Habitat needs the county’s help to house the poor
Recent discussions by the Miami-Dade County Commission and in the pages of the Miami Herald have focused on two studies pertaining to the county’s Infill Land program. Some participants in the program, created to generate affordable home-ownership opportunities by making land available to developers, have flagrantly ignored the program’s requirements by exceeding the imposed sales price, repeatedly missing deadlines and, in the most egregious of cases, borrowing against the properties and defaulting on the loans, thus forfeiting the land altogether.
Miami-Dade County leaders are right to shine a light on the program and find ways to curb these abuses, particularly during the current housing crisis.
But not all of the studies’ findings were negative. Although they identified some bad actors involved in the program, the work done by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami stood out as a success story.
By far the largest beneficiary of the infill land, Habitat has requested and obtained more than 450 lots through the program, the vast majority of which have been sold to qualified, lowincome families. The remaining properties either are in construction or some other phase of development. With few exceptions attributable to inevitable delays, Habitat has consistently met program deadlines and has never approached, let alone exceeded, the maximum allowable sales price for any property. In fact, Habitat maintains a self-imposed sales cap well below the program maximum.
Part of Habitat’s successful approach is to focus not on how much money it can make from the sale of a home, but rather on how affordable it can make the home for qualifying families. They are required to commit to a minimum of 250 hours of “sweat equity” to the construction of their homes and those of other Habitat participants. Buyers also are required to attend a series of 12 workshops on topics, including budgeting, finance, hurricane preparation and civics. The goal is to give families the tools and knowledge to be successful homeowners and assets to their communities.
After completing these requirements and the construction of their homes, participants can buy the homes at or below Habitat’s cost and obtain a 0% mortgage. To date, Habitat has built and sold more than 1,400 homes in MiamiDade alone. The default rate among Habitat families has been less than 2% over the course of the program’s history, a mark of success at any income level.
The relationship between Habitat and the Infill Land Program is a model of private/public partnerships. Without land provided by the county, Habitat’s work on behalf of low-income families would be severely affected. Escalating land costs would make it practically impossible to provide an affordable product for the least-served communities.
County leaders have considered the idea of doing away with the Infill Land Initiative altogether or adopting a competitivebidding requirement for the allocation of lands. We hope that they keep in mind Habitat’s unparalleled success rate and that they do not allow the actions of a few bad apples to deprive their low-income constituents of a tried-and-true method for achieving their dream of home ownership. Any competitive bidding that the county adopts should focus not on how much a developer can pay for the land, but on how affordably a home can be provided to a qualifying family. In making any changes to the program, the county should not lose sight of its purpose.
Habitat stands ready to work with Miami-Dade to improve the Infill program and its methodology for acquiring land and removing bottlenecks to development. As the county rightly reacquires lots from those developers that have allowed dozens of lots to remain stagnant, Habitat should be given the opportunity to acquire them so we can build on the success of our partnership with the county.
A stronger relationship with the county will ensure the continued success of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami and a brighter future for all our beneficiaries.