Pages tagged "News"
How Catalyst Miami Is Working to Make a $400 Million Municipal Bond a Model for Equitable Climate Adaptation
June 3, 2019
By Loren Berlin
From the Urban Institute Next 50
Voters in Miami, Florida, passed the “Miami Forever Bond” in 2017, authorizing the city to borrow $400 million primarily to help address rising sea levels and the affordable housing shortage. Advocacy groups like Catalyst Miami and the Miami Climate Alliance are working to make sure that every resident, especially those in underserved communities, has a say in how the bond is used. We talk to Catalyst Miami’s CEO Gretchen Beesing and Resilience Director Zelalem Adefris about how to ensure equity when it comes to climate adaptation.
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Zelalem Adefris, resilience director, Catalyst Miami[/caption]
The bond has gained a lot of attention for its potential to serve as a model for equitable climate adaptation. Eighteen months later, and from your perspective as community organizers, is the Miami Forever Bond achieving that potential?
Zelalem: As it stands, I don’t necessarily think the bond is a model for equitable climate adaptation right now. But we are working to make it a model.
How so? What are the challenges to emphasizing equity, and how is Catalyst Miami helping resolve them?
Zelalem: The Miami Forever Bond is the city’s most meaningful and largest investment in climate adaptation to date and is also a very large investment in housing.… We want to set a precedent with this first $400 million to ensure that not only the projects, but also the process for selecting the projects, are centered in equity. So, in that respect, this bond represents a huge opportunity. That said, it’s also a challenge because that model of emphasizing equity is not necessarily how the city has done these projects in the past.
Gretchen: As much educating and community organizing as we do, and our partners and other organizations do, there’s still an underlying political process at the city—which isn’t always a transparent process, yet it often wins the day.
Like what?
Gretchen: For example, in December 2018, the City announced the first $50 million worth of projects that would be financed by the bond. That first tranche of money was decided largely by elected officials without any input from the community. And there’s no safeguard against the City to do that on every tranche of money.
Zelalem: There’s a learning curve that officials at the city are facing when it comes to prioritizing equity. We are getting involved to assist with that.
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Gretchen Beesing, CEO, Catalyst Miami[/caption]
How? In what ways is Catalyst Miami helping to make equity more of a priority for projects funded by the Miami Forever Bond?
Zelalem: We have worked with city staff who may not have a lot of experience successfully engaging community members, but want to do it effectively. Our goal is to get them to carry forward that model for strong community engagement in all projects. For example, hiring local community organizers to do outreach, providing translation in Spanish and Haitian Creole, and making food available.
We also work directly with city residents. Once the bond passed, the first step was the community oversight board and, specifically, making sure that the members represent the City of Miami well in terms of diversity, gender, and race and also ensuring that board members are actual residents of the city and that they do not have any financial conflicts. We found these criteria important because many other city boards are male-dominated and lack representation by people of color.
As part of that, we have worked hard to get the city to widen the qualifications required for board members. The first draft of the ordinance was going to require a higher education degree in a related field, which would obviously really limit eligibility. So we got the city to add “community leadership” as qualifying expertise to open up those qualifications a bit more. We then held town hall meetings and engaged community members in partnership with the Miami Climate Alliance, which is a coalition we work with. In fact, one resident who attended one of our town hall meetings actually ended up appointed to the oversight board.
Why is it so important to get that community input?
Zelalem: In a community as diverse as ours, with an issue as complicated as climate change, it’s going to be really hard to address the issue and adapt in a way that really works for people if the city only hears from a few voices. There’s no way a small group of people can possibly represent the diversity and needs of so many people. We need the voices of lots of people to make sure that what the city chooses to invest in will actually be useful, and used, and will address the real community needs that may be hard to see when looking at a GIS [geographic information system] map.
What research would help you to advance your work?
Zelalem: It would be great to have a map that shows where the city spends its money across all of its investments. For example, equity is a central tenant in the model for the bond, but making a project truly equitable is complicated. Being able to show the geography—and geographic concentration—of where city money has been invested, overlaid with need, would be a helpful advocacy tool to show that the needs of a wide range of residents aren’t necessarily being met. It doesn’t necessarily make sense to just split the money equally among all city communities, even though many elected officials suggest doing that, but rather, invest in areas most at risk and in need.
This article originally appeared in the Urban Institute Next 50.
Catalyst Miami offers free training programs to educate residents on how-to become advocates for climate change and affordable housing this summer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2019
This summer, Catalyst Miami kicks off a new cohort of its CLEAR (CLEAR stands for Community Leadership on the Environment, Advocacy & Resilience) training program, which provides graduates with a groundwork to become climate resilience educators, leaders, innovators and advocates in their own communities and beyond. Participants develop a deep understanding of climate science, local climate change threats, and solutions.
CLEAR participants learn how to advocate for their communities by:
- Learning how to educate other community members on basic climate science, threats and solutions,
- Learning how to expose and challenge how poverty and discrimination make communities vulnerable to climate change, and
- Practicing how to effectively advocate for policies that strengthen the resiliency of Miami communities.
This cohort of the class, which is taught several times a year and rotates around Miami-Dade County, started on June 19th at Touching Miami With Love in Homestead. More information here - http://bit.ly/CLEAR2019
On July 10th, Catalyst Miami launches a new training program, HEAL (HEAL stands for Housing Equity, Advocacy and Leadership), which is modeled after CLEAR, but focused on affordable housing rather than climate resilience. The six-week program, open to residents 14 and older, will begin in Overtown on July 10, with one three-hour session each Wednesday evening. The cost is free; dinner and childcare are provided. More information here - http://bit.ly/HEALJuly2019
Participants will delve into topics including:
- Expose and challenge how poverty, low wages, and discrimination contribute to the housing crisis.
- Effectively advocate for practices and policies that strengthen the livability of Miami’s communities.
- Learning how to educate others on the history of housing advocacy, cutting-edge solutions, and how to get involved
Sessions of both CLEAR and HEAL are tailored to community members; no prior experience is necessary — just an urge to improve the community. As with most of our programs, interpretation in Spanish and Haitian Creole is provided, so that language is not a barrier to participation.
Catalyst Miami works to collaboratively create sustainable solutions with low-wealth Miamians. The non-profit focuses on iterating innovative solutions which can yield long-term results for low-wealth communities, including financial literacy and asset-building programs, health education, and more. The 23-year-old organization often works at the intersection of climate change and affordable housing.
“We know our low-wealth communities are disproportionately affected when dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane,” says Gretchen Beesing, CEO of Catalyst Miami. “As these disasters and significant new climate-related burdens increase, it will become even more difficult for them to accrue wealth, assets and political capital. As a result, financial vulnerability increases climate vulnerability, which in turn heightens financial vulnerability even more.”
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About Catalyst Miami
Catalyst Miami believes everyone deserves a healthy and financially secure life; currently, nearly 60% of families in Miami don’t have enough savings to weather a financial emergency of any kind. For over 20 years, Catalyst Miami has committed to empowering residents to build better futures by providing family economic security programs, developing leadership and civic engagement, and building coalitions to address poverty. More detailed information about all their programs can be found on their website (catalystmiami.org).
CONTACT:
Molly Delahunty
[email protected]
786-414-1292
Those who most need affordable housing can learn to become their own best advocates
June 17, 2019
By Gretchen Beesing and Zelalem Adefris
By The Miami Herald
Many affordable-housing options in Miami, such as this building in Little Havana, are in poor condition. EL NUEVO HERALD
Miami-Dade County faces two critical and interrelated challenges: the affordable housing crisis and the increasing impact of climate change. These issues intersect at both the household and neighborhood levels.
At the personal level, an individual needs roughly $400 to cover water, food, and supplies for protecting the home in the case of a hurricane — cash hard to come by for the more than 1.4 million Miami-Dade residents who live in liquid-asset poverty, without sufficient cash to survive three months if an emergency results in loss of income. Low-wealth communities are particularly vulnerable, especially because physical and civic infrastructure is inadequate, and climate-related policies and the distribution of resources usually favor higher-wealth communities with more social and political capital. It also is easier access to state and federal assistance.
Of course, when an already low-wealth community disproportionately incurs significant new climate-related burdens, residents’ ability to accrue wealth, assets and political capital further declines. As a result, financial vulnerability increases climate vulnerability, which in turn heightens financial vulnerability even more.
Enter Miami-Dade’s housing crisis.
The challenge of finding, paying for and maintaining quality housing is much more difficult for low-wealth communities, which are predominantly communities of color. The Color of Wealth in Miami — published earlier this year by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, with contributions from Catalyst Miami and others — estimated the median wealth for white, non-Hispanic households in Greater Miami at $107,000.
By contrast, South Americans and African Americans had $1,200 and $3,700 respectively, while other Hispanic groups and Caribbean blacks had slightly higher medians. Apart from non-Hispanic whites, Cubans held the highest median wealth, which was still only slightly greater than 20 percent of that of white non-Hispanic households. The study points out that differences in net worth are “more likely … driven by differences in asset ownership,” rather than debt, since debt was relatively level across groups.
The study also underscores how the challenges of low-wealth communities are made worse by climate gentrification, as higher-elevation land in the urban core — land found along the railroad and settled by the low-income people and immigrants who built the line — becomes in high demand. The pressure of development threatens to displace long-standing community members, many of whom were already struggling to pay rent.
Over the past year, with support from Citi Foundation and others, Catalyst Miami has sought to amplify our work at the intersection of community prosperity, social justice, racial equity and climate change by embarking on a new neighborhood-based approach that more directly addresses resilience-related concerns of low-wealth residents. Given the statistics on Miami’s housing crisis, it came as no surprise that residents of Overtown and other areas named housing as one of their highest priorities. From this community listening, and with support from Allegany Franciscan Ministries and The Miami Foundation, our new HEAL (Housing Equity, Advocacy and Leadership) training program emerged.
HEAL participants will develop an understanding of the complex history of housing inequity, advocacy and local affordability threats, as well as potential solutions and avenues to pursue them. The six-week program, open to residents 14 and older, will begin in Overtown on July 10, with one three-hour session each Wednesday evening. Sessions are tailored to community members; no prior experience is necessary — just an urge to improve the community. The accompanying youth course for ages 6-13 will feature hands-on elements of architecture, science, and design. The program is available in English, Spanish and Creole, with dinner provided. Additional cohorts will be scheduled in the months that follow.
HEAL’s educational aspect is only the start. Through HEAL, we’re building a pipeline of local leadership that will ensure that a diverse set of voices shapes our collective future. Graduates will be equipped to act as affordable-housing educators, leaders, innovators and advocates. As with conversations around climate change, housing affordability discussions are often data-driven. This is a good thing, but the voices of those directly affected must also be included. HEAL will enable a new wave of diverse, local leadership that will advocate for solutions that work for everyone.
HEAL will also employ a holistic, intersectional approach. The training will connect affordable housing to climate change, building upon Catalyst’s signature CLEAR (Community Leadership on the Environment, Advocacy & Resilience) program and promoting stronger ties between the affordable housing and climate movements. HEAL will also promote an examination of the relationships among availability/accessibility of quality, affordable housing and issues such as health equity and energy justice. This will be accompanied by efforts to boost cross-neighborhood collaboration, starting with an August workshop on energy efficiency with delegations from Little Havana, Allapattah, Overtown, Liberty City and more.
Despite the challenges, Miamians remain committed to their community. Local advocacy played a significant role when, in 2017, Miamians passed a $400 million bond that addresses affordable housing and sea-level rise. HEAL Miami will help keep the momentum going. Sign up today:www.catalystmiami.org/heal-miami.
Gretchen Beesing is CEO of Catalyst Miami and chair of the board of directors for the South Florida Community Development Coalition. Zelalem Adefris is resilience director at Catalyst Miami.
How can Miami become more resilient? The Resilient 305 strategy has dozens of suggestions
May 29, 2019
By Lance Dixon
By The New Tropic
WHAT IS IT: To create a region-wide resilience strategy for SoFlo, Resilient 305 is a joint effort between Miami-Dade County, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, the Miami Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program.
HOW IT CAME TOGETHER: Those cities and the county’s chief resilience officers — along with many more employees — fanned out across the county hosting community meetings, focus groups, conducting surveys, and collecting ideas at workshops, until they were able to finalize the strategy.
Those meetings and discussions kicked off in 2016 and continued through the summer of 2018.
The team also reached out to the mayors and managers of all 34 municipalities across the county to get a sense of how they were addressing the climate crisis, and what resources they needed.
“We were looking for those opportunities where this unique collaboration could make a difference, where technology and innovation could help us level and scale up, and how we could take equity and use it as a critical lens,” said Jane Gilbert, Miami’s chief resilience officer.
THE KEY FINDINGS: The strategy identifies about 50 action items and goals for Miami that range from doable in the next year or so, to longer-term ideas that will take about five or more years to implement.
That list includes a wide variety of options including:
- Creating an Actionable Science Advisory Panel, in an effort to have cities and the county use science in a dedicated way to help with planning and design decision
- Increasing training before hurricanes so neighbors can essentially act as first responders in the event of delayed assistance or extended power outages
- Creating an educational program to increase resilience literacy in schools
Each Resilient 305 solution is structured with a three-pronged focus on places, people, and pathways.
Places puts an emphasis on physical things like creating affordable housing and improving transportation infrastructure. People is about maintaining citizens’ day-to-day lifestyles while also preparing for big events like a major storm or a financial crisis. And pathways is all about how SoFlo leaders and regular folks make it happen.
WHAT’S NEXT: Susanne Torriente, Miami Beach’s chief resilience officer, said that the team is excited to implement these ideas, and to continue some work that’s already started in her city and elsewhere.
She says that today is when Resilient 305 enters its pivot (which has a sort of backronym that stands for Progress, Innovation and Vision for Our Tomorrow).
“It’s going to be a small organization that we create to start putting together the work plan and setting a time table,” Torriente said.
Their goal is to start working toward the most accessible and “low-hanging fruit” action items, while still strategizing for the ones that require more concerted efforts.
“I think we’re now going to better prepared probably than any other place in the United States,” said James Murley, Miami-Dade chief resilience officer.
Disclosure: WhereBy.Us co-founder and chief operating officer Rebekah Monson is a member of Resilient 305’s steering committee.
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This article was posted by The New Tropic.
Greater Miami Unveils Its Rockefeller Resiliency Plan. But What It Covers Might Surprise You.
May 30, 2019
By Jenny Staletovich
By WLRN
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Flooding in the Brickell area on Aug. 1, 2017.[/caption]
Three years after they joined the Rockefeller Foundation to create a grand plan to fight rising seas, climbing temperatures and other worsening climate hazards, three of South Florida’s most threatened places unveiled their blueprint Thursday.
The plan, created by Miami-Dade County, Miami and Miami Beach, boasts 59 “specific actions” already in place. And it is far broader than originally envisioned, addressing issues such as youth violence and the opioid epidemic.
But the wonky strategy may test the patience of a region where rising seas threaten more real estate than any other state. It comes up short on new ideas and includes many existing pilot projects and programs underway before the effort was launched.
“This is a resilient strategy that looks beyond climate at shocks and stresses that affect our community,” said Miami-Dade Chief Resilience Officer Jim Murley. “Therein lies the thing that makes this a different kind of implementation plan by including all these other things.”
Rather than recreate “the wheel,” Murley said the plan aims to reshape the strategy of local cities by committing them to a framework of fixes. Nothing in the plan is mandatory and no estimated costs for the fixes is outlined.
It also mirrors Rockefeller plans drafted around the country that went beyond climate impacts: Boston focused on racial inequality and Los Angeles took aim at problems among its immigrant community.
So far, 12 of the county’s 34 municipalities have agreed to the plan, including South Miami, El Portal and North Miami Beach.
On Thursday, after they rolled out the plan at rooftop party at the Perez Arm Museum, Rockefeller's 100 Resilient Cities president Michael Berkowitz said it was unclear what kind of help those cities would get. Miami-Dade, Miami and Miami Beach had access to $200 million in planning and research services from companies like reinsurer Swiss Re. But Rockefeller dramatically scaled back the $164 million national effort earlier this year. The program is now being administered by the Atlantic Council with a $30 million from Rockefeller and $25 million from philanthropist Adrienne Arsht.
"100RC is transitioning so we and the Foundation are thinking about how to cointine to make those partners available. So we’ll have to see and yes, the idea is certainly for many of those partnerships to continue to be available," Berkowitz said.
Rockefeller plans on providing some money to help implement the South Florida plan, but how much is not clear, said Otis Rolley, a Rockefeller managing director for jobs and economic opportunity. When asked how much the foundation provided other cities, he said some cities received between $5,000 and $10,000 and another was awarded over $900,000.
"I'm not trying to dance around it, it's just we really don't know yet," he said.
The plan’s critical issues including fixing Biscayne Bay and local reefs, two of the ecosystems among the most threatened by increasing stormwater from rising seas. But it relies on existing measures including an advisory board for the bay and a longstanding reef restoration effort.
No mention is made of more than 21 square-miles of seagrass lost in Biscayne Bay over the last decade caused by worsening water conditions or an unprecedented coral die-off that started off Virginia Key in 2014. The die-off has now traveled down the Florida reef tract, threatening a tourist magnate and barrier for flood protection that the U.S. Geological Survey said last month provided $1.6 billion in protection during severe storms.
The plan also calls for the county to implement its three-year-old SMART plan to deal with the problems brought on by ongoing growth. Take Homestead. Murley said the county wants to see continued development at the south end of the county because the SMART plan calls for a bus system.
“We hope that that continues because we're going to build a premium bus system, bus rapid transit, connecting to Metro Rail down to that Homestead station,” he said. “We don't want to see development moving out of the urban growth boundary that the county has, but we definitely want to see development taking place where it's well-served by water sewer transplant.”
The plan is at least the sixth for the region since 2012 aimed at addressing climate-driven problems. Among the worst: increased flooding and saltwater intrusion threatening drinking water supplies. And it repeats many of the same calls for action: fix aging infrastructure incapable of dealing with increased flooding, improve natural resilience, make a plan for dealing with sea level rise.
But unlike the others, it widens the scope of resilience measures to include youth violence, opioid addiction and mental health, traffic problems, affordable housing and job training.
That’s because the region needs to work on making sure its urban core is more resilient, Gilbert said.
“If we have a hurricane and the homeless population is not taken care of, we’re going to have far more threats to human lives if we don’t have systems in place,” said Miami resilience chief Jane Gilbert.
Miami-Dade, Miami and Miami Beach were selected to be part of the program in May 2016 from 325 applicants after demonstrating a commitment to becoming more resilient despite repeated criticism for acting too slowly.
The Rockefeller Foundation had launched the project in 2013 with 32 cities around the globe. Twenty pledged to spend 10 percent of their budgets on initiatives. While it’s not clear how much local cities plan to spend, Murley and Gilbert said Miami, Miami Beach and the county are already spending more.
The plan also replaced Miami-Dade County’s own plans to draft an attack for battling aging infrastructure and other issues. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giminez hired Murley, then the director of the South Florida Regional Planning Council, agreeing to pay him $190,000 a year after environmentalists complained a $75,000 a year position he created would not attract an expert with the skill needed to address such complex challenges.
Murley initially intended to have a plan drafted by the spring of 2017 but changed course after the Rockefeller Foundation included the county in its effort. No money came with the award, but the foundation said local governments would have access to up to $200 million in expertise.
“There's no magic bullet project that’s going to protect us from climate [change], sea level rise, or hurricanes. That's part of living in South Florida,” Murley said. “But we are advancing through this strategy the work that we identified and any additional work that needs to be done to make this a more resilient community to those effected by those shocks and stresses.”
When the storm comes, our most valuable communities suffer the most. They shouldn't.
May 31, 2019
By Nancy Metayer
By South Florida Sun Sentinel
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Many of the mobile homes and rentals that housed service workers in the Florida Keys were destroyed by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. The Sawdowski affordable housing trust funds could help. But Florida lawmakers keep raiding the fund for other priorities. (Taimy Alvarez/Sun Sentinel)[/caption]
June 1st marks the official start of another hurricane season here in Florida and I still remember what many went through during Hurricane Irma and Michael.
