Miami Beach residents feud over whether city should continue allowing people to live on water in Biscayne Bay
Mar 18, 2025
A boat battle is brewing on Miami Beach. It’s a fight between people living on land and those living on the water. 7’s Heather Walker investigates.
There is a war on the water in Miami Beach. The city wants these boats out. The people who live on the boats are fighting to stay.
Leon Carlos
: “Your pursuit of happiness is living in a square box in a building. My pursuit of happiness is living in a triangle in the water.”
Leon Carlos has been leading the charge to remain anchored in Biscayne Bay. He showed us around the boat that is now his home.
Leon, his girlfriend, and their dog moved on board during the pandemic.
Leon Carlos: “Little by little we loved it and we moved in completely.”
They may be loving it — but his neighbors living on land — are not.
Tom Hawkins, Miami Beach resident: “It’s a serious problem.”
Tom Hawkins moved to this condo for the views of the bay. But he says these boats have been sitting here for years now, some without motors. He believes many are polluting the water.
Tom Hawkins: “It makes me upset that people are disposing of their waste in our bay. I care about our environment and I care about our bay.”
Hawkins and other residents want Commissioner David Suarez to get rid of these boats.
Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez: “At the end of the day it’s just a homeless encampment on the water”
Suarez took 7Investigates on a boat ride to see for ourselves.
Commissioner David Suarez: “One can only assume that they are emptying their contaminants and their sewage into the bay.”
But Leon says that assumption is wrong,
Heather Walker: “So you are saying you are not putting any of your waste into the water?”
Leon Carlos: “No, I do not because at the end of the day that’s my, that’s where I swim, that’s where my dog swims.”
Leon says they empty their waste, like any boat, at a marina.
A late-night sewage check from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission seems to confirm that. Only two of the 39 boats inspected were dumping their waste into the water.
Water was sampled around the boats. Results showed it was safe to swim.
Leon Carlos: “They don’t like us there. We are not paying property taxes. You know that’s it”
Commissioner Suarez insists his concerns are purely environmental, like this pile of trash on shore next to the boats.
Commissioner David Suarez: “Look at that, it’s ridiculous.”
There are about a hundred of these boats in Miami Beach, a hundred more in Miami and officials say the numbers are growing.”
Commissioner David Suarez: “All these boats eventually will end up like this and it’s going to be up to the taxpayers of Miami Beach to raise it and this cost anywhere between $10-20 thousand.”
To force these people to leave, the city is cutting off their access to land but as our camera shows – it is not working.
Leon Carlos: “I let you live, let me live. This is state waters. I’m not doing anything illegal here.”
He is right, it is perfectly legal. Suarez wants to change that.
Commissioner David Suarez: “The solution I believe is at the state level to limit how many days you can anchor.”
Until then — it is all hands on deck for both sides of this boat battle.
Heather Walker, 7News. ...read more read less
