Miami's Affordable Housing Crisis

Despite enjoying an unprecedented boom in residential construction, The City of Miami is failing to provide adequate affordable housing units to its most needy citizens.

1 minute read

June 5, 2007, 5:00 AM PDT

By Mike Lydon


"On a forgotten corner of Overtown, Barbara Tuitt spent months watching construction workers build the first home she would ever own: a three-bedroom large enough for her parents and disabled son.

She saved $5,700 for a down payment, and after 15 years of living in public housing too cramped for a Christmas tree, Tuitt was planning to string holiday lights across the porch of her new home.

But she never got the keys.

A tractor rolled down the street last year before the house was finished, and within hours, the city of Miami tore down Tuitt's new home and eight others -- risking a $1.4-million taxpayer investment and destroying a budding neighborhood in one of the poorest pockets of Miami.

It was another doomed affordable- housing project in a city scarred by a decade of failures."

Sunday, June 3, 2007 in The Miami Herald

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