We can still save Little Haiti from gentrification, but it takes political will | Opinion

The bell hasn’t rung yet, but it’s the 11th hour for the survival of Little Haiti. On Jan. 15, the city of Miami’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board reaffirmed by a 6-3 vote its previous recommendation to the City Commission to repeal all Special Area Plans (SAPs) and the massive up-zonings they bring to nine-acre parcels of “abutting” land.

There are several applications for SAPs in and around Little Haiti; two have been approved, and one scheduled for a vote before zoningi board.

Recent publicity has brought a much-needed spotlight on the real estate speculation and gentrification fueled by SAPs in “high and dry” low-income minority neighborhoods. It will be extremely callous for any commissioner to vote in favor of another SAP in Little Haiti.

Still, a ban on SAPs will not save Little Haiti from extinction in the long term unless Miami and Miami-Dade County do an about-face in their affordable-housing programs. These programs are based on County Average Mean Income (AMI) with a two-person family making $67,800 a year, when the reality for Little Haiti is less than half of that. “Inclusionary zoning” requiring set-aside apartment units in new high-rise buildings leaves many families way below the income level required to qualify for one of these apartments, even if the income requirement is reduced to 100 percent of average mean income from 140 percent, as Commissioner Manolo Reyes recently proposed.

Let’s look at what is really going on here: Little Haiti is a poor and minority area. Its residents are mostly renters. Its landlords are mostly nonresidents who invested in Little Haiti, at least partially, because the prospects for an eventual windfall for any property owner looked good. Add Miami’s transportation woes, prospective sea-level rise and the imminent arrival of huge 24-story complexes of new apartments, restaurants and entertainment venues, and you have created a perfect storm for high and dry, close-in land occupied by poor minority renters.

If things don’t change, Little Haiti will quickly follow the same path that West Coconut Grove has been slowly sliding down for decades. Original minority residents leave, either because, as owners, they sell their property for “good money;” or as renters, their rents double and triple overnight. This is why minority neighborhoods almost always fight any and all zoning changes; it means that residents leave.

Saving Little Haiti long-term will require a concerted — and expensive — effort at every level from local all the way to federal. The emphasis must be on gaining control of the land from the investors and, increasingly, from speculators. Community Land Trusts need to be funded. Zoning changes from duplex to low-rise apartment buildings, along with allowing Ancillary Dwelling Units and Planned Unit Developments must be implemented for properties where property owners agree to re-sale restrictions and/or stabilized rents for 10 years minimum.

To facilitate homeownership, “soft second mortgages” need to be re-created by the city as in West Grove 25 years ago. Reverse mortgages that many elderly Little Haiti residents took out to make ends meet need to be converted to allow them to stay in their homes. Section 8 rental subsidies gradually should be terminated and the funds channeled into either homeownership for qualifying working-class residents, or apartments owned in land trusts.

That’s just a start. Above all, there needs to be political will.

With many similar neighborhoods in Miami, what have the existing residents of Little Haiti done to deserve such massive assistance? There are only partial answers: Assistance has been a long-time coming for Little Haiti. The city finally recognizes hard-working residents must be able to live near their jobs. Promoting stable neighborhoods is beneficial for all of Miami.

It is obvious that what’s been tried so far hasn’t stopped gentrification and displacement. Current residents’ in control of the real estate, in one form or another, is the only way that Little Haiti can survive long-term. It is simply too valuable to remain as it is, even if Special Area Plans are permanently repealed.

When residents control their own neighborhood, it becomes their responsibility to see that it continues to improve. When that happens, Little Haiti can become a success story instead of a memory.

Anthony Parrish is a developer of affordable single-family homes in West Coconut Grove and serves on the city of Miami’s Planning, Zoning & Appeals Board. David Winker is an attorney active on civic issues.