An investment group plans to build a 50 story mixed-use development in Miami's Little River neighborhood, with around 4,000 residential places to live and some commercial space.
However, the land for this project is currently home to Miami Soar Mobile Home Park. Open since the 1950s, the large trailer park houses more than 307 trailers. The company, Miami Soar Management, bought the land in 2018.
Clara-Sophia Daly is an investigative reporting fellow with the Miami Herald and spent months talking to trailer park residents about being forced to move in one of the nation's most expensive real estate markets. She reported that the trailer park is among the last truly affordable housing available in Miami.
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"When I found that this place is under threat of being demolished and these residents don't have anywhere to go, I felt like it was an important story that sort of emphasizes the struggles a lot of people in South Florida are facing when it comes to affording a place to live," Daly told WLRN.
Daly interviewed Maria Eva Nunez. She is a 78-year-old retired house cleaner who has lived in the trailer park for about 26 years.
Nunez told Daly that she lives off of a small Social Security check and, because her rent is more than her fixed income, she relies on her daughter who's also struggling financially and has a family of her own.
"For her, the idea of having to leave and trying to afford a place to live in the housing market right now is really hard to comprehend," Daly said.
When Miami Soar Management Corp purchased the property, they raised the rent by more than 50%. Most residents are paying $850 a month for the land their trailers reside on.
As part of the application to develop the land, a housing study was done that found there are no comparable units in Miami-Dade County or Broward that residents of the trailer park can afford, Daly reported.
"These are not just low-income people. This is the lowest of the lower income brackets in our area, and it's just very hard to afford a place to live in this housing market."Clara-Sophia Daly, investigative reporter
Daly spoke to the owners of the land and asked them multiple times if they had anything in their plans that would let current residents stay in the new buildings. The owners said they want them to stay, but they have not said what the rent would be and if they will be able to afford it.
"They have every intention of providing these people a place to live, but they haven't been able to make any commitments on paper as to what the rents will be," Daly said.
Daly said what's happening at Miami Soar isn't an isolated incident.
"Across the state of Florida and nationally, mobile home parks are being purchased by developers who see it as a recession-proof financial opportunity," she said. "The result is these communities of affordable housing that have existed in the United States are disappearing."
Miami Soar Management has said they will do what they can to ensure the trailer park's residents have a place to live. As of now, it's too early in the process to say what that will look like.
Daly said Luis Vindel, who is president of one of the homeowners associations at the trailer park, thinks every resident should be given around $20,000 to relocate. That's what to him seems like a fair settlement.
It will be some time before this project gets underway.
The application has been moved to the next cycle, so Daly believes public hearings will be held next spring. The comprehensive development master plan for Miami-Dade County also needs to be amended so Miami Soar Mobile Home Park can be rezoned.
