Homeless people living on the streets and sidewalks of downtown Miami are also relieving themselves on the streets and sidewalks of downtown Miami, turning the city’s core into an outdoor toilet, merchants and residents say.
“The situation is the worst I’ve seen in my 25 years here,” said business owner Jose Goyanes. “The stench is really bad, even after you hose it down. We see people urinating against buildings or pulling their pants down and squatting because they have nowhere else to go.”
Deposits of human waste can be seen in planters, doorways, gutters — or right in the middle of the block. The pavement behind the old Macy’s department store is soaked with urine. Feces ferment in front of vacant storefronts for days when there’s no landlord to clean up. People who work and live downtown are calling in a Code Brown.
“It’s prolific. It’s on every block and at the base of most trees,” said businessman Gary Ressler. “I can’t bring national tenants here and walk through downtown without having them observe human feces littering the sidewalk.”
There is no simple solution to the complicated homelessness crisis throughout the United States. In Los Angeles, 58,000 people do not have permanent housing and are living beneath freeways, on beaches and in tent cities. In Miami-Dade County, the total homeless population is down to about 3,700, but a critical shortage of public bathrooms for those 1,148 living on the street who can’t or won’t find room at a shelter makes it difficult for them to maintain sanitary personal hygiene.
“Most of us do not want to defecate or urinate in public,” said David Beaty, a homeless man who came to Miami from Wisconsin. “It’s like you’re losing your dignity, your humanity. We’re not animals. I personally use a cup and dump it because I don’t want to smell my urine or anybody else’s while I’m sleeping.
“If no bathroom is available, what are you supposed to do?”
The homeless population in Miami’s central business district has spiked 16 percent since January, according to the August census by the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. While no definitive figures exist, the Trust estimates that the majority of chronic homeless are mentally ill. Goyanes knows many in his neighborhood by name.
“It’s a delicate issue because you can’t just round up people and make them disappear,” Goyanes said. “Some refuse to move to a shelter even when you offer assistance. One way we can help them is by addressing the poop problem as a public health problem.”
Only two public bathrooms are readily accessible to the homeless in the area where the problem is most acute: One in Bayfront Park on Biscayne Boulevard by the laser tower and one by the Main Library at 101 West Flagler St. Both are monitored by former homeless people employed as attendants who keep the bathrooms spotlessly clean and enforce the five-minute rule. They are open seven days a week but only from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Public restrooms inside the library and the Miami-Dade Government Center have even more limited hours.
“A 24-hour bathroom would be wonderful,” said Kesia Hollins, who has been homeless for six years, since she lost her parents and Brooklyn home in a fire. “I try to be ladylike and respectful and hide when I go outside. We’d rather use a toilet. We don’t want to be nasty and dirty.”
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The homeless population in Miami’s central business district has spiked 16 percent since January, according to the August census by the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. While no definitive figures exist, the Trust estimates that the majority of chronic homeless are mentally ill.
IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THE “HORRORS” OF THEIR MINDS SIT SQUARELY ON THE SHOULDERS OF MARXISTS COMMUNISTS, WHO HAVE NORMALIZED EMOTIONAL DIFFICULTIES TO THE POINT OF CREATING RAVING LUNATICS.