Commissioner Steven Meiner has placed a standing item to discuss homelessness and ways to address the issue in our community.

The City addresses homelessness primarily through two municipal departments: the Miami Beach Police Department and the Office of Housing and Community Services. The Police Department has a dedicated unit to engage the homeless. The Office of Housing and Community Services operates the sole municipal walk-in center for the homeless managed by its Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) and conducts street outreach to proactively engage the homeless and offer services.

The homeless office walk-in center is now fully operational and has returned to regular business hours of Monday-Friday 7:30 am-3:30 pm; after-hours Police placements have also resumed.  Homeless clients can be processed for the following services in-house as they accept shelter services:

• Identification document replacement (including birth/death/marriage certificates)
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) benefits
• Records expungement, child support enforcement, and wage theft enforcement
• Temporary employment (including work and interview outfits and shoes)
• Permanent job placement
• Down payment and first month rent assistance and utility deposits once income-stabilized

Moreover, the City is currently in the process of establishing a formal collaboration effort with Borinquen Medical Center. Borinquen Medical Centers provides a comprehensive range of health and social services to Miami-Dade County. Borinquen approaches mental health and substance abuse treatment through a multi-discipline approach. Through Borinquen, the homeless outreach team has integrated and referred to the B-Care program and STOPP program, both managed by Borinquen.

The B-Care Program provides behavioral health and primary care services to anyone over 18 diagnosed with a severe mental illness. The integrated services offered include:

• Medical Services / Primary Care
• Psychiatric Services
• Mental Health Counseling
• Medication Management
• Case Management
• Wellness Groups (Smoking Cessation Counseling, Cardiovascular education, Diabetes education, Exercise program, and WHAM)
• Nutrition Monitoring and Counseling
• Health Insurance Orientation

STOPP is an enhanced outpatient substance abuse and prevention program that offers evidence-based outreach, counseling, and additional services to reduce substance use and high-risk behaviors. The City's Homeless Outreach Team works with STOPP staff to target our community's homeless through street engagement that link the client to a variety of services, including:

• Intensive outpatient services
• Individual and group counseling (including prevention/risk reduction education)
• HIV and Hepatitis testing
• Referrals to residential treatment and/or detox
• Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program case management services
• Access to Borinquen Medical Center psychiatric and specialty services 

This collaboration is the latest voluntary addiction treatment resource added to the City's growing homeless services programming to address mental health and substance abuse. The City currently works with the following mental health services providers:

• Borinquen Health
• Douglas Gardens Community Mental Health Center
• Miami Beach Community Health Center
• Camillus House
• New Horizons Community Mental Health Center
• Fellowship House
• Citrus Health Network, Inc.
• Thriving Minds
• Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital (Crisis Center)
• Banyan Health Systems

In addition to these latest treatment efforts, the City continues to collaborate with Career Source South Florida to address the population's need for employment services. The City's relocation data analysis of those seeking relocation services this fiscal year shows that job loss and/or relocation to South Florida without a job were identified as the reasons most often attributed by homeless clients for their individual homelessness. 

The following are updated services numbers for HOT encompassing October 1, 2020, through May 31, 2021:

^{1 – Quarantine and isolation enables the homeless to be placed in local area hotels pending COVID-19 negative results that then enable placement in other shelter models.}

Furthermore, the City's walk-in center enables the homeless to seek shelter and services proactively; the City also manages a street outreach team that engages the homeless on the streets to facilitate services. Despite these efforts, many in the homeless refuse services and choose to remain on the streets. The City's shelter bed vacancy rate is much higher than in most other community's and underscores the reluctance among our homeless community to leave the streets: