GOULDS, Fla. – In just two weeks, Brenda Thomas will be one of the residents moving into the new affordable housing community of Meridian Point by Preservation of Affordable Housing, or POAH.
“I thank you guys for making it possible to have a new start,” said Thomas.
“This is part of the HUD investment plan and we are in partnership with a wonderful national organization called POAH,” added Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
The new housing is located near a transit hub, the county bus stop at Southwest 216th Street Station near the intersection of US-1, in south Miami-Dade’s historic Goulds neighborhood.
“It is also a transit-oriented project,” said Levine Cava. “It is right next to a transit line, it is near retail, it is not just about the house, it is about an investment in the neighborhood and a lifestyle.
“My spirit is uplifted a day like today to see something beautiful that comes online that is going to help many, many families and help to transform a neighborhood,” she added.
A mixed income housing project, Meridian Point at Goulds Station features 113 units.
The vast majority of those units will be reserved for residents like Thomas, residents of Culter Manor.
“This is a project that is going to help people relocate near to where they were [Cultler Manor] a project that needs to be rebuilt,” said Levine Cava.
Cutler Manor, the nearby aging HUD-assisted housing development, will soon be renovated courtesy of a recent $40 million HUD Choice Neighborhood Implementation grant.
“Cutler Manor is a project that is nearby, it is not a very safe building, there have been some real concerns, but we needed people to have a place to go in the meantime, so these things worked together so we could move them to a brand new facility here and also renovate that facility,” said Levine Cava.
HUD’S Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, or CNI, is a grant program designed to revitalize low-income communities that aim to create mixed-income, amenity-rich neighborhoods. It is also an investment in the Goulds neighborhood, says Levine Cava.
“We are not only preserving, but we are increasing the supply of housing that people can afford,” she said.
County leaders say the 113-unit Meridian Point at Goulds Station is just some of the thousands of units they hope to bring online this year.
Levine Cava, along with Miami-Dade Director of Housing and Community Development Alex Bannilla, say they working to address the affordable housing crisis through increasing the supply of units through private-public development and funding partnerships.
“Currently, we have in the pipeline either planning or development 18,000 units,” said Bannilla. “There is about 7,000 right now that are under construction that we hope will be delivered in 2025, but early next year, barring no major setbacks along the way. Affordability is not unique to Miami-Dade County. Every large metropolitan area of the United States is struggling with this right now. We are at the forefront of development. You have to use a mixed-income approach, that is what this is. You can’t concentrate all low income in one area. This allows people to live here from across AMI levels.”
He added a focus is on building up, adding density, and near transit corridors.
“This project in particular is very interesting because we are really focusing our development around transit nodes, and right there is the rapid transit bus,” he said. “As Miami grows, you will see a lot of what is here, is low density, if you are able to increase a little bit of the density able to increase affordable housing, bringing more units to more residents.”