Abstract
Miami, in becoming a global city of Latin America and the Caribbean, has struggled to address an entrenched problem rooted in racial inequality—mass homelessness. A local response lauded as progressive and centred on drawing on national and local public and private funds to increase the supply of permanent supportive housing has failed to achieve the lofty goal of ending homelessness. But how are these housing programs and supportive services spatially distributed throughout the global city region of Miami? Are they evenly distributed or clustered in certain neighbourhoods to form “service hubs?” How can service hubs foster and impede the effectiveness of housing and supportive service programs addressing homelessness? In this chapter, we map out all identified housing and services in Miami-Dade County and find considerable clustering, mostly intensely in the downtown area. We then analyse qualitative interviews with persons using permanent supportive housing and transitional housing in the central hub as well as outside of hubs, also considering the role of “campus” facilities. We argue that although broader, more systematic societal changes are necessary to end mass homelessness in Miami, a centralized service hub, with improvements in safety, shows potential to bolster the effectiveness of efforts to help people escape homelessness.
Thank you to all of the interviewees and organizations who helped us out in our data collection. Also, thank you to Alejandro Angee, Ph.D., and LèTania Severe, Ph.D. who helped conduct interviews. Interview data collection was funded by the International Comparative Research on Housing, Labor and Homelessness in Global Cities Project funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (Keiko Yamaguchi, PI).
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Notes
- 1.
From the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Services (HUD) Continuum of Care Housing Inventory Reports, Accessed at https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/coc-housing-inventory-count-reports/. accessed 26 February 2018.
- 2.
Data on homelessness from HUD’s Continuum of Care Homeless Populations and Subpopulations Reports accessed at https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/coc-homeless-populations-and-subpopulations-reports/. Accessed 26 February 2018. Data on Miami Dade County’s total population from the U.S. Census Department’s website at https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/miamidadecountyflorida/POP060210. Accessed 26 February 2018.
- 3.
Of particular note is an apparent increase in use of the “Baker Act,” and other legislation that can legally force someone who is at a danger to themselves or others into a psychiatric hospital short-term for evaluation. This was done during Hurricane Irma in the Fall of 2017 (Smiley 2017). The City of Miami Beach has used other legislation to force people living on the streets into substance abuse treatment for up to 60 days (Lipscomb 2016).
- 4.
These are not all mental health facilities in the County, but only those specified in resource guides to address homelessness.
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Marr, M.D., Young, R., Johnston, J., Mahar, K. (2023). Spatial Dynamics and Strengths of Service Hubs Addressing Homelessness in Global Miami. In: Mizuuchi, T., Kornatowski, G., Fukumoto, T. (eds) Diversity of Urban Inclusivity. International Perspectives in Geography, vol 20. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8528-7_7
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