I remember speaking to a community member and asking if she was ready. I could hear the hesitation in her voice when she replied “I hope so, I just paid my rent”.
This was the reality for many at this time, choosing between paying rent, utilities or preparing for a storm, where many believed or prayed wouldn’t hit Florida.
As Floridians, we are encouraged every year to prepare ahead and not wait until the last minute. But the reality is that many people can’t afford to buy what they need to prepare or recover from a storm.
Natural disasters and the subsequent recovery efforts consistently exacerbate economic inequality. This point is proven when we look at places like New Orleans, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.
Unfortunately, extreme weather events like hurricanes will continue to be a commonplace in the coming years, as a result of climate change. Low-income and underserved communities, often home to people of color, will continue to bear the brunt of the effects.
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Nancy Metayer is the Climate Justice Program Manager for New Florida Majority[/caption]
What we have learned from previous storms is that the disaster recovery process can be confusing and imprecise which leads to waste and abuse, while those in need continue to suffer.
In 2017, in the wake of Hurricane Irma, local officials scrambled to open emergency shelters to assist residents who were encouraged to evacuate, only for many to arrive and find the shelters ill-equipped to receive them.
Florida Power and Light, who for years has collected monthly storm fees aimed at hardening the grid, left millions of customers without power.
I dare to say that one of the few things that worked post-Irma was our community response.
Where state and local officials didn’t go, community organizations like New Florida Majority, the Miami Workers Center, Community Justice Project, CLEO, Catalyst Miami, FANM, Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), Miami Climate Alliance and other organizations stepped up to take care of our communities and neighborhoods.
Hundreds of people volunteered to organize the Community Emergency Operation Centers (CEOCs) where we had food, water, and other supplies available for people in need. It was heartwarming to see people patrolling streets in the middle of the debris to check on their neighbors, families donating water and food, and volunteer caregivers taking care of the elderly and the sick.
Time and time again, hurricanes highlight the imbalance of power and resources in our system. The changing of our climate is an impending disaster and we cannot ignore that our poorest neighbors will suffer the most. This marginalization continues in debates about land use, rebuilding, and the right to return in the aftermath of disasters.
As climate change continues to fuel the conditions that make hurricanes more destructive, storms lay bare the deep inequity that exists in our state. They show how quickly interconnection can become disconnection, as electric grids can be undone with a few hours or days of wind — while, in some places, take months to rebuild. These storms churn through different regions without regard for political borders, even while economic and political conditions strongly influence recovery.
As we enter hurricane season, legislators and local officials must execute a plan that helps to prepare all of their constituents and set the course for recovery efforts from potential storms this upcoming season.
The allure of easy fixes that maintain the status quo and don’t address the inherent inequality or policies that make it worse must be resisted. Instead, we need to focus on federal and state recovery aid to ensure equity in recovery.
In the meantime, community organizations are getting ready to protect our most vulnerable communities once again.
Nancy Metayer is the Climate Justice Program Manager for New Florida Majority.
The New Florida Majority has put up a list of resources and tools on our website hurricaneflorida.org and invite anyone in Miami-Dade, Broward and Duval counties, to sign up for our text alerts by texting HURRICANEFL to 90975.
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This article was posted by The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
How can Miami residents help preserve Little Haiti’s culture? We put together some tips
May 23, 2019
By Lance Dixon
By The New Tropic
“How can we collectively ensure that Little Haiti culture and character is not endangered with the expeditiously expanding (prohibitively) expensive development and rising cost of living?”
That’s the question from reader Michael Mercury Pearson that won the most number of votes, which means we’re answering it for you today.
Here are some of our recommendations for getting involved and supporting Little Haiti’s culture:
Check out these local organizations
Several organizations have been working to preserve an affordable community for longtime residents and small business owners. Many of them have organized on a regular basis to scrutinize land deals in the area, as well as major development proposals like the Magic City Innovation District.
Some countywide groups that are doing work in the area include Smash the Slumlords, Miami Homes for All, the New Florida Majority, and Catalyst Miami.
And some groups that are housed in the area and are primarily lead by Haitian Americans include the Family Action Network Movement, Concerned Leaders of Little Haiti, and the Haitian American Community Development Corporation.
The folks at Konscious Kontractors also host regular neighborhood cleanups, and other events centered around combating climate gentrification in the neighborhood and beyond.
All of those groups are working on various strategies to help preserve and create affordable housing, develop and purchase community land trusts, and to protect the rights of deeply-rooted property owners and businesses so they aren’t forced to move by rising rents.
And several of the above-mentioned organizations host community events and discussions on these topics, and if you keep up with them on social media they provide updates on when City of Miami and/or county officials are discussing or voting on some of these major projects and developments in the area.
Support local businesses
A fairly easy way to preserve the neighborhood’s culture and character is to support established businesses and help them remain afloat. There are local vendors in the Caribbean Marketplace at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex, or longstanding shops like the Piman Bouk restaurant or Liberi Mapoubookstore.
There’s also mom-and-pop markets along Northeast Second Avenue like Pack Supermarket and B&M Market that will keep you fed and still give you a chance to show some support.
