For Beatrice Regina Thomas, stability wasn’t just about having a roof over her head; it was about having a network, too. After losing her mother and being priced out of Liberty City, Thomas was sleeping in her truck when a chance encounter changed her life.
“I was tired. I cried myself to sleep,” she recalled. “I parked right there (outside Liberty Square), and then Nathaniel Joseph came knocking on my truck. He said, ‘You ain’t all right. Come on in here.’”
That knock from Joseph, community liaison manager for The Related Group, led Thomas to housing at the renovated Liberty Square. With it came opportunities and a support system she’d never had.
“I wish I had this place a long time ago,” she said. “I've been exposed to a lot, because before, it was just church and getting home. This place has become my ministry.”
Today, Thomas is a senior's liaison and vice president of the tenant council at Liberty Square. With Joseph’s and the Related Group's help, she completed a property management program and secured a job in her community.
Her story mirrors research by Opportunity Insights, a policy lab based at Harvard University, which shows that upward mobility is shaped not only by income or housing assistance, but by who people are exposed to, where they live, and the social networks they can access.
A missing ingredient in wealth-building
The research finds that social capital — the strength and diversity of a person’s social networks — is one of the strongest predictors of upward mobility for children from low-income families. Using data from 21 billion Facebook friendships, researchers identified “economic connectedness” — the degree to which people from different income backgrounds interact — as the single strongest indicator of upward mobility identified to date.
Yet those connections remain rare. Nationally, there is almost no social overlap between the poorest and richest Americans: among people in the bottom 10% of earners, fewer than 2% of their friends are in the top 10%.
Moreover, while the Black-white poverty gap narrowed by 72% for children born in 1992 compared to those born in 1978, the likelihood for a Black child to reach the top income bracket by adulthood remained largely unchanged. Put simply, better starting incomes has not translated to more upward mobility — pointing to social capital as the missing ingredient.
“It really is all about exposure,” said Tina Brown, CEO of the Overtown Youth Center, who was born and raised in Historic Overtown.
“When you see struggles growing up, you learn that oftentimes there’s talent, but there’s not always opportunity,” Brown said. “When resources are limited, oftentimes your networks are very limited. You often only know the people that you see on a day-to-day basis.”
Opportunity Insights’ data on Miami underscores this divide. The region ranks in the 42nd percentile nationally for upward mobility among low-income children and in the 10th percentile for social capital, exhibiting low economic connectedness. Economic connectedness is measured through two factors: exposure, or how often people from different income levels share the same spaces, and friending bias, the likelihood that those encounters turn into actual relationships.
For low-income children in Miami, only 29% of their friends come from high-income families, compared to a 40% national average.
Opportunity Insights’ Social Capital Atlas shows that in historically Black neighborhoods, the gaps are sharper. In Overtown (ZIP code 33136), 41% of the people whom low-income residents meet have high incomes, and once they do meet, low-income residents in Overtown are 20% less likely to befriend those with a higher income. Further, children living here grow up to earn an average of $20,600 annually, placing the neighborhood in the 1st percentile nationally for upward income mobility.
In Liberty City (ZIP code 33142), exposure to people with higher incomes drops to 23%, and low-income residents are 10.9% less likely to form friendships with higher-income peers. By contrast, wealthier areas like Doral show a "friending bias" of just 2.4%, with exposure reaching nearly 58%.
Brown said these patterns are rooted in cultural preservation.
“I think hesitancy comes from, in a large part, just history,” she said. “Oftentimes, people in certain communities feel intimidated when individuals from a different socioeconomic background move in. They feel like the community may lose its identity.”
She noted that this protectiveness is understandable, often stemming from decades of displacement from urban renewal, but that it can also restrict opportunity.
“There are a lot of opportunities when we do diversify,” Brown said. “When you have exposure to different people with different upbringings and opportunities, it can propel you into greatness.”
Housing placement and mixed-income developments
Where people live shapes who they meet. In Miami-Dade, much of the affordable housing, particularly via the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), remains concentrated in low-income areas. While LIHTC is widely regarded as one of the nation’s most effective housing tools, Opportunity Insights’ research shows that clustering affordable housing in high-poverty zones can unintentionally reinforce social isolation.
