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Victory…and Now the Hard Work Begins
After 7 years of fighting for justice for over 1000 displaced families, MWC won the right to return for all displaced residents, one to one replacement of all destroyed low income housing units, and a seat at the table for the development process. The Miami Workers Center (MWC) in Liberty City has fought for 7 years against the federal HOPE V1 project. HOPE V1 planned to demolish 1600 units of extremely low-income housing. The two projects were home to over 5,000 people in Miami's historic African-American neighborhood In 2001, MWC’s grassroots organizing project LIFFT (Low-Income Families Fighting Together) stopped the destruction of 750 units at Liberty Square Projects. They were affectionately know as the Pork n' Beans. We stormed the USHUD building in Washington, DC and demanded that the HOPE VI grant be denied. But another HOPE VI grant had already been approved to demolish 850 public housing units at the historic James E. Scott and Carver Projects. And it would replace them with merely 80 units of public housing and town houses. After the victory at the Pork n' Beans, we began organizing to reverse the Scott Carver HOPE VI plan. Between 2002 and 2006 MWC and LIFFT were able to force some improvements through direct action, civil rights law suits, coalition work, and community awareness building. However, the county displaced all 1,129 families between 1999-2004 and demolished all but one building by 2006.
Since the initial approval of the HOPE VI grant at Scott Carver, the
entire Miami-Dade Housing Agency has been plagued by mismanagement
and graft. The displaced residents were scattered throughout the
region and received little of their promised services. Many
residents were 'lost' by the housing system. An unholy pirate union
between private developers, county commissioners, and agency
bureaucrats ruled the day. While grassroots members militantly fought this powerful alliance, the issue of Scotts rarely made it out of the African-American community. Last fall The Miami Herald's series "House of Lies" publicly exposed the corruption and collusion between county government and private developers. It showed that tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for affordable housing had been stolen, misused or squandered. Scott Carver Homes was a glaring example of the scandal. MWC convened a Countywide Coalition for Emergency Housing Relief (CEHR). We declared a state of housing emergency. The coalition included: POWER U Center for Social Change, the Human Services Coalition, ACORN, SEIU Local 11, FAMN - Haitian Women of Miami, and PACT. The Coalition's actions received widespread support by the public who saw county corruption and housing as major issues. CEHR demanded an immediate $200 million for affordable housing from the county. Utilizing mass mobilization, and personal testimony of directly impacted residents, the coalition ultimately won $14 million for rentals assistance and the filling of vacant public housing. But the $200 million demand was turned down. Even though the HOPE VI plan at Scotts was central to the county scandal, the county bureaucracy held fast to the original HOPE VI plan. In October, activists from the Center for Pan-African Development created a shantytown in Liberty City as a permanent symbol of the housing crisis. In January, former residents, with LIFFT and MWC took over the last standing Scotts building, blocks away from the shantytown. There we erected a "Find Our People" name wall to list and find all displaced residents of Scotts. The county had lost track of over half of the displaced families. In five weeks of activity the campaign located 240 Scott Families. The Scott site became a central gathering and networking place for displacees. The county moved to shut down the site. There was a major stand off between members and police. The County backed down. Then on Valentines Night the police returned, evicted members, and fenced off the site. Meanwhile, USHUD was threatening to take over the local housing agency. The county attempted to demonstrate administrative improvements. But undersecretary at USHUD, Orlando Cabrera, is heavily connected to Miami's powerful Latin Builders Association. And he seemed determined to force a federal takeover. Then the newly hired head of Miami’s Housing Agency, Kris Warren, reached out to MWC/LIFFT to dialogue about HOPE VI and the federal take over. On February 27 we came to a historic breakthrough agreement. It was completely in line with our campaign’s principles and vision: 1. 1 for 1 Replacement: NO net loss in extremely low income units. 2. Right to Return: all 1,129 families displaced from the community have the right and affordability to return to their community and its social, economic, political and cultural networks. 3. MWC/LIFFT representation on an accountability panel to oversee implementation of the development design and process. 4. The development of a community building with space for services, information, and public participation. 5. A commemoration to Scott Homes’ history, struggle, and the contribution of the Black Community With this accord MWC/LIFFT entered a tactical alliance with leadership of county government to stave off a federal take over. This is one of the most significant housing agreements for low-income communities in Miami-Dade history. It also represents a potential watershed moment for the predominantly African-American community of Liberty City. This could be a huge step in reclaiming the self-determination of the community, its land and reshaping the neighborhood in the interests of those who live there. But we're not out of the woods yet. The negotiation between federal and county authorities is still playing out. If the federal government continues toward take over, it is unclear what will happen to the agreement. Even if all things go well, following through on the agreement will be a major undertaking. The details of how to design, fund, and implement this will be a grand challenge We must move quickly on the momentum of this first step to get the agreement into action.
miamiworkerscenter.org
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Spring
2007
