Mayor Manny Diaz Highlights Miami’s Increased Affordable Housing Production

 

--Since 2002, The City of Miami has funded over 2,800 affordable homes--

 

March 21, 2005 - (Miami, FL) - In a press conference held today, City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, City Commissioners Joe Sanchez and Angel Gonzalez, and Community Development Director Barbara Gomez-Rodriguez unveiled figures revealing a dramatic increase in the production of affordable housing units - both ownership and rental - in the City of Miami since 2002. The press conference was conducted in Brisas del Mar, a 160-unit affordable rental complex in East Little Havana, completed last year.

 

“The goal of all our housing initiatives is for residents to become vested stakeholders engaged in the future of Miami,” said Mayor Diaz. “We’ve quadrupled the total investment in the past three years and nearly quadrupled the number of units produced. I am proud of our efforts to develop quality, affordable housing for low income families and I reaffirm my administration’s commitment to continue doing so.”

 

Since 2002, the City of Miami has allocated nearly $31 million for the construction of affordable housing units within city limits. This amount alone would not yield nearly the 2,820 affordable units recently completed or in production today.  The administration’s strategy has focused on leveraging public funds with private investment, resulting in an additional $320.4 million from private developers. 

 

For example, in 2002, for every $1 the City invested it was able to leverage $3.78.  With the implementation of better funding strategies this ratio surged the next year, as each single public dollar leveraged $13.84 in private investment. Currently, the average subsidy per affordable unit – the City’s investment - is $10,977.74. The average leverage per affordable unit now stands at $113,640.73.

 

The City has also recaptured near $15 million from projects that were determined to have “failed” and has reallocated these funds to viable affordable housing projects that are currently in progress.

 

“With each project we fund, we are improving the quality of life not only for the families who will enjoy the affordable prices, but for the neighborhood as a whole,” said Barbara Gomez-Rodriguez, Director of Community Development – the City Department which disburses federal and state funds to developers for the building of affordable units.

 

These affordable housing units do not include the non-subsidized private workforce housing projects in the City of Miami. There are a total of 68 private workforce housing projects spread throughout Miami’s neighborhoods, including Allapattah (10 projects, 2300 units), Little Havana (29 projects, 7000 units), Coral Way (13 projects, 1400 units), Overtown (6 projects, 2500 units), and even Downtown where a workforce housing project broke ground just last week. These units are priced appropriately for policemen, firemen and other young professionals.

 

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