Opportunity Atlas data from 2012 to 2016 show poverty rates between 30% and 50% in historically Black neighborhoods dominated by LIHTC developments. By contrast, developments like Doral Terrace — where roughly 70% of units are designated as low-income — show poverty rates closer to 10%, underscoring how location shapes outcomes.
The goal, researchers say, is a dual-pronged approach: placing affordable housing in high-opportunity neighborhoods while introducing market-rate housing into high-poverty areas to attract investment.
Kareem Brantley, president of The Integral Group’s Florida and Caribbean Community Development Division, says the firm was founded on this mixed-income principle more than three decades ago — long before the term became common in housing policy debates.
“What we knew for sure wouldn’t work is a community comprised solely of low-income earners,” Brantley said. “We had already seen that in the United States. That was called public housing. We needed to make a different model.”
Brantley emphasized that LIHTC remains foundational but must be part of a longer-term development strategy.
“You have to start somewhere, and the LIHTC allows us to do that,” he said. “When you can say, ‘I’m going to develop 20 acres and have eight or nine phases of development,’ that’s when you really see the magic.”
“These neighborhoods do transform,” Brantley added. ”They become transformative in that they invite more of the economic engines into the community after you get some of the housing built.”
Brantley said mixed-income housing provides residents with housing choice. Albert Milo, president of Related Urban Development, says mixed-income housing produces measurable results.
“I think the main benefit of mixed-income housing is the fact that you have different families of different income levels living in one location,” Milo said. “If you are a lower-income family and you work your way up the economic ladder, you still have the ability to have that upward mobility but remain in your neighborhood.”
At Liberty Square, Milo said, that shift has dramatically increased the community’s economic capacity.
“When we started there, the economic buying power of the families was just under $9 million,” he said. “When we’re done with the redevelopment, it’s going to be right around $139 million.”
Still, building mixed-income housing in high-opportunity neighborhoods remains difficult. Brantley said that funding and zoning constraints limit scale, and competition for resources is intense.
"The demand far outstrips the supply," says Brantley. "It's very competitive, and you really are trying to make a big difference with very few resources."
Milo stated that long-standing assumptions in housing policy have traditionally restricted affordability to low-income areas, and "not-in-my-backyard" concerns still create resistance in wealthier neighborhoods. However, he believes these fears can be mitigated through design and education.
“If you’re designing it to that market-rate standard, they should be less concerned,” he said. “This is a combination of middle-income and market-rate units. Look at the amenities. Look at the income demographics we’re bringing in. It’s not the old method of projects.”
Human impact and mentorship
James McQueen, executive director of the Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA, in front of one of the developments under construction in Overtown.
James McQueen, executive director of the Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA, says the goal is to avoid “creating pockets of poverty.” At Block 55 in Overtown, families earning under 60% of the median income live alongside market-rate residents.
“The kids may be living next to doctors and lawyers,” McQueen said. “That might inspire them to realize their full potential.”
The ripple effects extend to the local economy. For years, Overtown lacked retail and local job access. Today, nearby stores like Publix and Target employ residents with permanent positions, including management roles.
"Access to jobs for the residents has been a great boon in the community,” McQueen said.
In Liberty City, 24-year-old Darryl Johnson, who moved from an old public housing unit to the mixed-income development, says the new environment changed his outlook.
“Every day I’m hearing wildness, fights, people being uncivilized,” Johnson said, recalling the old days. “I was influenced in the wrong places.”
Today, Johnson works in construction within his own community after being encouraged by Joseph, the community liaison, who “saw potential” in him.
“It gives a person hope that there is still a chance for them out there,” Johnson said, “other than losing hope and leading to criminal activity.”
This reporting was supported by Hy-Lo News through a grant from the Local Media Association. This article is part of a national initiative exploring how geography, policy, and local conditions influence access to opportunity. Find more stories at economicopportunitylab.com.
This story was produced by The Miami Times, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. Read more at miamitimesonline.com.
