Miami Beach still fighting county over $10 million homeless funding bill

MIAMI —  A homeless resource fair was held in Miami Beach on Saturday as Miami-Dade County pushes the city to pay a $10 million bill for homeless services.
The multimillion demand comes after the Miami Beach City Commission voted to remove a homeless-funding tax from the November ballot.
CBS News Miami spoke to those in the middle of the fight between the city and county.
Darren Gordon has been in and out of homeless shelters for the last few years. He told CBS News Miami that Miami Beach’s homeless services helped him find a permanent home. 
“Whenever I went with a problem they never neglected me,” Gordon said. “They always helped me.”
The city’s homeless services have made headlines the last few weeks after the Miami Beach City Commission voted 4-3 to remove a 1% restaurant tax from the November 2024 ballot, which would have helped fund the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust and the Domestic Violence Board.
Now that the city commission removed the tax from the ballot, Miami-Dade County wants the city to come up with $10 million instead.
Ron Book, the chair of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, told CBS News Miami that the multimillion-dollar figure is an estimate of how much the tax would have generated. 
“The county commission is the one that said that Miami Beach doesn’t get a free ride anymore,” he said. “They had an opportunity to put it on the ballot. They did. They had an opportunity to leave it on the ballot. They chose not to.”
City Commissioner David Suarez introduced the measure to remove the tax, saying he didn’t want the tax put on restaurants. 
“The referendum specifically excludes any restaurants or establishments that serve liquor in hotels so the burden would have fallen on our most vulnerable businesses that are struggling year over year,” Suarez said.
Suarez added that there was no guarantee Miami Beach would keep any of the revenue generated from it. 
“Under no obligation would any of the tax dollars from this 1% go back to the city,” Suarez said.
But, Book argued that’s how it works for everyone else. 
“None of the 32 other cities keep any of the revenue,” Book said.
Book added if Miami Beach paid up, the trust could end up keeping all of it.
Commissioner Alex Fernandez voted to keep the tax on the ballot. He told CBS News Miami the funding could have prevented more people suffering from homelessness from entering the city.
“We need the homeless trust to be there offering assistance. So that homeless individuals from without the county don’t make their way to Miami Beach,” Fernandez said. 
CBS News Miami reached out to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s office and County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who represents Miami Beach for comment.