Organize the South

Taken from the Miami Herald. The Miami Workers Center has their own site, the story should be up soon.

Deal calls for 850 homes
Miami-Dade County has agreed to double the number of homes it plans to build where the old Scott-Carver Homes were demolished.

BY CHARLES RABIN
crabin@MiamiHerald.com

A newly brokered deal between Miami-Dade County leaders and a community organization that fights for the poor could mean hundreds of more affordable places to live in Liberty City.

The county has agreed to scrap its plans on the much-scrutinized HOPE VI project and greatly expand the number of homes that will be built in one of the county's poorest areas.

Both sides are hoping the plan will ease the problems caused by the failed HOPE VI project, which forced 1,178 families from their Scott-Carver Homes in 2000 with the belief that they could return to purchase their first homes in the rebuilt community.

But six years later, only a small percentage of the planned 411 affordable homes have been built, leaving hundreds of families scattered -- and many still waiting for the homes they were promised.

''In the last 48 hours we have struck an unprecedented deal with Miami-Dade County. We're now bringing back the same number of units'' that were demolished, said Sushma Sheth, communications director for the Miami Workers Center.

Monday's agreement calls for the construction of 850 units in an expanded area around Scott-Carver, and additional affordable homes on the old Scott-Carver site along Northwest 22nd Avenue.

The 850 homes would consist of public housing and Section 8 units, and others that will be available for purchase. The old plan called for 160 rental units and 411 affordable houses for purchase.

The idea is to get the poorest of the poor -- families of four with an annual income of $16,750 or less -- into the properties, say county officials.

Though Miami-Dade County Housing Director Kris Warren was unable to come up with a price tag, she said construction money would come from a combination of local, state and federal funding. The director said she hopes to begin searching for developers by the end of March.

Warren, brought in to help clean up problems at the housing agency, said she met with Workers Center Director Gihan Perera over the weekend to discuss the area's problems.

''We both agreed on what the needs are,'' said Warren.

Also to be built: A social services center and some form of monument to recognize the Scott-Carver Homes residents forced from their homes.

County leaders have planned a news conference this afternoon at Miami International Airport to announce the plans.

HOPE VI was demolished with great fanfare in 2000, but instead of building homes the Miami-Dade Housing Agency spent millions on architects, project managers and consultants who in several instances double-billed the county.

The new plans are the latest in a series of efforts by the county to come to grips with housing problems originally reported in The Miami Herald's House of Lies series last year, which showed widespread waste and corruption in federally and locally funded housing initiatives.

Since then the agency's entire management team has been replaced, rules have been changed and more than $18 million in contracts have been canceled with deadbeat developers.

Today's planned announcement comes after an investigation by federal regulators from Housing and Urban Development that was prompted by an audit that found widespread deficit spending, chaotic bookkeeping and shady deals going back almost a decade.

On Monday, a team of seven investigators was set to begin inspecting public-housing buildings across the county, checking whether residents were properly screened and review managers' plans for meeting budget and occupancy targets.