Groups of advocates scan the masses, hoping to spot people seeking shelter from South Florida’s blistering sun, amid the flocks of tourists at Miami International Airport.
They have, for decades, made regular trips to help poor people living at the airports. And they’re out it again this week — after a 17-year-old woman was cruelly ambushed at MIA.
Individuals experiencing homelessness tend to prefer flights because they are huge, air-conditioned, and have obtainable bathrooms, according to Ron Book, president of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. It’s also an easy area to blend in with tourists.
According to authorities, Book claimed to have met with state officials on Sunday to talk about the incident after the child was “without provocation” attacked on the third floor of MIA’s Concourse J on the night before in the pre-security area. Officers discovered her when she escaped to the second floor.
Alexander Paul Love, 29, was arrested in connection to the punching. According to police, he used a butcher knife to attack the adolescent and sliced her 18 times, slitting her throat, face, and arms. Although both Love and the youth were residing at the airport, researchers have yet to confirm whether the two knew each other.
The Trust, Book said, plays with officers and airport personnel to provide services, like behavioural care, housing and job coaching, to homeless individuals living in the aircraft. The organization has assisted the unhoused at the airport for years, despite the girl’s invasion making light of the situation.
” We’re going to continue to do all the things we’ve been doing”, Book said. ” When we know there’s people out there, our mentoring team will be there”.
Ralph Cutie, chairman and chief executive officer of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, which oversees MIA, said anywhere from nine to 25 poor people stay at the airport at nighttime. Police conduct weekly sweeps and make an effort to provide assistance for the homeless at the airport. But if they return, they could be issued a written reference for intruding.
” We do n’t want our airport to be a shelter, and we are going to continue to work diligently to find alternatives”, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told the Miami Herald Monday.
Part of the issue, nevertheless, is that homes in Miami-Dade are at power, Book said. That’s why the Trust has been , attempting to buy properties, including a motel in Cutler Bay, to convert it into more than 100 apartment products.
” When we place individuals in housing, they remained housed”, he said. ” Our system really works. And it works ]because ] of the totality of the wrap-around services…”
However, the invasion and the violence’s press coverage perpetuate stereotypes and further stigmatizes the poor.
” It sets my heart on flames”, he said. It forces me to redouble my devotion to what we do.
Similar problems exist at the Fort Lauderdale airports.
According to Broward County Mayor Nan Rich, a poverty response staff has been stationed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport since 2022. The team will assist in locating native shelters for the airport’s homeless people.
” It’s a place where people can go, it’s public”, Rich said. ” They can move about, and it’s not like sitting on a garden chair or something. We must shift people together and put them in some sort of” shelter””.
Rich referred to the team’s experienced people as being willing to help and stated that they are not just trying to “move people out .”
She said,” It’s trying to get help for people and to get them into solutions so that we can solve the problem.”
Since March 2022, the Broward County Aviation Department has been holding regular meetings with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and the state’s human services division to handle poverty at the airport. The various organizations have worked together to area unhoused travelers in the Salvation Army’s house mattresses at the airport.
Celina Saucedo, associate director of aircraft and management, added that the initiative yet started offering mental health services through volunteer Community Health Centers in 2023.
” The aircraft is not a house. That has been our phrase throughout these meetings”, she said. The fact that unhoused people are choosing to travel to flights is no special to FLL or MIA,” we know.” This is occurring throughout the entirety of the United States of America, and flights are aware of it at the moment.
Saucedo noted there’s a simple solution as to why.
” In our experience, and what we have heard from airports all over the United States is, it’s a location where they can charge their phones, they may find a hot meal, they can find a place to sleep when it’s heated outdoors, as it is right now”, she said.
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