But in Miami-Dade County, that number has dropped to an 11-year low, according to a recent census conducted by the county’s homeless services agency, the Homeless Trust. The January count logged 858 unsheltered homeless people — 175 fewer people than were recorded at the same time last year and the lowest such figure for Miami-Dade since 2014.
Speaking at a recent Homeless Trust board meeting, Chairman Ron Book cheered the results. “This is an extraordinarily special day in the history of this body,” he said.
How has Miami bucked the national trend? A new state law banning public sleeping, well-timed cold weather shelter placements, more housing options for the homeless and a push by local authorities to place people in shelters. Those factors combined to bring more people inside who had been sleeping without a roof over their head.
Behind the Numbers
The 11-year low only refers to the number of unsheltered homeless people in Miami-Dade . The thousands of people who couch-surf, sleep in their cars or live at homeless shelters aren’t included.
As of January, there were more than 2,800 people living in the county’s network of emergency shelters and temporary housing units, up 103 people from January 2024.
Overall homelessness— those living in shelters and on the streets — slid by 2 percent, or 72 people, across Miami-Dade County since last January but remains above its 2023 level.
The 17 percent drop in Miami-Dade’s street-sleeping population came just weeks after HB 1365, a statewide ban on public camping and sleeping, empowered Floridiansto sue their local governments for non-enforcement.
Homeless Trust officials said the law, combined with a weeks-long cold snap, drove redoubled efforts to bring inside those who sleep on the county’s streets.
The Trust placed nearly 200 people in shelters in the chilly weeks leading up to the homeless census on Jan. 23 , according to Executive Director Vicki Mallette. She estimated that more than a third of those people elected to stay for an extended period in the shelter system, where they can receive help from providers.
It’s likely that some individuals who would have otherwise been living on the streets during the Homeless Trust’s count were instead staying in a shelter that night.
How the Homeless Census Works
It was frigid on the night of Jan. 23. Much of northern and central Florida was frosted. Though Miami was a relatively balmy 50 degrees, a bone-chilling humidity settled on the city. Around 10 p.m., dozens of jacketed census takers, flanked by police, divided themselves into 25 teams and fanned out across Miami-Dade in search of people sleeping on the street, many of whom were buried under layers of blankets and clothes.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, from which the Homeless Trust receives nearly half of its $100 million yearly budget, requires the local providers it funds to conduct a “point-in-time” homeless count once a year, at night, sometime during the last 10 days of January.
This was the Trust’s 54th count in its 30 years of existence. Twice a year — once in August and once in January — Trust officials set out to tally Miami-Dade’s homeless population.
The Trust conducts its August count to monitor seasonal changes in the size and composition of the county’s homeless population.
What the Results Show
The number of people without shelter in Miami-Dade had held steady since January 2015, fluctuating slightly each year but generally staying between 900 and 1,100 people.
Barring a brief dip to 892 people in 2021, this most recent census marks the first time since 2014 that the county’s recorded homeless population has dropped below 900. The decrease is also the largest — both in number and in percent change — in 15 years.
Countywide, the number of people sleeping on the streets fell, but some places saw steeper drops than others.
The city of Miami Beach and the South Dade area from Kendall Drive to the Monroe County line posted 31 percent and 43 percent dips, respectively, while the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city of Miami and in North Dade — an area north of Kendall Drive to the Broward County line, excluding Miami city limits — declined 13 percent and 6 percent.
In Miami, the city’s outsized homeless population shrank by 85 people, more than in any other region in the county, to 546.
The Trust has yet to identify a concrete reason behind the precipitous drop in South Dade’s homeless population beyond a countywide increase in outreach efforts.
In an email to the Herald, Book speculated that Miami Beach’s decline could be due, at least in part, to what he described as the city’s attempt “to arrest their way out of homelessness.” Previous Herald reporting found that more than 40 percent of arrests in Miami Beach in 2024 were of people experiencing homelessness.
While the numbers generally trended downward, certain populations saw marked upticks. The number of homeless parents aged 18-24 increased by 39 people, a 64 percent spike. This year’s count also found 134 members of veteran households — veterans and their immediate family — living on the streets, up from 101 last year.
Book expects the overall downward trend to continue. To that end, the Trust is hoping to create upwards of 400 new temporary housing beds this year, according to a December memo. The document also noted the county’s intention to add 1,000 new units of long-term affordable housing for those making less than 30 percent of Miami-Dade’s annual median income — roughly $34,000 for a family of four — to clear up space in the county’s shelter system.
Behind the Numbers
Speaking to the census’ findings, Book noted the Trust’s “aggressive” efforts to bring people in off the streets during January’s cold spells.
Leading a counting team, Book walked up First Street, across from the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, offering those sleeping on the sidewalk a ride to one of the county’s shelters, which he said had collectively stood up 125 extra cots to accommodate those looking to escape the cold.
“We use the opportunity to bring them in,” he said of the cold weather. “And, when they’re in, we try to persuade them to stay.”
The census also came amid a national reckoning with homelessness.
As cities across the country have struggled to deal with their mounting homeless populations, the Supreme Court last June paved the way for local governments to criminalize homelessness. Legal precedent had previously held that punishing people who had no other option but to sleep outside was cruel and unusual, and therefore unconstitutional.
Months later, in October, a Florida law banning public camping came into effect. An attempt to spur local governments to prioritize ending homelessness, the law, HB 1365, holds municipalities legally accountable for ensuring that people don’t sleep on their streets.
Proponents have celebrated the measure as important to ensuring “law and order.” Critics contest that it could lead to arrests of people whose only “crime” was having no roof under which to sleep.
Regardless, the law has given renewed urgency to local governments’ efforts to combat homelessness. And, Book said, “[HB] 1365 might have psychologically helped us with that [chronically homeless] population,” which could now face jail time for sleeping outside.
“People have looked at [HB 1365] as a negative, and it is a negative,” remarked Book at a recent Homeless Trust board meeting. “But our position has been to make something good out of something bad.”
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