The Navarro Report | Miami Desk — July 30, 2026
The Miami City Commission voted 3-2 on July 23 to strip a written-warning requirement out of the city’s public encampment ban, replacing it with a verbal-warning process that housing advocates warn will accelerate arrests of homeless residents. The amendment, sponsored by District 3 Commissioner Rolando Escalona, passed over opposition from Commissioners Christine King and Damian Pardo, and now awaits Mayor Eileen Higgins’ signature or veto by an Aug. 3 deadline.
Under the revised ordinance, officers may skip the prior written-notice step and instead issue a verbal warning, giving a person sleeping in or maintaining a public encampment a “reasonable amount of time” to gather belongings and leave. An arrest still cannot proceed if the person accepts an offer of shelter or housing assistance, and City Attorney George Wysong has said the change alters procedure rather than creating a new underlying ban, since Miami’s camping prohibition already exists under state law.
Escalona has said the update responds to complaints from business owners dealing with long-standing encampments blocking storefronts and walkways in his district, telling WLRN, “That is not fair.” Opponents, including Ron Book of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, argue the change moves policy in the wrong direction; Book told the Miami Times, “You can’t do it by arresting people.”
The Miami chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and a coalition of housing advocates, attorneys and community leaders have sent an open letter urging Higgins to veto the measure, arguing it prioritizes enforcement over long-term housing solutions. Advocates note that many unsheltered residents avoid shelters over restrictive rules, concerns about safety, or the risk of having to leave behind pets and belongings, meaning the shelter-availability safeguard in the ordinance may do less to prevent arrests than its sponsors suggest.
The dispute also lands against a backdrop of tightening state resources: Florida’s camping ban, adopted statewide in 2024, pushed cities to adopt local enforcement ordinances, even as the state’s most recent budget allocated less funding for homelessness services than it did before the ban took effect. With Higgins’ decision due within days, Miami’s amended ordinance is likely to serve as an early test case for how aggressively Florida cities enforce encampment bans once written-notice protections are removed.
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