More than $39 million in new federal grant funding will help develop public and affordable housing in Miami’s historic Overtown neighborhood, officials announced Friday.
It will make Miami-Dade County the first community to get two consecutive Choice Neighborhoods Implementation (CNI) grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The latest round of funding will go towards redeveloping the Culmer Place and Culmer Gardens public housing properties in Overtown — supplementing a $332 million commitment from the county and the City of Miami towards a larger "Transformation Plan" for the area around the developments, according to a HUD press release.
Last year, the county already received a $40 million CNI grant to redevelop Cutler Manor and the Goulds neighborhood in South Dade.
Overtown is a historically-Black neighborhood near downtown Miami that was once known as “The Harlem of the South” for its thriving business and arts community. The community was fractured in the 1960s by the building of Interstates 95 and 395, which split Overtown and drove out many businesses, leaving the neighborhood in neglect for many decades.
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“The Choice Neighborhoods program goes way beyond housing, way beyond brick and mortar,” HUD executive Richard J. Monocchio said at a joint press conference with Miami-Dade officials on Friday. “Look at the interstates that have disconnected us for so long. This grant is going to remediate that. It’s going to reconnect Overtown to the entire city.”
The HUD grant is part of a larger push by the Biden-Harris administration to increase the nation’s affordable housing stock — demonstrated by the President’s recent announcement of $325 million in affordable housing funds going to seven cities around the U.S., including Miami.
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens, in accepting the CNI grant on Friday alongside Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other local government officials, echoed past statements from HUD that Miami is at the forefront of the affordable housing crisis.
“We’re at the epicenter,” Wilson said.
Culmer Gardens and Culmer Place are existing low-income housing projects built in the 1970s and 80s. They will be redeveloped by developer Atlantic Pacific Companies, which pledges to more than quintuple the number of available units from 226 to 1,056.
Only the existing 226 units will remain public low-income housing. The rest of the units will target a range of household incomes. There will be 621 affordable units for households that make up to 80% of Miami-Dade County’s Area Median Income ($79,400 for one person), and 212 workforce housing units for households that make up to 120% of the Area Median Income. A total of ten new units will be put up for sale.
People who live in the existing 226 public housing units are allowed to return to their apartments once the redevelopment is complete, according to Mayor Levine Cava. She said the county is working with the City of Miami to put more attention to revitalizing Overtown after years of decline.
“This kind of investment is exactly what we need to do to right the wrongs of the past and revitalize communities that were torn apart,” Levine Cava said.
The $40 million CNI grant will be supplemented by a $332 million investment from Miami-Dade County’s Public Housing and Community Development office and the City of Miami.
Additional funds will go towards pedestrian enhancements to improve mobility around Overtown, as well as wraparound services provided by homeless assistance nonprofit Camillus House like job training and education for residents. All of these segments make up what the county and HUD call the “Transformation Plan.”
This will also go hand-in-hand with the $84 million Underdeck plan to build a park beneath I-395 and connect Overtown to surrounding neighborhoods.
