Nonprofit Bringing New Affordable Housing To Miami's Edgewater Area

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami-Dade renters are hurting to keep up with the cost of rent.

The Department of Housing and Urban Planning says 54% of people in Miami-Dade are struggling with rent more than the national average.

Because of that, the nonprofit the Healthy Housing Foundation by AHF's mission is bringing new affordable housing to the Edgewater area.

"We have become the least, if not the least affordable in the country," said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

The Biscayne House will be a 75-micro unit, 12-story high rise with onsite parking.

This is the first affordable housing unit that Healthy Housing Foundation developed in South Florida.

"They're all going to be singles they're going to be relatively small, more or less like a hotel room in size, but they're going to be beautiful," said Michael Weinstein, the president of Healthy Housing Foundation.

With the housing crisis taking over nationally, Mayor Cava says that Miami-Dade needs to have more housing that people can afford, like the Biscayne House.

"Sometimes it's a 50% increase so, we're really pricing people out of the market, unfortunately our work force is effected they may have to leave. We just passed legislation to at least give 60 days notice for a 5% rent increase or eviction," said Mayor Cava.

Cava said partnering with nonprofits like this is their goal to keep affordable housing coming to Miami-Dade.

"Right now, we're looking at something in the rage of $500 a month," said Weinstein.

To qualify for the housing, "the criteria that we're looking for… really the main is folks who will be able to live here are at 50% AMI or below," said Ebonni Chrispin, the legislative affairs and community engagement manager at Healthy Housing Foundation.

That is the only criteria for this location. As for affordable housing in general, Mayor Cava says qualifications are all based on the area's medium income.

"We don't have enough. So every time there's a new project, people flock to it. We don't have a really centralized system the county does have a Section 8 program and we encourage people to sign up for that as a voucher. You can take that to willing landlords who will accept a supplement to the rent from the government so that people don't have to pay more than a third of their income on rent," said Mayor Cava.

She said those that qualify are people holding jobs that serve our community and they can't afford market rent, so she's happy these prices will be lower to help them.

"The person making 20 or 30,000 a year is suffering, and it's only getting worse. We look at homelessness as a terrible situation, but that's only the tip of the iceberg," said Weinstein.

"There are people, regardless of age, race, sexual orientation… they are in need of housing they can afford. We want to offer that to everyone. And if they meet that criteria, they should have housing, it's that simple," said Chrispin.

These units will be ready for rent come 2024. You can find their application on their website in 2023 at www.healthyhousingfoundation.net.