Miami is making real progress on affordable housing: Build on that momentum | Opinion
By Annie Lord
A Metrorail train arrives at the Douglas Road Station on Aug. 7 in Miami. In the last three years, Miami-Dade leaders passed policy to increase density and lower the cost to build apartments in exchange for rent restrictions. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
Miami-Dade’s affordable housing crisis is crushing working families. We’re missing 90,000 affordable rental homes for households earning up to $75,000 per year.
Meanwhile, according to the 2025 United Way ALICE report, more than half of Miami-Dade households — over 500,000 families — cannot afford the basics. This includes medical assistants, teachers, home health aides and nearly everyone working in our restaurants and hotels.
Many families have been forced out of the county or into homelessness, jeopardizing our economic and cultural future. What is our city if the people who keep it running and make it worth living in can no longer afford to stay?
This can feel overwhelming. But Miami has overcome enormous challenges before, and we’re starting to answer the two most important questions to confront this crisis today.
Where should we build it? Some people say that we’re out of land in Miami and that we need to expand into the Everglades. But when we look down at Miami from a plane, we still see opportunities: tracts of underused land around Metrorail and commercial corridors, near jobs and colleges. New affordable housing can be built on smaller vacant lots, on top of strip malls and included in multifamily developments.
In the last three years, Miami-Dade’s state, county and municipal leaders have taken bold steps, passing policy to increase density and lower the cost to build apartments in exchange for rent restrictions.
Legislators have also paved the way for houses of worship, nonprofits and school districts to build housing on their property. Churches have stepped up to create affordable housing for their communities. Miami-Dade County Public Schools just opened its first affordable housing development on school property, with a pipeline to follow.
All of this is real progress. Next steps include deepening the affordability of rent restrictions to better match residents’ needs, and expanding incentives to include rehabs and smaller properties.
How do we pay for it? While the state, county and municipalities have consistently invested critical funds in affordable housing development, we need much more. This must come from all sectors, but public investment is the linchpin. The private sector cannot lend at scale to development projects unless expected rents cover that debt, and today’s high construction costs make affordable rents impossible without subsidy. The public sector is uniquely positioned to raise enough money, leverage it and deploy it effectively.
Miami Homes For All and many others have advocated for years for a county general obligation bond to support housing at rents everyday Miamians can afford. Nearly 14,000 units are ready to be built, lacking only funding to break ground.
Our last housing bond passed in 2004, and Miami-Dade has allocated those funds successfully, ethically and almost entirely, proving that we can deliver on this commitment.
While now may not be the moment for residents to take on this obligation again, that moment will come, and we cannot afford to be unprepared. General obligation bonds take years to develop and approve. We must begin preparation now: identifying projects, building financial models, forming political coalitions and educating the public. Public officials must lead, but success will require action and commitment across all sectors.
Remember what this community has already accomplished. When Miami Homes For All was founded in 1985, Miami-Dade had 8,000 unhoused residents, most unsheltered. With a public referendum in 1992, Miamians voted to pass the Food and Beverage Tax, resulting in an 87% reduction in homelessness. A decade later in 2002, voters passed a property tax to create The Children’s Trust and serve hundreds of thousands of kids. This community knows how to invest in what matters. We have a proven track record of investing wisely, acting boldly and delivering results.
We have momentum. To build at the scale we need, we must make more space and invest more boldly. The question isn’t whether we can do this — our history proves we can. The question is whether we will choose to act with the same urgency, unity and vision that defined our past successes.
An affordable Miami is possible, but only if we commit to it together. The people who make this city vibrant, resilient and worth calling home deserve nothing less. Let’s rise to meet the moment — again.