department of Commerce announced the $6.5 million award to Catholic Charities last month as part of a plan proposed by the city of Spokane to relocate more than 600 homeless people in an encampment on state land at Second Avenue and Ray Street, known as Camp Hope, into stable living situations.
As of Friday, the sides are still hashing out a contract to make way for property acquisition, according to Catholic Charities.
The property is owned by Surmohin Hotel, LLC, which bought 4301 W. Sunset Blvd. for $3.49 million in January 2017, according to Spokane County property records. State records show the LLC is owned by Ranjit Gara, who is the governor of a similar corporation that owns at least one other hotel in the area: the Best Western Plus in Liberty Lake.
Gara did not return multiple calls for comment.
Catholic Charities said $6.5 million is the expected acquisition price based on a third-party appraisal commissioned by the organization.
Meanwhile, a separate contract is needed for services and operations, for which Catholic Charities has requested an additional $7.3 million in state Rights of Way funding.
That covers $1.8 million for property rehabilitation while another $5.5 million for operations, though operational costs are expected to go down “dramatically” once the hotel is fully converted into permanent supportive housing, according to the funding proposal submitted to the state Department of Commerce.
Commerce will contract with Catholic Charities to run the facility. As Catholic Charities awaits approval for the services and operations funding, state officials said the final amount of that contract is not yet known.
Without that additional $7.3 million, the project won’t be able to move forward, Jonathan Mallahan, chief housing officer for Catholic Charities, said in a statement.
Once that’s secured with the acquisition, however, Catholic Charities has committed to start housing people within 90 days.
Services will include onsite care coordinators for managing connections for clients, whether those are to primary medical care, employment resources, education services and other public benefits. Dawn Kinder, Catholic Charities’ chief stabilization officer, said the Catalyst Project also will have other support services on site, including from behavioral health staff.
“We’re excited to be able to provide a different type of solution to the community and an intervention style we’ve not had before in Spokane,” she said, “especially given the homelessness crisis we’re facing.”
‘There’s nothing here for them’
Catholic Charities plans to provide bus passes and one or two 12-passenger vans for transporting clients staying at the Catalyst Project, Kinder said.
The Quality Inn sits at the top of Sunset Hill at the intersection of the boulevard and South Rustle Street near the southwestern edge of the city’s West Hills Neighborhood. There’s a bus stop nearby, while the only sidewalk down Sunset Hill is across the street on the north side of the three-lane highway.
The Browne’s Addition Rosauers is 2 miles away. The nearest convenience store, Sunset Foodmart, is about a mile and a half down the hill, past the John A. Finch Arboretum. The Indian Canyon apartments are a quarter-mile north, with more houses and the Indian Canyon Golf Course just a bit farther up.
“There’s nothing here for them. There’s one tiny little gas station right at the foot of the Sunset Bridge,” said William Hagy, vice chair of the West Hills Neighborhood Council. “To me, it just seems like they threw a lawn dart out in this direction and found it.”
Hagy was among several neighbors who shared their concerns Monday night with the Spokane City Council.
Their grievances extended beyond just the Quality Inn project to other potential concepts they’ve heard could affect their community. That included a separate Rights of Way funding proposal by the Empire Health Foundation: Pallet shelter villages, totaling 75 units for 125 residents, on 3 acres of foundation-owned land along Sunset Highway.
Hagy said West Hills residents are already frustrated by reports of thefts and other criminal activity that take place in their neighborhood. They fear these issues will exacerbate that while lowering property values, he said.
Beyond those concerns, Hagy said he feels the hotel conversion doesn’t look financially solvent given how the proposal makes up more than half of the $24.3 million Rights of Way funding offered to the city by the Department of Commerce. Hagy also said there has been no communication with neighbors about the planning and development of the Catalyst Project, while concerns have compounded with reports of rising crime in the area neighboring the Camp Hope homeless encampment.
“(Neighbors) are just in complete civil unrest and duress at the name Catholic Charities alone moving into the West Hills,” Hagy said.
Catholic Charities was unable to share early details about the Catalyst Project with the West Hills Neighborhood Council due to an agreement with the current property owner, Mallahan said.
Mallahan said the property owner was concerned with disruption to staff and hotel operations if word got out about a potential sale. As such, Catholic Charities was unable to disclose the location until the project went public.
That was on July 22, at which point Catholic Charities reportedly reached out to the neighborhood council.
