MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Virginia Key has been a proposed site to build a homeless community in Miami, but one county commissioner says that’s not the case.
The plan to house homeless on Virginia Key may be technically still be in play, though it increasingly appears to be a successful attention-getter to Miami’s chronic tent cities from the city commissioner who has made that his mission.
“I don’t want to hear from the whiners, all they do is complain and have no solutions,” said Commissioner Joe Carollo. “We’re finding real solutions.”
After originally failing, the proposal came back and passed. As a mandate, though, was for officials to find other site options in addition to Virginia Key and list hard costs for them all.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado is convening a town hall Thursday night of county departments and anyone interested, with many grateful that attention is also now on historic Virginia Key.
“I think they were looking for a place that was far away from neighbors,” Regalado said. Asked if she believed the Virginia Key project was ever going to happen, she said, “I don’t think so, I don’t think so.”
The idea of creating a homeless camp is still alive and well, Regalado said, just not on the proposed Virginia Key site.
“Not a viable location,” she said.
City of Miami staffers have until late September to come up with alternate locations, which will likely include sites outside the city.