And if you’re looking to get more involved and have authentic conversations with community members, the Cultural Complex hosts Creole language classes for beginners.
Thanks again to Michael for posing the question and to all of you who wrote in with questions of your own! Stay tuned as we explore other South Florida neighborhoods this year.
Appeared in the April 23, 2019, print edition as 'Miami Enclave’s Higher Ground Gains Allure, but Residents Worry.'
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This article was posted by The New Tropic.
JPMorgan Chase Invests Nearly $1 Million to Support Financial Health Initiatives for South Florida Women and Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2019
Part of the firm’s $125 million, five-year global investment in fintech solutions and financial coaching to help underserved communities increase savings, build credit, reduce debt and achieve financial goals
MIAMI – May 15, 2019 -- JPMorgan Chase announced today that it is investing a total of nearly $1 million in three local nonprofit organizations to provide financial coaching to help women and families increase savings, reduce debt and plan for unexpected events.
Catalyst Miami received $500,000 to establish worker cooperatives and help low-income households in Miami be financially resilient by building assets and savings, especially in the face of unexpected, climate-related events.
“We are very excited about this investment in our organization and the economic development layer of our resilience initiative,” said Gretchen Beesing, Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Miami. “Worker cooperatives provide employment, job stability and higher wages, and keep capital within a community – all important features of community-level resilience.”
United Way Miami Dade County received $300,000 to provide financial coaching to women through its United Way Center for Financial Stability. The program will focus on diminishing or eliminating debt, and the importance of creating a savings plan to become crisis resistant.
“We are grateful that JPMorgan Chase continues to invest in the financial resiliency of women,” said Maria C. Alonso, president and CEO, United Way of Miami-Dade. “In Miami-Dade, 84 percent of single-female headed households with children are in or on the verge of poverty - more than any other type of family, according to the recent United Way ALICE Report. Our work to financially empower these women is crucial, not only for the wellbeing of their families but also for the success of our community and economy.”
Hispanic Unity of Florida (HUF) received $142,500 to develop a multi-generational financial coaching program where 100 families – including parents and their children – in Broward County will be offered financial services. They will learn the fundamentals of financial wellness, including how to budget, decrease debt and how to tap into a variety of financial tools and resources.
“In Broward County, 50 percent of working families are economically insecure -- they struggle daily to pay for basic needs and most could not weather a financial emergency,” said Josie Bacallao, President and CEO of Hispanic Unity of Florida. “Achieving permanent economic security is a long term process and includes increasing household income as well as asset building. We use a two-generation approach to work with both parents and their children to create personal economic and financial plans.”
These investments are part of JPMorgan Chase’s $125 million, five-year commitment to improve the financial health of underserved communities across the world, which was announced today. Through collaboration with community organizations, the investment also will help inform the creation of products and services that can make banking more accessible to more people.
The philanthropic investment identifies, evaluates and expands fintech solutions and financial coaching programs to connect people with economic opportunity by helping them increase their savings, build credit, reduce debt and achieve their financial goals.
“When we create opportunities that make prosperity possible for more people, we become stronger as a country,” said Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO of Consumer Banking at Chase. “Our firm is being intentional in our approach by bringing together our people, our products and branches, our digital tools, and our community investments so we can serve everyone, including those who need it most."
$125 million investment in our communities
According to the World Bank’s Findex, more than 1 billion adults across the world struggle managing their financial lives. In the U.S., new research from Morning Consult found that:
- More than 1 in 5 Americans are not saving on a monthly basis.
- 52 percent of Americans do not have enough money saved or on hand for a $500 emergency.
This is in line with findings from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, which found that most households do not have sufficient liquid assets to weather 90% of income and expense fluctuations.
The $125 million investment will help tackle these issues for underserved communities – including low-income women, immigrants, people of color and the aging – by supporting the creation, testing and enhancement of innovative fintech tools that address their unique financial needs. In addition, it will support the development and expansion of proven financial coaching and just-in-time resources that can help people weather unexpected emergencies and meet their long-term financial goals – from building credit to buying a home.
“Helping more communities access the tools that they need to manage their financial lives and meet their goals is a critical component of ensuring that more people benefit from economic growth,” said Colleen Briggs, Head of Community Innovation at JPMorgan Chase. “Through this effort, we will test and scale promising financial solutions to support the prosperity of households and communities around the world.”
Supporting the financial needs of our customers
In the past five years, the firm has been working with 250 organizations globally to create paths to financial health, including new savings products and models. Insights from that experience are helping inform the creation of products and services at Chase, and helping inform the bank’s branch expansion.
Some examples include:
- AutoSave: A digital tool that has helped customers save more than $160 million to date by saving automatically, regardless of the amount.
- Chase Secure Banking: A low fee checking account created for those new to banking or who have had trouble keeping an account in the past. The checkless account comes with no overdraft fees, the ability to make electronic payments and full access to Chase branches, ATMs and digital tools. It seeks to help prevent the need for check cashing and other costly alternative services and already serves thousands of customers across the U.S.
- Credit Journey: A free digital tool that is helping more than 15 million people monitor their credit -- whether they are a customer or not - providing instant access to their credit score, and information on how different actions can impact it.
