02 Mar CRA BOARD APPROVES THE PURCHASE OF 19 HOUSING UNITS AT TOWN PARK PLAZA NORTH
The Southeast Overtown / Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (“CRA”) now can add homeownership opportunities to its list of goals for Overtown. On March 1, 2018, the CRA Board of Commissioners approved $700,000 for the agency to purchase nineteen (19) townhouses at Town Park Plaza North Condominiums, a multi-family community originally built in 1973 as a HUD housing development.
The CRA plans to transform Overtown from a predominately rental community to one of homeownership for elderly, low, and moderate income families and this is the first step in implementing the CRA Neighborhood Stabilization and Homeownership Program. “You are not a true stakeholder in this community until and unless you own a piece of the rock” says Cornelius Shiver, the newly appointed Executive Director of the CRA. “The Chairman of the Board, Keon Hardemon has directed me to take deliberate and strategic measures to ensure that the residents of Overtown, those who have suffered the most under slum and blight, have an opportunity to own their homes during these transforming times in Overtown.”
In furtherance of that directive, the CRA will be unfolding its Neighborhood Stabilization and Homeownership Program, which essentially is an anti-gentrification initiative designed to combat the rising housing costs in Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade County has one of the least affordable housing markets in the nation. People are considered “cost-burdened’ by housing experts when more than 30 percent of income goes toward a place to live. By that measure, Miami-Dade has the third most cost-burdened housing market in the country, behind two counties in the New York area. The problem is more profound in Overtown, where the median household income is around $15,000.
Town Park Plaza North is one of the largest areas in Overtown with residential owned properties. Over the years the units began to suffer from deteriorating physical conditions. In an effort to improve the quality of life for the residents of Overtown, the CRA awarded a $15.3 million grant to Town Park Plaza North Association to renovate 169 units. While the final phase of the construction is underway, the CRA felt it was imperative to move now to purchase the units in order to preserve housing units for those who are most in need of affordable housing. For more information about the CRA Neighborhood Stabilization and Homeownership Program, contact the CRA at (305) 679-6800.