Every so often we like to update our readers on the encampment of homeless registrants living by the railroad tracks in Miami-Dade County.

Miami-Dade residency restrictions, notorious for the Julia Tuttle Bridge incident, have been shuffling sex offenders to different parts of the County over the past decade. After being evicted from under the bridge because the site began receiving international attention (and shame), they were moved to a street corner in Shorecrest, where commissioner Marc Sarnoff’s “pocket park” effectively evicted them from that site after neighbors started complaining.

Next up, they were moved to the area of “River Park” (not actually a Park, but a trailer park), but after accumulating there, Ron Book, chair of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust complained that they were within 2500 feet (and across a river) of a school and they were evicted (literally – police and probation gave them a couple days to pack up and move out) from there.

Currently, they are “living” (if you can call it that) on the streets in a warehouse district alongside the railroad tracks. No shelter, no bathrooms, no running water. In the summer months, when the mosquitoes, heat and unpredictable rain are unbearable, human beings (many of which are not even on probation any longer) are forced into homelessness at a disgraceful encampment.

For FAC, this was the catalyst for our effort to challenge the residency restrictions in Miami-Dade and why we plead to the ACLU to file a lawsuit on behalf of those individuals, which they did.

Instead of working to disband the inhumane encampment and help these registrants to find shelter, the County, Probation and Homeless Trust have done nothing. As a result the number continues to creep up. As of today, there are one hundred ninety-five (195) inhabitants!

When we last reported; the number was 185 and our fear is that if we update a month from now, the number will be over 200.

We need to put an end to this!

To those who are on the streets because of sex offender residency restrictions (which, incidentally, have been proven not to work), FAC WILL NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT!