08/30/2026
I need you to sit with this for a second: a right-wing billionaire in Austin, Texas has more influence over how Miami polices its poorest residents than most of us realize.
Both the New York Times and the Washington Post just ran deep dives on billionaire Joe Lonsdale and his Cicero Institute — and if you've been wondering why "solutions" to homelessness in Florida all sound suspiciously the same (ban camping, threaten arrest, point people toward a fenced-off site somewhere out of sight), now you know why.
The reporting lays out how Cicero has spent years shopping homelessness criminalization laws to state legislatures around the country, with Lonsdale using his access to Trump-world to push it as federal policy. Florida wasn't collateral damage — it was a proving ground. Florida's HB 1365, that bans homeless encampments statewide beginning in March of 2024, came straight out of that Cicero playbook.
And it didn't stop at the state line. It's in our own City of Miami now: Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins recently signed a bill eliminating the 24-hour waiting period that used to give someone a chance to move before police could arrest them for sleeping outside This is the mayor who ran on a campaign of supposedly increasing affordable housing and ensuring dignity and respect for every resident of Miami.
Here's what none of these Cicero/Mayor Higgins bills and homelessness criminalization laws will ever put in the fine print: homelessness isn't caused by mental illness, addiction, or bad choices.
It's caused by poverty and housing costs that have completely outrun what people actually earn. You don't arrest your way out of a math problem.
And you sure don't solve it by eliminating the warning period before police can arrest a poor person who has nowhere to sleep.
We know what actually works to end homelessness, because Miami already did it for 20 years. Under the Pottinger consent decree, this city treated homelessness like a housing problem instead of a crime, and homelessness fell 90%. Since a judge terminated that decree in 2019, criminalization laws crept back in — and homelessness has been steadily rising in Miami.
Now — see you Tuesday.
FCARE's Racial Equity Meeting is this Tuesday, September 1st, at 1PM ET on Zoom. Our featured guest is Jenny Gomez, Director of the Better Way of Miami Navigation Center — South Florida's first low-barrier shelter.
Jenny's going to announce the opening of the Navigation Center itself: a real bridge to permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness in Miami-Dade County. After everything above, this is the kind of news I actually want to bring you.
Come hear it straight from her. Bring your questions.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88174966280?pwd=t6qp7RIaSIbSDSzCuv9SNR21GkB5wr.1
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