Activists Push for Affordable Housing in an Ever More Expensive Miami

"A recent flowering of luxury condominium development coupled with a surging population and decades’ worth of under-building have pushed rents sky-high," Antonio Pacheco writes in The Architect's Newspaper. These higher rents have many in the city worrying that they will be pushed out or have to leave that city entirely. "In response, advocates are pushing for increased development of affordable housing units and for mixed-income and transit-oriented developments across the region," Pacheco writes.

"Miami-Dade is currently redeveloping the Liberty Square public housing projects in North Miami. Seven hundred existing units will be rebuilt as a 1,500-unit mixed-income, mixed-use community by developer Related Urban Development Group," Pacheco reports. But many are suspicious of all new developments, especially as they have watched their neighborhoods change. They worry that developers will continue to prize the desires of rich newcomers over the residents who currently live in the city.