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Residents Rally In Overtown To Demand Affordable Housing

Housing advocates from the Miami Workers Center, the Miami-Dade branch of the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other organizations gathered with residents outside of a new development in Overtown on Thursday morning to demand more affordable housing.

The protesters said the Mill Creek Modera Riverhouse being built on Northwest 11th Street represents the gentrification problem facing low-income communities.

“This particular development here at River House encroached on the historic outlines of Overtown,” said Daniella Pierre, the housing chairperson of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP. “So now you’re coming in the community, dismantling our nature and our environments, and we can’t even live here.”

During the rally, a construction worker got into a shouting match with the protesters. He said that if they wanted to live here they needed to make more money. Pierre shouted back to ask how much.  

“He said $200 a day. Let’s be real,” Pierre said.

After protesting, some of the activists headed to the county’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board meeting scheduled for Thursday morning.

"What we are proposing is an affordable housing oversight committee," Pierre said, "to stop developers from coming in our communities with no type of acknowledgment or nod from the community.

Those at the rally also want the governor to declare a housing state of emergency in Florida to immediately provide more affordable housing relief funding.

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