“We will be engaging with the neighborhood on an ongoing basis before and during project operation,” Mallahan said in the statement, later adding, “Being a good neighbor is a critical component of Catholic Social Teaching. One way we live this value is through ongoing and active engagement with neighborhoods. As was the case with Catalyst, we must respect the wishes of property owners while we negotiate real estate acquisitions.”
Catholic Charities is sending a letter to the neighbors and businesses in the immediate proximity with more information such as the project webpage and resources for neighbors to schedule oneon- one Zoom meetings with Catholic Charities leadership staff.
Similarly, Commerce Director Lisa Brown has reached out directly to the neighborhood council, according to an email provided by the state. This after Tedd Kelleher, Commerce’s managing director of the Housing Assistance Unit, described the project as “one that there’s not a lot of controversy around” when the Catalyst funding was first announced.
“This purchase represents one component of what will ultimately need to be a much larger solution to address the needs of Spokane County,” Brown wrote. “As a result this is not an option that can effectively be replaced with other alternatives. This option and those other alternatives will all be necessary to meet the needs in Spokane County.”
Commerce spokesperson Penny Thomas emphasized that the Catalyst Project is “a small slice” of the city’s plan.
“Our expectation is that the city and other public entities would have done due diligence and whatever outreach is necessary to engage the community before putting forward their plan,” Thomas said.
Mayor Nadine Woodward on Tuesday said the relatively short timeline to submit a proposal for Rights of Way funding – initially 10 days before it was extended to 30 – “left very little time and room for any kind of neighborhood engagement for some of these projects.”
“I absolutely understand their concern,” Woodward said.
The Quality Inn is neighbored on South Rustle Street by the Garden Springs Professional Building, owned by the Brumback family. The interests of development firm Brumback Inc. include the QualMed Building, bought in 2019 for $1.2 million ahead of a $16 million renovation into medical offices.
The Brumbacks also own a collective 38,350 square feet of land separating the Quality Inn and the Garden Springs building. Donald “Gib” Brumback, president and founder of Brumback Inc., said the Brumbacks have plans to use that land for 72 garden-style apartments.
With Catholic Charities plans for the Quality Inn, however, Brumback said that housing project, another in the Sunset Hill area and some plans he had for retail development in the neighborhood, are on hold.
“What’s going to happen to us is our tenants, when their lease is up, many of them may or will leave. People are not going to be attracted to lease here because of that,” Brumback said. “If we have the low-barrier homeless people here, no retail people are going to want to lease and open up a retail space down there.”
Other developers of potential projects in that neighborhood also are considering pulling out, he said. Asked whether that could be construed as a warning, Brumback said “you can’t build projects nobody is going to lease.”
“The bad situation is when you go to the low-barrier, the homeless housing, and all that is what’s going on at what they call Camp Hope,” he said, “and what they would be doing is moving Camp Hope and moving all the problems – and they’re bad – to West Hills.
“People need help,” he continued, “but it’s in a situation that you cannot destroy neighborhoods.” Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman.com.
Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington has received a $6.5 million grant funding award from the state Department of Commerce’s Right of Way initiative aimed at relocating people out of Camp Hope and into more sustainable housing. Catholic Charities plans to use the money to buy the Quality Inn at 4301 West Sunset Boulevard to use as an emergency supportive housing project for singles and couples (no children), with 87 rooms available by referral.
COLIN MULVANY/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Site has history dating back to Desert Caravan Inn in 1950s
By Greg Mason
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Since the 1950s, 4301 W. Sunset Blvd. has existed as a hotel.
That could come to an end soon after the state Department of Commerce awarded funding to Catholic Charities Eastern Washington to purchase the building. Catholic Charities plans to convert the hotel into permanent supportive housing for homeless populations, particularly toward relocating the people who live at the Camp Hope homeless encampment on Second Avenue and Ray Street.
For now, though, the building is a Quality Inn.
It was first built around 1950 as the Desert Caravan Inn by Victor Dessert Jr. and his wife Georges, according to archive records. Dessert’s father had built a number of hotels in Spokane in the late 1800s, ultimately starting a family business.
Regarded by the Chronicle newspaper as “the handsome 68-unit motor hotel,” the three-story Caravan Inn was known as one of the first motels of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.
The Desert Caravan was sold in 1964 to Big West Oil Co. of Montana, a Spokane corporation, for an undisclosed amount. It was renamed a year later as the “Spokane House Motor Inn.”
“We’ve purchased some adjacent land for possible future development and expansion,” Robert G. Hawley, president and GM of Big West, told The Spokesman- Review that August. “We have great faith in Spokane and the Inland Empire and have long regarded the Sunset Hill site as one of the most beautiful in the area.”
