As we previously reported in the Florida News Radio post, Ron Book is promising to make the Miami/Dade area the first urban area in the nation to end homelessness as we know it today.
In an interview with Glenna Milberg of Local10 News WPLG, Book gave a most impressive interview, giving plenty of documentation to show how he planned on achieving this goal. Again, though, he never addresses the homeless problem for registered persons in the Miami/Dade area, primarily because that would require rolling back the 2500-foot residence restriction that he lobbied to pass in the Miami/Dade area and throughout the state/country.
Why won’t Mr. Book discuss the elephant in the room?
Email address for Glenna Milberg: [email protected]
He’s holding the new state statute outlawing sleeping in public spaces in his back pocket. All Miami Dade has to do is NOT provide an approved area for the homeless to encamp and BANG he’s bussed them all out of the county and looked wonderful doing it. Don’t house them.. don’t make it easier for them to find housing….. just kick them down the road…..
So looking at the Florida State statue http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0200-0299/0212/Sections/0212.0306.html#:~:text=(b)%20At%20the%20rate%20of,the%20package%20for%20off%2Dpremises all the counties are subject to this 1 percent sales tax the statute say nothing about denying the funds to registrants. It just says they may be distributed to people who are about to become or who are homeless.
If somehow we can prove discrimination of homelessness registrant’s right to be provided with a government service based on a sales tax collected. As well as federal funds https://www.wlrn.org/local-news/2023-02-03/homeless-assistance-agencies-in-miami-to-receive
And according to this their operation budget is https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article271943747.html $90 million annually
That would sure help the coffers of FAC.
In order to sue as a tax payer in court you need to prove a special injury https://www.floridasalestax.com/florida-tax-law-blog/2016/august/fl-tax-when-everyone-is-injured-but-nobody-can-s/
the Supreme Court case in Florida underlying that decision is a 1984 case using a 1917 case that said you must have a specific injury not just your taxes gone up for everyone This is from 2016. I don’t know if the 1917 case is relevant, I assume it is if the 1984 case is quoting it as relevance and the 1984 case is the bar.
Homeless registrants should be able to sue for “special injury” the tax was placed on everybody so the burden was spread across the whole population however, registrants are only one barred from using the services. I don’t know if this research does anything for FAC but we should be able to have a plaintiff. it seems we qualify.
More tax info https://www.axios.com/local/miami/2024/03/27/homeless-tax-miami-beach-bal-harbour-surfside
But not a cent of this tax will be spent to help these registrants of those 3 communities who are homeless.
So what does the pilot program exactly accomplish for $25,000 just to run off the homeless from those areas? So what if the homeless have money but just in fact are homeless?
https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2024/03/25/daytona-beach-homeless-pilot-program-#:~:text=The%20program%20starts%20less%20than,the%20park%20on%20the%20weekends.
And with public sediment like this https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/10/17/commissioners-plan-to-establish-sex-offender-and-predator-section-in-volusia-counties-code-of-ordinances- where else would the registrants be allowed to live but be forced into a public encampment if we’re lucky enough to be permitted entry other wise we would be banished eventually from Volusia County.
Once released from prison 90 percent of the potential residence is off limits to registrants so by design now more and more registrants will be trapped in these encampments under the control of the state. It’s not punishment because your Free to leave IF you can find a place to live based on your status.
It’s a catch 22. We’re gonna be trapped in these camps we’re not gonna be able to get out of these camps. They’re gonna be able to say you were free to get out of these camps just find somewhere to live based on a civil regulatory scheme.
Will we be allowed to transfer encampments or will we be only allowed to be in the camp that has proper facilities to “safely” house registrants? I don’t know that’s lawfully close to civil commitment based on nothing but residency restrictions.
By the way, today’s head count of the 1963 Persons Forced to Register on the FDLE registry listed as residing in Miami-Dade County includes 491 listed as “transient.” That is 25% of Miami-Dade’s registrant population. That’s also consistent with what FAC counted in 2022.
FAC needs to protest the Book Crime Family at the Homeless Trust. Maybe even along Lauren’s parade route. I sacrificed years of my life to prove to you folks the Books are nothing but lowlife cowards that will run and hide from our voices. You folks live in FloriDUH. I do not. FAC should turn up the heat on those responsible for destroying our lives.
Derek Logue:
I remember your Rally in Tally and I think you did something else in Florida. If I remember correctly, your rally only had like 5 people. We held a protest here in New York almost ten years ago and took out ads but only 3 people showed up for our protest, my husband and I and our 5 year old. What we have learned is that people on the registry are quick to complain but slow to participate in these events. You have good ideas and we think that these public protests and rallies are important, but people on the registry are not motivated enough to change to participate in these events.
Here how he is going to do it by taxing Miami Beach, surf side and bel harbor / bal harbor? https://www.local10.com/video/this-week-in-south-florida/2024/03/24/this-week-in-south-florida-ron-book/
Again he says this will generate a significant windfall to fund his homeless project.
With his proceeds he buys home turns them into shelters for the homeless. Registrants need not apply. So image a homeless-to-a group home program for the whole state of Florida funded by a local tax placed on restaurant or another service this is how the model works in south Florida and he is campaigning for its use to spread to all other counties.
What do you want to bet who they will place in the CEO roll if this becomes the states model. Guess who has the political experience needed to make this work.
How can a government program using tax payer dollars be denied to said person. I know I have nothing to base by case on but you should have standing to sue the law as discrimination if it singles out a person using a government tax and bar that person from receiving that service.
I don’t know what we could demand in compensation either a repeal of the law since it bars certain people from receiving those services that the program is supposed to apply. Or we could sue for the damages need to cover every registrant who is homeless from not being homeless he says the taxes generates significant income I say he needs to be to be held accountable for personal spite.
we are denied services from tax $ all the time, look at brevard parks are created with tax $$ but yet sor forced people cant go near them and in many other cities and counties
How does he plan to get rid of all the homless? Maby he will just hit them all with his sports car while he’s hammered drunk.
Just judging by his past that’s my guess. You know, the same way he does others.
Why is drunk driving a misdemeanor, whereas a 25 year-old having consensual sexual activity with a 17 year-old is a second degree felony in Florida? Ron Book could have killed someone driving drunk. I’m certainly not defending my improper actions with the 17-year old back in 1997, but no one’s life was at risk. Shouldn’t the punishment of a crime be based on its harm or potential harm to the public? Why is Ron Book’s drunk driving less harmful to the public than my one week liaison with a consenting 17-year old? I would certainly welcome Lauren Book’s opinion on the matter.