Community members came together recently to help a man whose home in Miami, Florida, was torn down while he was still inside.
On August 18, 70-year-old Michael Hamilton received a 10-day notice to vacate his home of 60 years on Northwest 45th Street due to unsafe conditions, according to NBC 6.
Even though he had until Friday to leave the premises, crews arrived two days early, which left him with nowhere to go.
“I didn’t even have any shoes on,” Hamilton said of the moment they showed up outside the house.
Since that time, he had been sitting and sleeping on his front lawn.
“Birds were pecking at his feet. He was outside in the grass and the heat with no water, no food and no home. This is an outrage,” his neighbor’s grandson, Keith Lorren, wrote in a Facebook post.
However, the home had previously been signed over to Hamilton’s cousin, according to Local 10.
The city’s building department “tried to reach him over the past year but it is unclear if the notice was ever received,” the report said.
Asael Marrero, the assistant director of building services in the City of Miami, said they were unaware someone was living on the property.
If they had known, “the outcome would be different,” he commented.
To make sure Hamilton had somewhere to go, Lorren began collecting donations through social media and got enough money together to put him up in a hotel for a while.
“It broke my heart because my grandparents passed away, and when I see Mr. Michael, I see my grandparents,” he said, adding that he believed the city should build him another home on the same site.
Milton Vickers of the Department of Human Services told NBC 6 that staff members reached out to Hamilton to offer their services.
“Our staff will relocate him tomorrow into a hotel space that will last 14 days, which will give us time to move this individual into transitional or permanent,” he concluded.
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