Affordable rents at renovated apartment buildings in historic Overtown
MIAMI - In an effort to help residents with rising housing costs, Miami-Dade county officials announced the near completion of five newly renovated apartment buildings in Historic Overtown.
Once complete, the project will provide 28 newly renovated apartments at below-market prices.
"I don't think $2,000 for a student apartment is affordable," said Avra Jain, the founder of Vagabond Group, a development company that purchased the apartment buildings.
"At 80% average median income, I don't think $1,250. We really need $800 rents, right, so the Omni CRA, because they gave us the grants to renovate these buildings, to renovate them properly, we were able to keep the residents here for those same rents," added Jain.
The Vagabond Group took an $812,000 long term low-interest rate loan from the county through its NOAH loan program, which provides flexible resources for moderate rehabilitation to owner's existing single-family homes, duplexes, and small or midsize rental housing in Miami-Dade county.
The loan is fixed at a .5% interest rate over 20 years and during that time the landlord is not allowed to increase rent prices.
"The rents are guaranteed to be affordable for that period of time,' said Michael Liu, Director of Miami-Dade County's Public Housing. "That is a very unique product that we have. We hope other owners of smaller projects like this will come forward and work with us."
The owners of the property told CBS4 they expect construction to be completed in the next 6 months.
"The goal here was to keep the existing Overtown residents here. So number one, we did not displace any of the residents," said Jain.
Any Miami-Dade County residents in need of rental assistance are encouraged to contact the county's public housing's emergency rental assistance program (ERAP).