- Branches: 30 percent of new branches in low- and middle-income neighborhoods. In addition, Chase has rolled out Chase Chats - thousands of workshops and informational sessions at branches around the country focused on everything from budgeting, saving and retirement, to starting a business.
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About JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.7 trillion and operations worldwide. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, JPMorgan Chase & Co. serves millions of customers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.
About Catalyst Miami
Catalyst Miami believes everyone deserves a healthy and financially secure life; currently, two in three families in Miami don’t have enough savings to weather a financial emergency of any kind. For over 20 years, Catalyst Miami has committed to empowering residents to build better futures by providing family economic security programs, developing leadership and civic engagement, and building coalitions to address poverty. More detailed information about all their programs can be found on their website: https://catalystmiami.org/.
CONTACT:
Michael Fusco
813-584-2335
[email protected]
Molly Delahunty
786-414-1292
[email protected]
New Analysis Finds a Strong Economic Case for Resilient Solar+Storage in Miami
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2019
Clean Energy Group and Catalyst Miami explore the obstacles and opportunities for deploying solar and battery storage at critical community facilities in Miami
Miami, FL – Solar and battery storage technologies that provide clean, reliable backup power are cost-effective for many critical community facilities in Miami, according to a new report released today by Clean Energy Group in partnership with Catalyst Miami. The report, “Resilient Southeast - Miami: Exploring Opportunities for Solar+Storage in Miami, FL,” is one in a series that details a first-of-its-kind economic analysis for solar PV and battery storage (solar+storage) in the Southeast. When the economic value of resilience is accounted for, solar+storage was proven to be a positive investment for all building types in Miami, though obstacles remain before widespread adoption of the technologies will be feasible.
“Resilient Southeast - Miami” explores the case for solar+storage to keep critical services powered at four community building types in Miami – a school, a nursing home, a fire station, and a multifamily housing property. The report evaluates the opportunity for solar+storage to serve as a clean, onsite energy source that can keep communities safe more reliably and, in many cases, more affordably than traditional backup power methods such as diesel generators. Beyond providing emergency backup power during grid outages, solar+storage systems can provide benefits throughout the year, including significant electric bill savings and valuable grid services.
"Frontline communities most impacted by severe weather and power outages have historically been left behind in the clean energy transition,” said Zelalem Adefris, resilience director at Catalyst Miami. “With solar+storage, we can change that narrative by accomplishing three goals at once: keeping our most vulnerable residents safe, saving low-income communities money, and reducing harmful emissions."
“This report marks the first time that solar paired with storage has been assessed to determine the value it can bring to Miami communities,” said Seth Mullendore, vice president and project director of Clean Energy Group. “It clearly shows that this innovative technology combination can bring real benefits to populations that have been hit so hard by severe weather and widespread outages in recent years.”
“Miami has a history of destructive hurricanes, like Hurricane Irma in 2017 which left over 800,000 residents and businesses without power in Miami-Dade alone,” said Marriele Robinson, a program associate at Clean Energy Group. “As natural disasters like Irma increase in frequency and intensity, we need to equip community institutions with resilient backup power so that they can continue to provide services to Miami’s most vulnerable residents, such as senior citizens and low-income households, during an outage.”
Based on detailed economic modeling, solar alone, without storage, was found to be a positive investment for a secondary school and a nursing home Miami. While solar paired with storage, which can be configured to provide resilient backup power during outages, was not found to be an economical option based on bill savings alone, factoring in savings due to avoided power outage costs resulted in positive economics for all building types evaluated.
In comparison to the other Southeastern cities evaluated – Atlanta, GA; Charleston, SC; New Orleans, LA; and Wilmington, NC – Miami ranked fourth overall based on the economic opportunity for solar+storage development. The report highlights significant challenges and barriers that must be addressed for these types of resilient power systems to be more economic and widely adopted. Key barriers to customer-sited solar+storage deployment in Miami include a lack of supportive policies, relatively low electricity rates, and limited customer-sited market growth.
To address existing barriers, the report presents potential near-term opportunities for policy and regulatory changes that could advance solar+storage development in Miami and concludes with a set of recommendations.
“Resilient Southeast - Miami: Exploring Opportunities for Solar+Storage in Miami, FL” is available on Clean Energy Group’s website at https://www.cleanegroup.org/
Clean Energy Group will be hosting a webinar on the Resilient Southeast report series with report authors Seth Mullendore and Marriele Robinson and guest speakers from regional partner organizations. The webinar will take place on Thursday, May 16 at 1pm ET. This webinar is free and open to the public. Read more and register at https://www.cleanegroup.org/
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About Catalyst Miami
Catalyst Miami believes everyone deserves a healthy and financially secure life; currently, two in three families in Miami don’t have enough savings to weather a financial emergency of any kind. For over 20 years, Catalyst Miami has committed to empowering residents to build better futures by providing family economic security programs, developing leadership and civic engagement, and building coalitions to address poverty. More detailed information about all their programs can be found on their website: https://catalystmiami.org/.
