The Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, a project promised to voters more than twenty years ago, appears closer than ever to finally getting the approval it needs from the county commission.
The only remaining roadblock: Miami Dade County Commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez, who has so far refused to say when – or even if – he will allow the full commission to vote on it.
The county has already spent more than $50 million renovating a building donated by the state to house the center. However, two years after those renovations were completed it remains empty, helping no one.
At any given moment, more than a thousand people with mental illnesses are languishing in the county’s jails, not receiving the treatment they desperately need.
This center could help many of them whose only real crime is being homeless and mentally ill. The culmination of Judge Steve Leifman’s thirty years on the bench working with the mentally ill in the criminal justice system, the center would provide not only short-term care but ongoing treatment and support.
On Wednesday, commissioners gathered to discuss the center for nearly four hours. And by the end, it was obvious an overwhelming majority of them were ready to move forward and open the center.
But before it can move to the full board for a vote, Rodriguez has to agree to place it on the agenda. Commissioner Raquel Regalado asked for it to be advanced to the next county commission meeting, but Rodriguez refused to commit to anything.
“I will take everything I heard under advisement and see how we move forward,” he said before ending the meeting.
Rodriguez did not respond to a request for comment.
One thing seemed clear, however, by the end of Wednesday’s meeting, both Rodriguez and Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins appeared frustrated, almost annoyed, their attacks on the center failed to persuade their colleagues. For instance, when they both tried to suggest the center wasn’t needed, the county’s public defender, Carlos Martinez stood up and let them know they were wrong.
“In terms of filling the center, that is not going to be a problem,” he explained. “We have so many people [it could help], right now I have 1,800 clients in the jail that have serious mental illness.”
After that effort failed, Cohen-Higgins appeared to question Judge Leifman’s motives for trying to help the mentally ill, by asking if he stood to financially gain by the center opening and if he was going to be on the center’s payroll.
Leifman made it clear he was not going to be paid, and said instead, he would be working to help raise money for the center.
Time and time again, however, Rodriguez and Cohen-Higgins hammered on the eventual cost to the county of operating the center, suggesting the county would have to raise taxes or cut programs if the center opened.
“I mean, money, despite what people think, money doesn’t grow on trees for government,” Rodriguez said.
His comments last week, stood in sharp contrast to comments he made two months earlier when the Miami Herald reported the commission would spend nearly two million dollars to update design plans for the equestrian center and rodeo – a pet project of Rodriguez’s.
At that time, he described the additional funds as “a measly $1.85 million.
Funding for the first three years of the mental health center is covered – paid for using federal dollars and other outside sources. So, what Rodriguez and Cohen Higgins are complaining about is what happens four and five years or even ten years down the line.
And that is where Rodriguez and Cohen Higgins lost the argument. Because the other commissioners acknowledged that with an annual budget of around $15 million dollars, the center may cost the county money in future years. But they said, it all comes down to a matter of priorities in a county whose overall budget is $13 billion.
“I take as true the chairman’s supposition that this might not save us any money, and it may cost us,” said Commissioner Oliver Gilbert. “But what I do know is this, I’ve had a family member who went through the criminal justice system who was mentally ill, and I know that proper treatment shouldn’t be in a jail. I know that. I know that we can’t treat everybody in this building, but for those that we can, we should.
“I am prepared to tell the administration, work this formula, work with everybody, come up with the best plan, mitigate the cost as much as you can. The backstop for every service provided for this county is the general fund, period,” he continued. “I pay taxes because I want to actually help. I pay tax for services that I don’t use all the time. Federal taxes, local taxes, I pay taxes because the strong shall bear the infirmities of the weak. I start from the proposition, is this something we should do? Will it help someone? I answered that question, yes.”
Commissioner Vicki Lopez said she is confident this program will work.
“Listen, we have a decreasing pot of money in the general revenue,” she noted. “And unfortunately, we will have to make the hard choices. And for me, it will always be people over buildings and then among those – vulnerable over not so vulnerable. This is for vulnerable people.”
Commissioner Marlene Bastien spoke passionately about the need for the center.
“Mentally ill people end up in jails, and sometimes they are hurt,” Bastien said. “Sometimes they lose their lives. People self-medicate. They decompensate; they enter into crisis. Law enforcement becomes the first responder, and this is not acceptable. The jail becomes a treatment center. It is not acceptable. The taxpayer absorbs the cost repeatedly on the back end. This is not acceptable. Every study tells us the same thing: Diversion and treatment costs less than incarceration and crisis response. I repeat, diversion and treatment costs less than incarceration in crisis response.”
She added: “Human beings with mental illness should not be incarcerated. They should not be in jail. They should be in a place where they can be treated with the dignity that they deserve.”
Commissioner Kionne McGhee is a former prosecutor who appeared before Judge Leifman and praised the work he’s done.
“The fiscal question is not whether the county can afford this center,” McGhee said. “I think the question is whether the county can afford to keep it closed.”
Commissioner Rene Garcia, a longtime advocate for the mentally ill going back to his days in the Legislature, said the time for talking about the center had passed.
“I’ve always said this, every single one of us is one crisis away from having to need resources and help. Every single of us,” Garcia said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, how healthy you think you are. We can all fall into a situation where we need some help. I’m a fiscal conservative. I believe in social justice and social health for our people, especially when we talk about mental health services. But I think we have to give it a shot.”
Commissioners JC Bermudez and Keon Hardemon are on record saying they want the building open, even commissioners Roberto Gonzalez and Natalie Milan Orbis appear to be on board.
It appeared that after the meeting there were at least nine votes to move forward. And for critics of the center, if the issue really is future funding, Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who has been working tirelessly to get the center open, argued once it opens the county can work on additional funding.
“I also believe in this board and in this government and in our ability to find partnerships and to apply for grants and to look at the costs and to do the right thing,” she said. “We do that all the time. We do it all the time. But you can’t apply for a grant for a building that’s not open, you just can’t. I mean, it’s a very difficult thing to do. It’s very difficult for Judge Leifman to go and ask people to give him money to do a thing that we’re not doing right now. Because until you open the doors, it is just an idea, until we are allowed to do the work.”
She summed up the frustration of many when she finally sighed and said: “I just want us to open the doors. I just want to open the doors.”