Opinion: Coronavirus highlights Miami wage disparities. Many are living ‘tip-to-tip.’

As an integral part of Miami for over 40 years, The Related Group has seen our city through countless resounding highs and challenging times. Our commitment to Miami and the millions who call it home is unwavering. Throughout our four-decade history, we’ve worked to support vulnerable populations, catalyze economic growth and nurture cultural initiatives regionwide.

In an effort to appropriately respond to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, the Related team is employing a set of proven tactics that can be applied to any business, regardless of its size, scope or industry. We began by understanding our own situation — our strengths, weaknesses and opportunities — and carefully considered our actions to ensure they resulted in real, long-term benefits to the community, without placing undue stress on our staff or overall organization.

For us, this meant fast-tracking remote work options for our employees, immediately followed by close collaboration with our numerous consultants, contractors and subcontractors to ensure safe working conditions, including adherence to the CDC’s social distancing guidelines and clear open channels of communication.

These immediate steps allowed our operations to continue uninterrupted, which in turn, was critical in ensuring the health and well-being of our thousands of residents. By having our staff taken care of and fully briefed, we were able to more quickly begin the process of communicating with residents, increasing safety protocols, closing or restricting shared areas, and doubling down on sanitation efforts.

The process is still ongoing, but this self-assessment helped bolster our team’s confidence, allowing them to be more effective in their day-to-day tasks while preparing them for the next step.

Once we solidified our immediate position, we turned our focus on effectively assisting others. The task of identifying who and how to help is daunting when the needs are as significant and widespread as they are today; so we turned to our existing network of community partners to focus our efforts and deliver meaningful support that falls within our core values.

One such endeavor is our our collaboration with the Miami-Dade County Public School System and local restaurants to support at-need families. Through a collaboration with Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and his team, we will be purchasing and distributing 200 hot meals daily from different local restaurants across various Miami neighborhoods to families who do not have access to meal distribution sites.

We continue to look for ways to help, both through The Related Group Philanthropic Foundation and The Pérez Family Foundation. In fact, we are working closely with The Miami Foundation, another longtime partner of ours, to identify ways to assist the staff of local arts and culture organizations who are in need.

We remain committed to supporting the recovery needs of our community, from providing basic shelter, nutrition, educational, and healthcare needs, to supporting arts and culture and other initiatives that inspire and expand global perspectives.

We will overcome this challenge and what will separate good businesses from great ones, will be what lessons are learned and how they are put into action.

It is too early to say how this will change the way business is conducted in our city and around the world in the future, but it is clear we have gaps that need to be filled, and fast.

Reliance on physical workplaces may transcend to remote work options. Virtual solutions in everything from K-12 education to professional sports may expand into other work situations.

It has become more obvious that many Miami residents and businesses are not living paycheck to paycheck, they are living day-to-day or tip-to-tip. The question of income inequality and wage gap has long been discussed in Miami and abroad; however, this crisis shows just how acute the issue is. It is critical that we invest in our education and infrastructure to better prepare our next generation, while launching a dedicated effort to attract better-paying jobs to our region.

The global economy means all situations can become local issues. No longer can a particular problem, like a virus, be seen as something another country or region is dealing with. Plans need to be created with the knowledge that unforeseen shocks can quickly escalate from far-away concerns to very real local crises.

We are absolutely living in trying times, but it is crucially important to remember how privileged we are to live in the greatest country in the world, not just because of our capabilities, but more importantly because of our humanity, compassion and generosity. The closer our people, our communities and our world can come together, the more resilient we’ll be moving forward.

Jon Paul “JP” Pérez is executive vice president of development for The Related Group.