Help MB Boaters Save Their Homes and Protect Boater's Rights

We are asking for your help to support the legal defense fund to protect the homes and rights of over 100 boaters living in Biscayne Bay near Miami Beach. Due to the persistent harassment and violations of human rights to illegally evict the boaters by Miami Beach Commissioners, we plan to sue for violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, various state maritime laws, and Title 2 of the ADA. All funds go directly to a trust managed by the Law Firm of Michael J Schlesinger Florida Bar #141852. Donors will be repaid first from any settlement received.

What do we hope to accomplish?

Through this lawsuit, we are looking to force the city to rebuild the public dock and thus remove the barriers we now face to access food and water on shore. We are also looking at forcing the City of Miami Beach to give the anchored boaters proper access to the current city dock, to provide facilities such as a pump out boat and a promise that boaters’ rights to live aboard in Miami Beach will be respected, that the city will stop its harassment of legally anchored boaters.

Why does it matter?

In the course of all of this harassment by the City of Miami Beach and especially commissioner David Suarez, the City has violated or attempted to violate numerous state statutes, as well as private and public legal agreements. They have attempted to get the boaters to agree to ILLEGAL arrangements to gain shore access. In doing all of this, the City, its mayor and commissioners violated the boaters’ civil and human rights. The boaters are continuing to fight back, but we need your assistance to take the next step in defending our homes. We are now hiring a lawyer to file a Civil Rights lawsuit against the City of Miami Beach, its commissioners and mayor, and the City Attorney’s office for their egregious assault on our human rights in the Federal court.

The City of Miami Beach has engaged in persistent and malicious harassment towards the boaters. This first began when a public dock was abruptly dismantled on December 22nd, 2023. The commissioner David Suarez have publicly stated that their goal is to, “Cutoff access to food, water, and necessary supplies to get the boaters to move somewhere else” and make them illegally access the land. The City of Miami Beach seeks to criminalize living on a boat, when they have failed to build affordable housing for all citizens. They then installed hundreds of no docking signs, cameras, code enforcement officers, park rangers, police, and other law enforcement on the shores to prevent the boaters from accessing food and water. They want to militarize the shores in an attempt to intimidate and criminalize the boaters. Following their removal of the dock, the City attempted to get the state laws changed in a way that would have forced boaters to move out of Miami Beach. They did this by proposing to make it illegal to anchor within a certain distance of the shoreline.

The City of Miami Beach ordered FWC and Marine Patrol to raid the boaters at midnight to check their sewage tanks, when 95% of the boats passed. They also dive under our boats to check out anchors. Then, they ordered FWC and other police to begin issuing court appearance letters to the boaters without any valid citations, in violation of Florida law. City would order Seatow to tow Dinghies illegally with jet skis and other means. There are many discrepancies in the city report about dinghies towed.

The commissioners have targeted the boaters. Every few days the commissioner David Suarez would come to the public dock or ride by in another boat to taunt and harass the boaters. David Suarez would also personally dive under their boats without permission. His wife Lissette Collazo would fly drone to take pictures of the inside of boats in violation of FAA Part 103 laws. This type of government overreach and invasion of privacy must be stopped.

The commissioners have taken to social media to spread false narratives in an attempt to dehumanize the boaters. They have said the boaters are filthy, squatters, criminals, poop in the water, dump trash in the water, and many other baseless accusations. Various agencies including NBC 6 with Tony Pipitone, Louis Aguirre with Local 10 News, and the Surfrider Foundation have proved these allegations false. In fact, they proved that the City of Miami Beach dumps millions of gallons of sewage every year into the bay.

We have a mountain of evidence depicting the illegal acts of the City of Miami Beach's mayor and commissioners including 200 videos, over 1200 emails and text messages, hundreds of social media posts, many hours of videos of commissioners at public meetings, over 100 witnesses, and various other pieces of evidence we can use to hold them accountable in a court of law.

Please help us support these boaters to save their homes and protect the rights of all boaters in Florida.