Going by the official count, roughly 3,500 people are experiencing homelessness in Miami-Dade on any given night. Some sleep in shelters, others on the street.
But a population nearly 20 times that size exists beyond that tally. An estimated 66,000-plus county residents are part of Miami-Dade’s “hidden homeless,” according to an analysis of U.S. Census data conducted exclusively for the Miami Herald by Molly Richard, an assistant professor of public health at the University of Rhode Island who studies homelessness. That number includes 11,000 children, according to the Florida Department of Education.
Those 66,000 people bounce around the spare bedrooms, couches and living room floors of friends, family and acquaintances. They live week-to-week or even day-to-day in extended-stay motels. Often, they’re at risk of sleeping in their car, if they have one — or on the street if they don’t. Always, they’re fighting to keep some sort of roof over their heads…