Community and Stakeholder Engagement

In the last two years, Miami Homes For All (MHFA) has engaged over 700 people throughout Miami-Dade County and held a little over 50 meetings. Engagement sessions included industry-specific focus groups, Steering Committee meetings, meetings with government agency partners, and resident engagement sessions co-led by community partners.

Attendees of focus groups and resident engagement sessions were asked to workshop and develop a prioritized, high-impact list of solutions to the affordable housing crisis. Throughout the community engagement process, conversations kept coming back to three key policy priorities: (1) enacting anti-displacement and housing preservation policies, (2) using public land for public good, and (3) seeking new revenue sources as existing financial support for affordable housing continues to decline.

Resident Engagement Process

In August 2019, Miami Homes For All (MHFA) convened a group of community engagement experts for a Resident Engagement Task Force (RETF) in an effort to authentically engage Miami-Dade County residents across all 13 County Commission Districts. The RETF, co-chaired by Trenise Bryant of Miami Workers Center, Adrian Madriz of SMASH, and Rachel Prestipino of People Acting for Community Together (P.A.C.T), identified points of contact or “meeting leads” in each district. Members of the RETF also included representatives from Catalyst Miami, Radical Partners, TransSOCIAL, Inc., Engage Miami, Konscious  Kontractors, Sant La, and the City of Miami’s Housing and Community Development Department.

MHFA, in partnership with the RETF and meeting leads, held a total of 13 resident engagement sessions between August and December 2019. Meeting attendees engaged in passionate discussions about housing and transportation equity in Miami and expressed the desire to see policies enacted creating more opportunities to build community and generational wealth through homeownership; implementing housing protections for undocumented community members; matching infrastructure needs with new development; and addressing the needs of those experiencing homelessness.

In August 2019, we had the unique opportunity to speak to the membership of Engage Miami’s monthly housing meeting, residents of Casa Valentina, and students in Professor Scott Murphy’s “Preparing for Student Success” class at Miami-Dade College North. Of particular interest to students and young adults was the history of development in Miami as seen through the lens of housing equity and social justice. Conversations highlighted concerns about the state of public transportation outside of transit lines to and from school and a desire to see policies implemented that would alleviate housing cost burden, enable community growth and ownership, and protect residents vulnerable to displacement in neighborhoods facing increased market pressures. Younger participants expressed real concerns about having to juggle a job (or two) and attend school while also figuring out how to pay rent and other living expenses.

Overall, the concerns expressed by community members throughout all of these meetings reflected the shared desire to be able to afford a safe and stable place to call home.