CRA funds diverted
Re the Feb. 8 article Grand jury slams county’s use of anti-blight tax districts: Community Redevelopment Agencies were designed to fight blight and poverty, yet time and time again local politicians use these funds for questionable purposes. I want to live in a community that has first-class museums, concert halls and private high-end developments such as the Miami Worldcenter, but not at the expense of full funding for programs for the poor.
Our affordable-housing shortage has been described as a crisis for several years and yet little CRA funding has been allocated to this critical need. Given that Miami-Dade County has a massive shortfall in this area — estimates as high as 100,000 units are needed — why not use the funds to build affordable housing? Just as the state Legislature has for seven years siphoned over $1 billion from the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund, local politicians have been doing much the same with CRA funds.
Doug Mayer, Miami
This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 10:14 PM with the headline "CRA funds diverted."