The rebranding was finished in 1965 after the motel closed the prior November for extensive renovations.
In 1970, the motel and the rest of Big West’s controlling interests were purchased by Canadian firm Thunderbird Petroleums, Inc., later known as Canadian Hydrocarbons Ltd.
Ownership of the motor inn bounced around later that decade. It was purchased in 1977 by William Brenner, a Portland contractor developer who quickly sold the property to Mr. and Mrs. B.A. “Rosie” Vonada and Mr. and Mrs. George Beauregard.
The Vonadas and Beauregards announced plans to double the size of the Spokane House by adding 60 more units through two single- story wings. That didn’t happen, as the property was sold later that year to Spokane natives Terry Paul Wynia and Lynda Green.
Wynia owned the motel for several years from there.
The motor inn’s rebranding to a Quality Inn, then called “Quality Inn-Spokane House,” was announced in 1982. The rebranding brought the addition of two floors, increasing the total number of rooms to 90, as well as sauna and jacuzzi facilities and four bridal suites.
The Spokane House was sold in 1986 to a California investment trust group, though Wynia’s management group continued to run the motel. The sale didn’t include the Spokane House Restaurant, which remained independently owned by Gary and Kathy Henderson until closing in 1991.
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The Inlander
Young Kwak photo
Peer coaches with Peer Spokane can help people get on track. James Tillett is second from left.
Getting to the point where someone struggling with addiction is ready to seek treatment can be difficult. It can be even harder if withdrawal or detox treatment isn't available to them once they're ready to get sober.
For those who need a bed while they're assisted with withdrawal from substances, and who receive insurance through Medicaid (for those with low income), as many unhoused people do, Spokane currently has fewer bed options than it once had.
Spokane Treatment and Recovery Services (STARS) had long operated 16 "sobering" beds where people could be brought in downtown while in crisis or in any state of inebriation, be given the chance to sober up, and then have a conversation with staff there about possible treatment options such as inpatient withdrawal management, says Ryan Kent, now the operations manager for STARS, and who worked with the sobering unit for at least 10 years.
But insufficient funding from insurance companies made those beds financially unfeasible to keep staffed, Kent says. The 16 sobering beds at STARS' downtown location at 105 W. Third Ave. were closed around September 2021.
Compounding issues further, by May, STARS' more intensive and financially feasible withdrawal management beds for detox, which were housed in a Spokane County-owned building on Eighth Avenue, were closed.
The rent from the county had gotten too high, Kent explains, so STARS has instead set to work remodeling its Third Avenue location to ultimately house those 16 withdrawal management beds.
In the meantime, there are some beds available for sobering or withdrawal management at two treatment houses STARS operates in other parts of the city (one for men, one for women), but particularly for those who need to sober up before deciding which treatment they want, there may be few options, Kent says.
"We don't want to have somebody who's highly intoxicated around somebody who's been sober three months," Kent explains. "We try our best if we have a room we can isolate that person in, we will bring them in and they will be a sobering patient, basically, until we can get them into other services."
If those isolated beds aren't available, people may be left to go through diversion services with police officers or hospitals.
It can be tough to get people into detox when those options are limited, says James Tillett, a peer coach and peer services specialist for Peer Spokane, which pairs people with lived experience together with those who need help as they get sober, deal with mental health issues and sometimes cope with lifelong medical conditions.
"That's honestly a huge barrier right now," Tillett says. "I'm only 18 months into recovery, so I have friends I run into in active addiction, and they're like, 'How do I get to where you are?' The detox seems to be a big hindrance."
But while STARS works to build out its 16-bed withdrawal treatment unit, there are other forms of help available, including peer coaching, and by this fall, another large outpatient medication assisted treatment facility could open.
Top Stories
IMPORTANCE OF LIVED EXPERIENCE
Tillett says he understands some of the challenges of getting treatment firsthand. As someone who struggled with addiction for many years, relapsing after his mother passed away just as he was going to college for a psychology degree, he says he tried at various times to seek treatment but wound up being pushed away.
For instance, there's the time he tried to check in with a treatment facility when he was on work release, but when they asked who he was supposed to check in with and learned that he wasn't ordered by the courts to be there, they told him he didn't need to show up.
"This was a person who had never done drugs and didn't understand it. ... She said, 'You don't have to be here,' instead of being a former addict and realizing the person who wants to be there is who you probably hold onto instead of letting them go," Tillett says. "It was a big miscalculation, and it was probably another 10 years after that before I actually got clean."