About Clean Energy Group
Clean Energy Group is a leading national, nonprofit advocacy organization working on innovative technology, finance, and policy programs in the areas of clean energy and climate change. Clean Energy Group also manages the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), a coalition of state and municipal clean energy funds. The Resilient Power Project, a joint initiative of Clean Energy Group and Meridian Institute, is designed to help states and municipalities with program and policy information, analysis, financial tools, technical assistance, and best practices to speed the deployment of clean, resilient power systems in their communities. For more information, visit www.cleanegroup.org and www.resilient-power.org.
CONTACT:
Molly Delahunty
Development Director
Catalyst Miami
Phone: 786-414-1292
[email protected]
Samantha Donalds
Communications Coordinator
Clean Energy Group
Phone: 802-223-2554 x204
[email protected]
On Higher Ground, Miami’s Little Haiti Is the New Darling of Developers
April 22, 2019
By Arian Campo-Florida and Laura Kusisto
By The Wall Street Journal
Rising sea levels are driving gentrification, causing longtime residents to worry about affordability and displacement
MIAMI—The Little Haiti neighborhood has never held much appeal to real-estate developers. Its inland location is flanked by railroad tracks and an interstate highway. It has long been home to working-class Haitian and other immigrants and mom-and-pop shops that cater to them.
Now, due in part to the area’s higher elevation in a city vulnerable to rising sea-levels, more property firms are flocking to Little Haiti. Investors are scooping up homes and industrial lots. Others are building office towers, trendy restaurants and hotels.
The new development has helped boost home prices in much of Little Haiti by 7% over the past year, nearly double the rate of Miami overall, according to CoreLogic Inc.
But longtime residents are worried they could become displaced as part of a gentrification wave that has already forced some out.
Higher Ground
Prices have risen in neighborhoods with higher elevations, such as Little Haiti.
[caption id="attachment_9135" align="alignnone" width="628"]
Source: FEMA (floodplain); CoreLogic (home-index-price)[/caption]
“Every day, we are seeing the impact,” said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement, an advocacy group in the neighborhood.
Residents in other low-income, higher-elevation Miami neighborhoods, such as Liberty City, Overtown and Allapattah, are worried that new development could make their neighborhoods more expensive, too. They also lie on a ridge that stretches from northern Miami-Dade County to the Florida Keys. Little Haiti sits at roughly double the elevation of affluent coastal areas like Miami Beach, which on average is 4 feet above sea level.
“With climate change a factor, that’s a multiplier to market forces already at play,” said Samuel Diller, executive director of the Haitian American Community Development Corp., which has teamed up with other organizations to create more affordable housing in the area.
The migration shows how rising sea levels are beginning to play a role in redrawing the residential map in South Florida, as some of those with means retreat from the seaside to the perceived safety of higher ground.
In November, Miami commissioners passed a resolution directing the city manager to research “gentrification that is accelerated by climate change” and to examine ways to stabilize property tax rates to allow people in affected areas to continue living there.
“As people move inland, we want to make sure there aren’t waves of displacement,” said Gretchen Beesing, chief executive of Catalyst Miami, which focuses on poverty and climate issues.
Jesse Keenan, a Harvard University professor cited in the resolution, released research last year showing that housing prices in Miami are beginning to increase more slowly near sea level than at higher elevations. He predicts the trend will accelerate as more people flee coastal hazards like nuisance flooding and rising insurance premiums.
Eugenie Noël, a Little Haiti resident for nearly three decades, lives with her four sons, aged 18 to 26 years old, in a two-bedroom apartment where they pay $850 a month in rent. She said the landlord has warned he may raise it to keep pace with the market.
“The neighborhood is changing,” said Ms. Noël, a 58-year-old housekeeper. “It is becoming very expensive for people like me to afford it.”
On one street, strip malls that once housed restaurants, a tax-service business and tuxedo shop are being remade as sleek storefronts. Nearby, The Citadel, a complex featuring an upscale food hall and cocktail bar, recently opened.
Farther south, developers of the planned Eastside Ridge project are seeking city approval to replace an apartment complex with a large mixed-use development that has some 3,000 rental units, office space and a hotel.
Up the street, another team is proposing the Magic City Innovation District, which would convert 18 acres of industrial or vacant property into a campus with residential, office and retail components as well as cultural offerings overseen in part by Guy Laliberté, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil.
The developers have said in presentation materials regarding the city’s resiliency strategy that the site would be “an anchor for sustainable development given its location on a ridge providing resiliency to sea-level rise.”
Representatives for both projects say developers aim to preserve Little Haiti’s cultural heritage and together will contribute tens of millions of dollars to a fund designed to provide more affordable housing.
Local organizations are also pursuing an initiative to create more housing options. Known as a community land trust and used for years in cities like New York and Cleveland, it is a nonprofit that buys up land to build housing that is leased to low-income residents at below-market rates.
A partnership among the Haitian American Community Development Corp., the South Florida Community Land Trust and Citi Community Development, which is affiliated with Citigroup Inc., is building a 13-townhouse project in the heart of Little Haiti. The partners held community gatherings to elicit input from residents on what features they wanted in the homes, such as open kitchens and gardens to grow vegetables.
Appeared in the April 23, 2019, print edition as 'Miami Enclave’s Higher Ground Gains Allure, but Residents Worry.'
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This article was posted by The Wall Street Journal.