Written by Genevieve Bowen on December 10, 2025
Advertisement
The Miami-Dade County Appropriations Committee is set to vote this week on the long-delayed Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery’s operating plan, which, if approved, could see the center finally up and running within four to six months.
The vote would mark a key step in launching the first-of-its-kind, comprehensive diversion and treatment facility. Once open, the center could begin serving residents with serious mental illnesses by next summer, providing a coordinated system of care designed to interrupt the cycle of jail, hospitalization and homelessness while easing the burden on the county’s criminal justice and healthcare systems.
Retired Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman, who spearheaded the project for years, said this week’s vote represents a long-overdue turning point.
“The county is spending $7.2 million a year to keep it closed, and once it opens, that cost comes off the budget,” Mr. Leifman said, noting that Miami-Dade is currently spending millions annually to maintain the fully built facility while it sits idle.
The seven-story, 181,000-square-foot center was completed in 2023 and is certified for occupancy. It is to provide crisis stabilization, residential treatment, outpatient care, vocational training, transitional housing and even on-site legal support and a courtroom.
The project has faced delays due to county concerns about long-term funding and operational sustainability. In August, during a county Committee of the Whole meeting, commissioners cited worries about annual costs after initial funding runs out, even as leaders stated that federal rescue and opioid settlement dollars could cover the first two years at no cost to taxpayers.
Funding for the first two and a half years is already secured through those federal and opioid settlement dollars, and additional revenue streams aim to ensure long-term stability. Medicaid reimbursement would cover part of the center’s mental health and dental services, as well as a substantial portion of primary care, ophthalmology and podiatry. The State of Florida has committed to funding short-term residential treatment beds and allocated a dedicated state appropriation this year.
The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust will fund housing components while Workforce Florida will support the Culinary Supportive Employment Program and the Miami Foundation for Mental Health will raise philanthropic resources to expand services, vocational programs and system-of-care coordination.
The City of Miami has offered to contribute funding for specific services and Miami-Dade County will co-locate its residential co-occurring treatment program, New Direction, at the center, creating another reliable revenue stream. During the initial operating period, the University of Miami’s Department of Public Health Sciences will independently evaluate the center’s outcomes and cost savings.
The center is designed as a transformative diversion resource. It will initially focus on people with five or more mental-health-related jail bookings, a population of about 1,049 people who account for 21% of all mental health jail bed days, nearly 89% of whom are homeless and who cost taxpayers roughly $17.7 million annually. By providing clinical, housing, medical and social services in one location, the center aims to break the repeating cycle of jail, hospitalization and homelessness, producing improved outcomes and significant cost savings.
Miami-Dade County jails make up the largest psychiatric institution in Florida, housing more people with serious mental illnesses than all state civil and forensic hospitals combined. In 2023, 75% of inmates were identified as having mental health needs, with multiple months exceeding 80% of the jail population. Individuals with mental illnesses remain in custody nearly three times longer than the general jail population.
The county currently spends $1.1 million daily, or $414 million per year, to incarcerate roughly 3,500 people with mental illnesses. Over the past decade, Miami-Dade spent $3.9 billion on jail operations, of which $2.5 billion – about 63% – was attributable to people with mental health needs.
Mr. Leifman emphasized both the fiscal and ethical importance of the facility, saying not only that it will save the county money but, “more importantly, it helps people get into recovery.” If approved by the county’s Appropriations Committee and then the full commission, the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery could finally open within months.