CUTLER BAY, Fla. – A Miami-Dade Homeless Trust plan to convert hotel rooms near the Southland Mall into affordable housing units is moving forward, much to the chagrin of at least some Cutler Bay residents and officials.
That’s according to a recent status report from Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
The property in question is the La Quinta Inn & Suites at 10821 Caribbean Blvd., between U.S. 1 and Florida’s Turnpike.
Units at the property would be retrofitted with kitchenettes prioritized for low-income seniors on annual leases, Ron Book, the head of the Homeless Trust, said.
“At the end of the day, if we are going to end homelessness in our community, we have got to create opportunity for permanent supportive housing,” he said. “If we do not control inventory, the Homeless Trust, we cannot move people out of the shelters into housing.”
Cutler Bay town officials and some of residents, like Elizabeth Soto, have been wary of the project.
“This was rolled out without getting input from our local government, for residents, when this is a taxpayer-funded initiative,” Soto told Local 10 News in November.
That April 9 status report highlighted why once-explored alternative sites, located in southwest Miami-Dade and Homestead, were no longer preferred.
Status report:
Challenges to the alternative locations identified included displacing low to moderate-income families already living there, the average price per unit exceeding budget, lack of proximity to a rapid transit corridor, and room configurations not quite suitable for conversion, the status report states.
“There are no other options,” Book said. “This is geographically in the right place, the zoning is right, the land use is right. It is in a rapid transit zone and we will upgrade the property.”
Back in February, Cutler Bay Mayor Tim Meerbott expressed hesitancy about the conversion plan.
“We don’t know what you are putting in there because you haven’t put it in writing,” he said. “You haven’t said if it will be a needle exchange or felons and, if you did, perhaps there would be less worry.”
Book said he’s been “clear” about the site: “I’d cut off both my arms before I would let a needle exchange...happen there. That will never happen and it will never be a shelter and we will condition that.”
He said the housing will mainly cater to low-income seniors.
“We are prepared to condition that no less than 65% of those individuals who will be placed there and rent with a lease will be over the age of 65 — senior citizens,” Book said, later adding that the “largest growing group of homeless individuals nationwide and in our community (is) senior citizens.”
Book suspects opposition to the plan could be a case of NIMBY — “not in my backyard.”
“And let’s be clear, that is what they have said,” he said. “Everybody who has spoken against it in Cutler Bay has said, ‘Don’t put this in my backyard.’”
But, in this case, Book said he can’t imagine why anyone would be opposed to providing housing to primarily low-income seniors.
The site is located in a commercial area.
“I get what NIMBYism is, but this will be majority seniors,” he said.
Book says the plan for La Quinta Cutler Bay is similar to their Mia Casa housing project that opened in 2023 in North Miami — also for seniors.
In an email after reading through the status report, Soto told Local 10 News she doesn’t believe the chosen location “aligns with the vision and town planning that has been in progress for years.”
Soto said she feels like Cutler Bay’s leadership and residents should have been roped into the discussion sooner and feels it could be, from a town planning perspective, at friction with the nearby $1 billion redevelopment plan of the 80-acre mall site.
“It’s a tax-funded initiative in which Cutler Bay government and residents had no say,” she said. “I opposed how this has been rolled out. If it is funded in large part by taxpayers, I feel residents in the community that would be impacted by this housing project should have been involved.”
Meerbott said there has been “mistrust” in the community, “because we have seen Ron Book make some comments about covenants that they are willing to enter into when I asked him specifically to enter the covenants in the meeting we had here we could not lock him down on it.”
Book said the Homeless Trust plans to upgrade the building’s facade.
He also said that there will be security and conditions built into the annual leases, which he believes provides more oversight on the property than currently exists at the discount hotel, which currently rents to unknown individuals.
In a statement to Local 10 News, Meerbott said the town was not included in the process of identifying and evaluating the alternative sites listed in the status report.
He confirms that their position continues to be that they would like to be part of the process and that they feel that the “La Quinta site is not the best usage of the property, particularly since there is an existing housing shortage.”
The Mayor says that in a letter sent via email on March 7, Book committed “up to 60% to be seniors” not the “no less than 65%” seniors “as stated to Local 10 News.
March 7 letter:
“Though this is a positive step that the Trust has finally acknowledged the desires of the community, we feel we need to continue to find the solution which will have the best impact of our community,” adding that the Council would desire that the Trust commits to 100% seniors, “like the sample that Mr. Book keeps mentioning of Mia Casa.”
Meerbott said after reviewing the April 9 status report, “we still have some questions on the amount of funds it will take to all 107 rooms at a cost of $650,000. Also, we still have some concerns regarding the Unit sizes and the amount of individuals who will be housed in each of these small rooms.”