Miami Beach Approves Motion to Move Hostel Residents Out

Miami Beach Commissioners Friday night voted in favor of closing the Bikini Hostel and moving more than 100 unhoused people there out of the city for good so developers can build a high-rise in its place.

Commissioners approved the motion 6-1, with Commissioners Tanya Bhatt, Laura Dominguez, Alex Fernandez, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, Joseph Magazine, and Mayor Steven Meiner voting in favor and David Suarez voting against. The agreement allows West Hospitality Owner LLC to build a 330-foot-tall high-rise apartment complex with 125 units at 1250 West Ave., across the street from where the hostel currently sits, with retail on the ground floor, and, potentially, a $2-million city park.

More than a dozen residents spoke in favor of the development, arguing the Bikini Hostel, which is across the street from the proposed development and houses women and children, was causing more issues than it's solving.

City commissioners seemed to agree, stating that the hostel doesn't provide adequate housing to its unhoused inhabitants.

"The Bikini Hostel has been a blight for decades," Meiner said at the meeting. "We've had more than 100 phone calls to police in the past year."

Since November 2024, the site's owners have used the hostel as a temporary shelter, housing 50 unhoused people displaced by a contract dispute at Camillus House in Miami.

Residents living near the hostel said at the meeting they feel unsafe walking near the hostel, arguing homeless people there are aggressive.

A restaurant owner told the commission he doesn't feel safe walking his two-month-old baby in the area.

"The Bikini Hostel has been a place of disorder," he told the commission. "This is a chance to move Miami Beach in a direction that's desirable." His feelings were echoed by more than 20 other residents, who implored commissioners to get rid of the shelter.

About ten people spoke in opposition of the move, saying complaints of issues and aggression were exaggerated because police are present there 24/7.

"There's no reason to employ scare tactics to gain cover," one man told commissioners.

Other opponents asked where the unhoused would go, but the only apparent answer was simply, "outside Miami Beach."

The hostel owners told CBS News Miami that they are committed to preventing displacement as they search for a new location to house current residents.