(Miami, FL.)—The City of Miami Commission today approved items that will help improve the quality of life for Miami’s residents. In order to allow several public service agencies to continue providing hot meals to low-income elderly in the City this Fiscal Year (08-09), the Commission allocated critical funding from the Mayor’s Poverty Initiative Account (PH.5). The award of just under $300,000 will ensure that these agencies are funded at the same level this Fiscal Year (08-09) as in past years, despite federal funding cuts. 

“I have made it a priority to ensure that while the federal government has continued to cut Community Development Block Grants, the services to our elderly residents will not suffer,” said Mayor Manny Diaz. “I commend the city commission for joining me in my commitment to our older residents.”

Approximately 880 needy elderly are served meals on a daily basis and are able to share time and activities with other seniors at these elderly centers. Without the additional funds from the Mayor’s Poverty Initiative Account, the non-profit agencies would have been forced to cut service to many elderly participants. 

Another item requires owners of vacant, blighted, unsecured, and abandoned structures to register their properties with the City of Miami (SR.3). This new requirement will benefit Miami’s neighborhoods by providing a source for identifying and enforcing the rehabilitation of such properties, while preventing criminal activities that typically occur at these sites. 

“This initiative will give the city the power to board up abandoned properties and for police to arrest the trespassers that often times are involved in drug activity and other crimes,” said City Manager Pete Hernandez. “It will also help establish ownership responsibility for these properties.”

To further improve neighborhoods and be able to better collect revenue for the city, the commission also approved on first reading the clarification of the existing building code to enhance payment of demolition liens (FR.1). The city has to demolish properties classified as unsafe, while providing a fair and equitable method of allocating this service cost to the property owner. This new measure allows the city to pass on that cost to owners as a special assessment, to be treated as liens and be equal in rank with the liens of ad valorem taxes.