Through Peer Spokane, Tillett helps coordinate a network of peer coaches who can help those going through recovery, utilizing a harm reduction model. The idea is to keep people on the positive path of reducing and ultimately eliminating their substance use.
"It's working away from that everyday usage, and if you do have a slip up," Tillett says, "that doesn't mean you end a year's worth of hard work."
For those who are looking for treatment to help with the first days of detox from drugs, it can be a challenge, Tillett says, because the only 24-hour option that appears available to most people is the hospital, where they may face stigma.
"I know firsthand hospitals are very rude to a lot of people coming in off their drugs. They're not trauma informed about how they talk to them and what they say to them," Tillett says. "That causes this negativity around it to make it harder for individuals to be willing to go through that step."
People can also flag down police officers and get referred to treatment through Pioneer Human Services, he says, but that route can also look less appealing to some struggling with addiction.
STARS does offer intake 24/7 for their withdrawal treatment beds that are operating out of their two residential houses, Kent says. People can call their main line at 509-570-7250 and select the option for withdrawal to start that process.
Once the 16-bed withdrawal treatment unit is up and running on Third Avenue, Kent says that those beds, plus the ones currently operating in the residential units, will be able to fluctuate and provide some sobering options. For example, if only 10 beds are currently being used for detox, he says, the others could accept sobering patients.
"It's a vital service that we want to make sure we can provide as soon as possible," Kent says. "We're doing the best we can now to provide it with what we have."
Peer Spokane can also help people with other stages of regaining power in their life, Tillett says, from free assistance building their résumé and applying for jobs to seeking help with housing and getting signed up for insurance and other services. Intake can be started online at PeerSpokane.org.
"I am so passionate because I utilized these services when I first got out of treatment myself," Tillett says. "When we are isolated and going through our darkest times we think we're the only ones going through these issues. But as we interact with others that have very similar stories, we're able to see we're not as alone as we thought we were, and to develop that sense of community."
OTHER OPTIONS
At 4:30 pm on Aug. 16, a virtual public hearing will be held by the Washington State Department of Health to accept public comments on the proposed "Spokane Treatment Center" at 82 E. Francis Ave. The center, which will be run by Oregon Recovery and Treatment Centers (ORTC), will offer an outpatient medication assisted treatment program for those dealing with opiate addiction. Depending on staffing, the goal would be to help between 300 and 500 patients at a time, says Kirsi Kirk-Lewis, director of systems management for ORTC.
"We have been speaking with local business people and universities and realized there is a need," Kirk-Lewis says. "We do operate a center in Richland, and through our contacts in the Tri-Cities we became aware there was a need for additional treatment in Spokane as well."
People can participate in the public hearing online or public comments can be sent to OTPComments@doh.wa.gov before 5 pm Aug. 16.
If all goes according to plan with licensing, the facility could be up and running by the end of October, Kirk-Lewis says.
Compassionate Addiction Treatment of Spokane also offers medication-assisted treatment to people regardless of their housing situation, along with a slew of other peer and community-building resources. More information can be found at CATSpokane.org. ♦
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The Center Square
(The Center Square) - Spokane County had no luck getting service providers to participate in a Supported Release pilot program earlier this summer, so a second call for applicants has been issued.
The county is seeking professionals to help establish a program that allows nonviolent offenders to obtain treatment for substance abuse, mental illness or other problems instead of going to jail.
The program is intended for district court, which handles misdemeanors and gross misdemeanor cases, and is being set up through a $400,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
Service providers will maintain contact with participants in the program, provide court date reminders and accompany participants to court appearances, as necessary. Providers will also help connect offenders with community-based organizations that can help them turn things around.
Solicitation documents are now available at www.publicpurchase.com. Registration is required to view and download bid documents. The registration link is https://www.publicpurchase.com/gems/register/vendor/register. The Request for Proposals uses the following classification code: 952-23 Court Intervention Services.
The due date for bid submissions is 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 24.
The county received the McArthur Foundation grant a couple of years ago. The Chicago-based nonprofit provides funding for projects to reduce the size of the incarcerates population as well as to address racial disparities in jailing.
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who will retire at the end of the year, has helped to set up the structure for the program even though he adamantly opposes the social justice concept that he claims is tied to Marxism.
He told the county commissioners earlier this year that New York’s situation provides plenty of examples of people who have been released under no-bail and pre-trial release programs only to commit other, sometimes heinous, crimes.
