Miami gives the GOP a chance to prove conservatism protects the American Dream | Opinion

Four months after purchasing a home in the Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park for $170,000, 67-year-old Enrique Zelaya was given a notice to vacate. That’s the same thing that happened to Hamilton Dos Santos, 48, another resident who purchased a mobile home in the community — for $160,000, his life savings — only to be met with an eviction notice.

Their mobile home park in Sweetwater, a city west of Miami, is closing to make way for an affordable housing complex. The property owner, development company CREI Holdings, received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to build affordable housing.

But as I learned last week when I attended a court hearing in a case challenging the evictions, that’s leaving people like Zelaya and Dos Santos out in the cold. Where do you live when your affordable housing is being knocked down to build different (and probably more expensive) affordable housing?

These two men represent a deeper problem, too: the erosion of property rights, individual liberty and the American dream itself.

This is happening in Miami-Dade, which President Donald Trump won by 55% in 2024 — the first Republican to win the county since former President George H.W. Bush in 1988. Trump’s historic victory was due in part to the votes from working-class Latino voters who embraced conservative values. Some of those voters live in Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park.

Now those same voters are watching their property investments — their slice of the American dream — slip away. These residents followed the rules, saved money and invested in property. In the case of Li’l Abner, as with other mobile homes parks, individuals own their mobile home but not the land it sits on.

This situation is troubling to say the least. And politicians who are serious about representing the working class should be alarmed. I’m looking at you, GOP.

For decades, the mobile home model provided a market-based solution to affordable homeownership. It rewarded personal responsibility and self-reliance — two hallmarks of conservatism.

When government subsidies allow developers to override personal property investment, it isn’t the free market at work; it’s government-enabled intervention. Zelaya and Dos Santos made six figure investments in their homes based on the belief that property rights in America are sacred. And they’re right — or at least they should be.

If those rights can be compromised because they’re inconvenient to subsidized developers, then we’ve abandoned one of conservatism’s most fundamental principles.

Li’l Abner is more than a collection of mobile homes. It’s a community where individuals have lived for decades and multi-generational families are raising kids.

Demolishing these neighborhoods destroys something irreplaceable — the fabric of a community built over the years. Conservatives championing family values and civil society should recognize these communities are living proof that those values still exist.

Over the past decade, the Republican Party has shifted to become the party of the working class. And it found success with Latino voters because it promised freedom, opportunity and rewards for hard work.

But the Latino vote isn’t guaranteed. Just ask the Democrats. They took Latino voters for granted and it cost them victories.

If the GOP wants to remain the working-class party, it must deliver on issues voters care about — affordability and opportunity. That starts with defending property rights for all homeowners, not putting subsidized developers over individual citizens.

Protecting working-class neighborhoods isn’t anti-growth. It’s pro-community and pro-free market.

The party championing individual liberty should be upset when working-class homeowners see their investments wiped out by government-subsidized displacement. The party protecting family values should fight to preserve stable communities where those values thrive.

We don’t need new government programs. We need existing property rights to be protected — regardless of housing type. The question isn’t whether Li’l Abner residents will survive displacement — many will find new places to live. The question is whether Republicans will stand with the working-class communities that help deliver their victories.

For the sake of the American dream, they can and should.

Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com