MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Representatives of a developer who have been working to convince the city of Miami Beach to amend a zoning regulation so it can build a high-rise luxury tower at 1250 West Ave. are adding a point of persuasion.
Attorney Melissa Tapanes said at a Wednesday night city commission meeting that the development “will result in the permanent elimination of the Bikini Hostel,” describing the South Beach site as a “plague on this community for a number of years.”
The proposal is pitched as a public benefit, with plans to acquire a parcel across the street.
The Bikini Hostel, once a youth hostel, now housing Miami-Dade Homeless clients, has been criticized during public comments as hostile to the area’s quality of life.
“The Bikini Hostel has been a scourge and a blight on the neighborhood for 15 years now, long before its current iteration as a makeshift homeless shelter,” Jessica Davis, the president of the Bay View Terrace condominium board, said.
Miami-Dade Homeless Trust Chairman Ron Book said that the owners of the Bikini Hostel, currently housing about 90 to 100 people, had resisted acquisition offers.
Now, with increased density, the developer can afford to meet its price tag.
Book said that the hostel opened its doors to Homeless Trust clients in late October when the trust was in need of beds due to a reduction in emergency shelter beds at Camillus House in Miami and compliance pressures from the state’s unauthorized camping and public sleeping law, effective Oct. 1.
It’s the only place in the city housing Homeless Trust clients.
“The city of Miami Beach doesn’t think it has a homeless problem and doesn’t have any responsibility to be part of the effort to house or shelter people on the island itself,” Book said. “They think that burden falls on the other 34 municipalities in Miami-Dade County.”
He added, “Some people don’t have a good image of unhoused individuals. I can’t help that.”
The owners of the Bikini Hostel told Local 10 News they felt like they were doing a good deed when they responded to a call from the Homeless Trust asking if they could help house people amid the shelter bed reduction.
Book said the Trust “needed the beds.”
Courtney Caprio, an attorney representing the Bikini Hostel, released a statement to Local 10 News saying that the owners “have remained committed to ensuring that no one forcibly displace the previously unhoused individuals who have been welcomed by, and currently reside, at the Bikini Hostel.”
The statement notes that the acquisition includes a “compassionate relocation plan.”
“The owners of the Bikini Hostel intend to use part of the sale proceeds to purchase a new facility that will continue to provide housing for those individuals and others experiencing hardship,” Caprio said. “This represents a constructive and humane solution, demonstrating how the private sector and local government can work together to solve intractable social problems while preserving constitutional rights.”
Book assured, “We are certainly not going to dump people out on the streets.”
The proposed development deal will go before Miami Beach city commissioners again in May.
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