By Amelia Orjuela Da Silva, Miami Times
Speaking at a housing conference Monday night, a local church leader put Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in the hot seat. She wanted to know, would the mayor designate $3 million in the 2025-’26 fiscal year budget for the county’s Eviction Diversion Program — and commit to making it permanent?
“Yes, I will,” Levine Cava responded, igniting a loud chant from the crowd of approximately 1,000 who sat before her.
The question came from the Rev. Ana Jackson, pastor at Sellers Memorial United Methodist Church in West Little River, as part of an annual forum hosted by People Acting for Community Together (PACT). Borrowing its name from the Old Testament, the Nehemiah Action Assembly invited elected leaders to stand before hundreds of members from congregations across the county to address Miami’s worsening housing crisis.
The Rev. Sherlain Stevens, pastor at Ebenezer United Methodist Church and a current PACT president, opened this year’s assembly at the Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church in Cutler Bay with a message grounded in faith and urgency.
“In Micah 6:8, we are invited as people of faith to act justly,” she said. “But the thing that’s also important for us to do, that we are required to do, is the work of justice. And so that is very important for us in PACT. It helps us to collaborate and get together to do that work.”
Each year, PACT, a coalition of more than 40 interfaith organizations in Miami-Dade County, uses its collective power to push public officials toward solutions. Three officials were invited to this year’s gathering, though only Levine Cava showed up. Commissioners Oliver G. Gilbert and Kionne McGhee were absent despite receiving months of notice, organizers said.
“They’re missing not only the opportunity to listen to constituents but also to be accountable,” said PACT members Blanca Montenegro and Melody Torrens, both of whom had prepared questions for the no-show commissioners.
Top Priorities
PACT congregations held listening sessions last fall, where skyrocketing rents and gentrification topped community concerns. The group partnered with advocacy organizations, including the Miami Workers Center and Miami Homes for All, to collect research and data presented during Monday’s forum.
This year’s top campaign priority was to identify permanent funding for the Miami-Dade Eviction Diversion Program, a pilot launched in March 2023 that provides free legal counsel to tenants facing eviction.
“The number of evictions is now above pre-pandemic levels,” said Philip Cardella of the Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ. “The group most impacted? Black mothers — families with children who have no options of where to go.”
The second priority is to require developers to hold community input meetings for any housing project above $15 million, forming Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) to secure resources like affordable units or job programs.
To put a face to the issue, 65-year-old Brian Douglas shared his own experience with housing instability. A former New Yorker, he moved to Miami in 2019, briefly living on the streets before finding shelter in a rooming house. But in April 2024, the landlord told residents the building had been sold. Douglas was told to vacate without any prior notice.
“The vast majority of the residents in my building were minority, elderly or disabled,” he said. “I was a resident of this building for five years, and I was never behind in my rent.”
The stress caused by his imminent eviction pushed Douglas, who has high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer, to the hospital.
With help from the Miami Workers Center and the Community Justice Project, Douglas received legal assistance through the Eviction Diversion Program, which extended his housing by six months — an outcome almost unheard of without representation.
Douglas eventually secured a unit at Sawyer’s Walk, an affordable senior complex in Overtown.
“We need the eviction diversion program to be sustained, expanded and made permanent for the protection of tenants,” he said.
Housing Crisis
Khalilah Abdullah of the Masjid Al Ansar mosque, who is also a member of the PACT Housing Committee, presented troubling housing data during Monday night’s assembly.
“Miami-Dade County renters are the second most cost-burdened in the country,” she said. “Even New York City is below us.”
According to a Redfin study, only Providence, Rhode Island, ranked lower than Miami in terms of housing affordability. The median rent in Miami hit $2,373 in December, requiring an income of nearly $95,000. The median renter income, however, was just over $57,000.
“We have members of our congregation who are young adults who return home from college with their newly acquired diplomas, expecting to have an opportunity to launch into independence, get their first apartment and start adulting. Unfortunately, they have to stay home with family members,” Stevens said.
PACT leaders say high rents are pushing families to take multiple jobs, face eviction, or leave the county altogether.
“About 70% of Miami-Dade residents are renters, and more than 60% of households spend over 30% of income on rent,” said Abdullah.
‘Let Justice Roll’
Such discussions culminated in one of the night’s most anticipated segments, “What We Want and Response,” during which elected officials are asked to respond to PACT’s demands with a simple “yes” or “no.” If they say yes, the crowd erupts into a chant: “Let justice roll!”
Levine Cava triggered that response when she pledged to include $3 million for the Eviction Diversion Program in the next budget. She also agreed to work with the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller to edit the eviction notice documentation to include resource and contact information for the Eviction Diversion Program, or to create an informational flyer for the program to be distributed with eviction notices by May 30, 2025.
During her two-minute remarks, however, Levine Cava also acknowledged that the county is facing budget constraints, especially with the end of federal COVID relief dollars and the creation of five new constitutional offices.
“I do not pass a budget. The county commission passes a budget, and they need to hear from you,” she said. “Join us because we are going to ask the community to help us make some hard choices. Make no mistake about it, ladies and gentlemen. We will be cutting our budget.”
Budget hearings are expected in May 2025.
What’s next for CBAs?
Nathan Kogon, the incoming interim director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, also responded to PACT’s housing priorities.
He committed to holding meetings with public housing residents during redevelopment solicitations, in addition to publishing all Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) reports on a public website by May 30 and sharing them with PACT.
“Through Community Benefit Agreements, we can negotiate benefits for our communities that we know we need, like affordable housing,” said Rev. Jackson, citing a recent win by the Build a Better Miami Coalition surrounding the city’s largest planned development.
Some questions remained unanswered due to McGhee’s and Gilbert’s absence. As a result, PACT encouraged attendees to call and email both commissioners to express their disappointment.
The event concluded with a commitment from PACT’s membership to continue to follow up and take action against the housing crisis.
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