Watch videos of Miami residents detailing hardships related to exorbitant housing costs
Miami-Dade’s home-affordability crisis has many residents’ budgets stretched thin, and some wondering how much longer they can call Miami home.
Watch and listen to these two videos of four county residents — each career professionals with good-paying jobs — explaining the sacrifices they’ve made to make ends meet in one of the nation’s hottest housing markets.
They exemplify the diversity in our community — based on where they reside, profession, gender, age, race and ethnicity — and represent the thousands of local residents overwhelmed by the cost to rent an apartment or condo, or to buy a home.
In one video, Kendall single mother Elizabeth Kidder Sanchez shares how her life has changed. The Miami native got priced out of the Westchester neighborhood where she was raised.
A second video contains vignettes from three other Miami-Dade residents describing their financial burdens caused by the housing crunch.
Holly Morganelli, a librarian and adjunct professor at Florida International University, fretted over being priced out of the one neighborhood she had always lived in after a big rent hike.
Dr. Lawrence Rolle, a physician resident at University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital, was on the brink of homelessness before landing a house in Liberty City.
And Tanjim Hossain and his wife Christine Oliver contemplate leaving the Miami area, blaming rising property taxes and homeowners insurance.
FIU’s Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center Associate Director Ned Murray said these personal stories underscore the need for significant change — think countywide rent freezes and caps — and soon. He said, “We cannot continue like this.”
