Miami-Dade turned over 1,400 lots for affordable housing, and some land sits vacant
For more than two decades, Miami-Dade County has sold surplus lots to developers at reduced prices or for nominal fees, with the condition that affordable housing must go up on the land or the buyers must surrender the properties back to the government. In a statement Tuesday, Levine Cava said “my administration has recommended that the property conveyance process be entirely redesigned.”
A new audit finds those rules are sometimes ignored, hundreds of lots remain vacant and regulators aren’t paying attention to what happens with the properties.
The May 26 report by the Office of the Commission Auditor found that instead of building affordable homes on the county lots, some developers lost them in foreclosure proceedings, ignored county price caps on the real estate and avoided the county triggering clauses that would force the properties to return to Miami-Dade ownership.
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Some of those examples are more than a decade old. They represent a small portion of the more than 1,400 lots Miami-Dade has sold since 1999 — many of them under the county’s “infill” program, where commissioners typically sponsor lot sales in their districts for $10.
The report doesn’t say how many of those properties were built into houses or townhouses and sold at an affordable price for buyers, which is the main aim of the county programs.
A similar review by the administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, which oversees the programs, found about a third of the lots analyzed were converted into housing, with another third in the pipeline for construction.
The remaining third had reverted back to the county, or remained vacant while past the development deadline established at the time of the sale, according to the Nov. 19 administration report. In that report, the administration recommended more vetting of county property before it is turned over to developers in a process that currently relies largely on individual commissioners sponsoring land deals in their districts.
In a statement Tuesday, Levine Cava said “my administration has recommended that the property conveyance process be entirely redesigned.”
The two reports don’t match up in terms of properties analyzed, with the commission auditor examining a larger pool of real estate than the administration analysis.
Among the audit report’s findings:
▪ Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami is the main producer of affordable housing in the program. Miami-Dade conveyed to the nonprofit developer 456 lots for affordable housing, and just 83 to the second-place finisher, Empowerment Zone Trust. Of the Habitat lots, fewer than 5% were listed as undeveloped in the auditor’s report, with most still falling within the two-year county deadline for construction. “Habitat cannot function without the infill program,” said Habitat’s Miami CEO, Mario Aretcona. “It is our lifeblood.”
▪ Developers sometimes violated program rules without consequences. In 2004, developer Southern Real Estate Services paid about $274,000 for six lots Miami-Dade put up for bids, provided affordable-housing projects would be built on them within one year. But Miami-Dade took no action when the lots sat vacant after two years and Southern used them as collateral for a $990,000 loan that later went into foreclosure. The report stated “enforcement of the reverter clause may have provided the County with the opportunity to regain ownership of the properties.”
▪ Though designed for quick development, the program can let lots sit vacant for years. The audit report details every lot sold by Miami-Dade, including the date conveyed and the deadline for development. Sometimes that gap can stretch for years. Palmetto Homes of Miami has until 2024 to build on lots the company received in 2019, and the Neighbors and Neighbors charity has until this year to develop property it acquired between 2016 and 2018.
▪ Properties with county-imposed price caps still manage to sell for higher prices. The auditors found 282 lots sold above county-imposed price caps, which have ranged from as low as $91,000 when the program started to the inflation-adjusted ceiling of $318,000 commissioners approved last year. The report said the sales appeared to go through without the required approval of the county’s Department of Public Housing and Community Development. A spokesperson for the agency declined to comment on the report.
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 6:32 PM.