“It’s really going to be on the courts to be sure they are releasing the right people into this program,” he said.
Proponents of Supported Release, including the district court judges, say it will ease jail overcrowding, save taxpayer money, and reduce crime by helping people change their lives to make better choices.
“You are going to measure what you put in," said Judge Aimee Maurer to county officials.
The program will be voluntary as the law prohibits people from being court-mandated to obtain treatment or perform other tasks before they have been found guilty of a crime.
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The Daily Beast
On Thursday night, it seemed there was no more exclusive place to be in Miamithan the District 7 town hall Zoom chat room.
As local officials, scientists, and advocates spoke during the one-hour conversation, Miamians were furiously typing their thoughts on what has quickly become the biggest topic of conversation in the area: the under-the-radar approval to pursue a pilot program for a homeless encampment in Virginia Key.
“This will be a bigger mistake than the Metro Rail system,” one commenter posted in the chat to over 200 residents at 7:10 p.m.
While the full effects of the niche insult can only be enjoyed by anyone who has suffered through Miami’s illogical two-line rail system, it speaks volumes about the public sentiment around the plan to erect up to 100 “tiny homes” on a historic barrier island with a stained racial history. The encampment plan has spurred outrage from every type of Miamian: environmentalists who are worried about destroying the island’s already endangered ecosystem, outdoor enthusiasts concerned about ruined recreational activities, and homeless advocates sounding the alarm about the lack of infrastructure in the area off Rickenbacker Causeway, which could leave relocated people without transportation, sewerage systems, and even access to food.
Not to mention that Virginia Key is just yards from two of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city—Key Biscayne and Fisher Island, a members-only island only accessible by a boat whose former residents include Oprah Winfrey, Derek Jeter, and Mel Brooks.
The comments about the proposal in the District 7 Zoom chat soon took on an aggressive tone. “Are the homeless that are going to be housed illegal immigrants or are we first going to house homeless US Citizens?” one resident commented. After taking some heat from another chat participant, they added, “if we’re putting tax dollars to not even take care of US citizens then we need to refocus altogether.”
“Bad, Bad idea. Bunch of dummies,” a third added.
“These ‘Tiny homes’ would be for rent on Airbnb in no time,” another chimed in as dozens of others flooded the chat.
The Zoom informational about the project, organized by Miami Commissioner Raquel A. Regalado—a Republican whose district includes Virginia Key and Key Biscayne—was just a microcosm of the indignation that exploded in Miami after the motion to pilot the “transition zone” on Virginia Key was proposed in a 3-2 vote last Thursday.
“It’s so ridiculous from every angle.”
Commissioner Ken Russell, who voted against the plan, stressed to The Daily Beast that the idea is not yet officially a reality. In September, it will return to the five-person commission, where logistical information will be presented and can be voted on at any time. Russell added that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has the “ability to veto any actions by the city commission.”
“It’s embarrassing for the city,” Russell told The Daily Beast about the pilot plan. “It perpetuates this reaction from residents like ‘not here, do it over there.’ It’s not only that this is the wrong location for this idea, but it’s the wrong solution.”
Since last Friday morning, over 13,000 people have signed an online petitionagainst the plan they say was “discretely approved” only “48 hours after notifying the public.” Over the weekend, dozens of residents participated in a “protest paddle” after droves of cyclists held a gathering against the encampment.
The petition also came just days after social media was flooded with screenshots from a City of Miami presentation about the proposed encampment for the “chronically homeless.” Online, Miami wasted no time expressing its feelings about the plan—though it did not always seem to focus on the potential social, economic, ecological, and infrastructural problems with the proposal and instead strayed into “not in my backyard”-type comments.
“Well there goes Virginia Key,” one individual wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
“Imagine seeing a homeless encampment from your house,” another added.
In a Thursday memo to the Board of County Commissioners, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava expressed outrage over the isolated “proposed homeless encampment,” which would be subjected to extreme weather during hurricane season and would pose potential conflicts with an already approved city plan to revitalize Virginia Key into “the Central Park of Miami.”
“A shelter-only zone like the proposed ‘Transition Zone’ will exacerbate the bottleneck that is created when insufficient safe and healthy extremely affordable housing options are available for those experiencing homelessness,” Cava added about the social service implications of the plan in the memo obtained by The Daily Beast.
Not to mention, Cava added, Virginia Key was the first Black-only beach in Miami during the Jim Crow era.
A spokesperson for Cava’s office told The Daily Beast that “the Virginia Key plan is under the purview of the City of Miami…[and] Cava doesn’t oversee city business, nor can she veto city plans.”
