Community pushes Miami-Dade to open long-stalled mental health facility
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Hundreds of community members gathered for the annual PACT event. Photo: Sommer Brugal/Axios
A seven-story building between Allapatah and Wynwood, meant to provide mental health, housing and psychiatric services for Miami-Dade County residents, has sat empty since 2023.
- Now, community members are pushing county commissioners to advance a plan that would allow it to finally open.
Why it matters: The Center for Mental Health & Recovery would offer potentially life-saving services, shrink the county's jail population and address the growing unhoused population, advocates say.
- The facility was built to provide a residential treatment center for those living with a mental illness and who frequently end up in jail for short stretches of time.
The big picture: The opening of the long-stalled center was among the handful of demands the People Acting for Community Together (PACT), one of the county's most politically active interfaith groups, presented to county officials, including Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
- The local nonprofit held its annual meeting last week, which attracted nearly 800 residents, per the Miami Herald.
Other demands included:
- Creating a sliding scale of incentives for developers to build more affordable housing.
- Utilizing neighborhood-specific income data — not county-wide calculations — to determine rent limits for workforce housing.
What they're saying: "This is a fully constructed, ready-to-open facility," Steve Leifman, who has spearheaded the center, told the crowd last week.
- "We are not lacking data or solutions, we're lacking capacity," added Leifman, a former judge who retired from the bench in 2024. "This center offers that capacity."
By the numbers: About 1,000 chronically unhoused people also live with a serious mental illness, advocates said during the event, and upwards of 50% of the county's jail population are classified as having mental illnesses.
- Housing incarcerated people with mental illness costs taxpayers $1.1 million per day, Leifman said.
The other side: Levine Cava said she has supported the project and that "funding exists" to cover a two-year pilot program.
- "It's in the hands of the [county] commission," she said.
Catch me up: Voters in 2004 approved a countywide bond referendum to fund the facility. It was completed in 2023, but its opening stalled.
- In 2024, Levine Cava directed commissioners to negotiate an agreement with two local nonprofits, but commissioners haven't approved it, citing budget concerns once funding for the two-year pilot program subsides.
- Commissioners deferred the item last month without a set date to bring it back.
What's next: Miami-Dade Commissioner Oliver G. Gilbert III and Miami Commissioner Ralph Rosado agreed to support the center and ask Chair Anthony Rodriguez to hear the item at Tuesday's county commission meeting.