Residents and local officials canvassed by The Daily Beast have also expressed outrage at the idea of placing people who experience homelessness on an isolated island that is only home to a magnet public high school and a wastewater treatment plant. The encampment will also be notably set up near several outdoor recreational areas about two miles from the closest bus stop—and six miles from a grocery store.
“The people who voluntarily join this plan will have to walk along the highway to even get to the nearest store or bus stop.”
“It’s kind of insane to get everyone in Miami to agree on something—and everyone agrees this is a terrible idea,” Diana Perez, the director of marketing and operations at Virginia Key Outdoor Center, told The Daily Beast. “People are really mad, man.”
Commissioner Joe Carollo, a Republican, first proposed the idea last October and was met with immediate backlash from homeless advocates. Around the same time, Carollo was also instrumental in the passage of a new ordinance to clear tent encampments—which resulted in an ongoing lawsuit against the city of Miami.
While Carollo did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment, he did defend the plan to the Miami Herald and slammed critiques who have compared the plan to Alcatraz. “No one wants this in their neighborhood, it’s always somebody else’s they want to dump it in,” Carollo told the outlet.
Perez said she first learned about the plans to approve the pilot program early last week and was “shocked” to hear city officials identifying Virginia Key as the “optimal location” for the encampment because it is a “secluded location.”
In the city presentation obtained by The Daily Beast, officials added that in the open field in Virginia Key North Point Park, a survey would be required “for water and electricity connections” and that “all services must be delivered” onsite.
Other possible locations, the presentation notes, were an “already fenced in… large lot” in Little River, a lot in Wynwood, and space near a homeless advocacy group near Overtown.
The proposal provided several options for encampment structures, like a shed-like “tiny home” which would cost about $4,500 per unit, and a dormitory that “can be viewed as a more ‘temporary’ setting than others.”
The open field is also directly across from Fisher Island—where residents in 2020 had an average income of $2.2 million and where the rich will now have an unobstructed view of the encampment. When a reporter called the Fisher Island Beach Club, a private members-only club that rests just across the thin-water cut from Virginia Key, a receptionist said “nothing has gone out yet” in terms of guidance to their guests about the proposed encampment.
“We’re aware of the plan, that’s for sure,” the receptionist added.
Perez noted that the location of the encampment city is also next to the Virginia Key Outdoor Center—which boasts beaches, bike trails, and a summer camp that hundreds of locals and tourists flock to weekly. Now, she said, she has heard from many residents that the idea that dozens of homeless individuals could reside nearby is giving them pause about returning to the barrier island.
“It’s embarrassing for the city. It perpetuates this reaction from residents like ‘not here, do it over there.’ ”
“The plan is supposed to be targeting the chronically homeless population. These are people that are, a majority of the time, adults with some form of substance abuse issues. Mental health issues. These are people that have sometimes been kicked out of housing, whatever the problem may be,” Perez said. “Of course, parents are concerned about sending their kids to a summer camp next door, or even bringing their kids at all for a beach day.”
Andrea Connor also has the same safety concern. A decades-long resident of Key Biscayne, Connor told The Daily Beast that Virginia Key is “a place for families” where she often goes on bike rides. She also stressed her fear that the homeless population would be housed just off the causeway in “camps like the ones from World War II.”
“It’s so ridiculous from every angle,” she said. “You can’t give to someone and take from someone else. If you are giving to the homeless, you don’t take away from families who use the recreational centers. There are tons of other places in Homestead, in west Miami that this could be instead.”
Connor added that her sentiments mirror “everyone she knows in the Key,” and stressed that if the encampment does get built in Virginia Key, she will “not go back like I used to.”
Homeless advocates in Miami are also sounding the alarm over the plan—with some saying that the hasty proposal will upend years of successful work to help rehome across the city. Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, said during the Thursday town hall that this agency does not support the encampment and noted that it did not adhere to federal guidelines.
Key Biscayne Mayor Michael Davey also expressed his anger over the project to The Daily Beast, noting that while he “understands the city is just trying to provide a place for transition for homeless people,” the idea of the camp “right now door” is concerning. “Think about it: the people who voluntarily join this plan will have to walk along the highway to even get to the nearest store or bus stop,” he added. “This is just political theater.”
But while Davey is convinced that this plan will not go through, his mayoral running opponent is not so confident.
“I think ultimately it will probably not happen,” Fausto Gomez told The Daily Beast. “But you can never bank on something not happening in Miami.”