Standing United for TPS on Capitol Hill
September 12-13, 2018
Washington, D.C.

August 14, 2018
By Family Action Network Movement (FANM)

Family Action Network Movement (FANM) and Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) invite you to join us on September 12-13 for our “Standing United for TPS on Capitol Hill” in Washington, DC.

During this gathering, TPS recipients from Haiti, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua et al….will meet with Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to advocate for family reunification and protection for 300,000 TPS recipients, and more than 275,000 U.S. born children. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) provides safety and protection to thousands of immigrants who are unable to return home due to potentially dangerous situations in their native countries including armed conflicts, natural /political disasters, gang violence, and other extraordinary circumstances. The Trump administration has terminated TPS disregarding mandatory statutory criteria and procedures.

In order to prevent a potential human rights crisis as the current one that is unfolding at the border where children are separated from their families, TPS holders, faith/community leaders, and elected officials will meet with lawmakers to advocate for TPS families together.

Thank you for your interest in joining us in Washington, DC, on September 12-13 to make our voices heard in Congress.

Sign up today!
Click Here to register.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="601"] A man bikes through the flooding in the streets of Sweetwater in October.   AL DIAZ [email protected][/caption]

August 13, 2018
By Alex Harris
From the Miami Herald

Climate change is a massive, complex, globe-spanning issue that affects every facet of our lives. And like most problems at its scale, it’s bound to affect the poor and people of color most significantly.

How can we address that in South Florida? That’s a question posed by a reader to the Florida Influencer Series, which taps the collective wisdom of 50 influential Floridians on topics important to the state in the run-up to the November election. This week, the issues are the environment and climate change, vital topics for residents who live at “ground zero” for sea-rise threats.

But singling out impacts to communities of color in particular can be difficult in Miami because, as Zelalem Adefris, resilience director of Catalyst Miami, put it, “Most of Miami is a community of color.”

“In Miami, it’s more of an economic issue,” she said.

The most at-risk population are poor people. They have the least amount of resources to escape the effects of climate change, by buying products or services to make weathering the changes easier. There is also increasing concern about the concept of “climate gentrification” — low-income residents being pushed out of higher elevation zones in South Florida. But in a region booming with redevelopment and market demand that have rapidly turned once struggling neighborhoods into trendy areas, many factors could be at work, including climate concerns.

But what is clear: When the water comes (experts predict we’ll see three to five feet of sea rise by the end of the century), poor people will be the most exposed to the impacts. Effects on health will likely come before anything else.

One of the simplest impacts of climate change to understand is heat. By around 2030 alone, Miami is predicted to experience about 130 days a year where the heat index makes it feel like it’s 105 degrees or hotter, according to Climate Central.

That heat, doctors say, makes all kinds of health conditions worse, like asthma, heart and lung disorders and mental illnesses. People who work outside, have insufficiently cooled homes or can’t afford to upgrade air-conditioning systems will feel the effects (both physically and financially) before anyone else.

A Miami patient of Dr. Cheryl Holder, president of the Florida State Medical Association, personifies the dilemma many low-income residents face when it comes to rising temperatures. Earlier this year, an elderly woman told Holder she was sweltering, but she didn’t want to leave her window open because she was worried about the crime in her neighborhood, and relying on her air conditioner left her with an unaffordable electricity bill.

Adefris pointed out that residents who use public transportation will also have to deal with the sun while they wait for their bus, and there aren’t many air-conditioned bus stops in the county. Plus, she said, “we have very poor tree cover” in the city to keep residents cool.

The most common heat-related solution experts talk about is installing community cooling centers, which are air-conditioned buildings open to the public on hot days, but other solutions include mandating efficient and working air-conditioning systems in low-income or public housing.

But when people talk about climate change in South Florida, they most often mean sea level rise. Climate change’s most visible impact in the region is concentrated in coastal areas, which are typically the most expensive real estate. Only a few mixed or low-income communities (like Shorecrest, Arch Creek and Little Havana in Miami-Dade) experience coastal flooding exacerbated by sea rise, although sunny-day flooding in inland communities like Doral or Sweetwater isn’t uncommon.

The city of Miami is working on a plan to address sea-rise-related flooding in Shorecrest, and the county commissioned a study of flood-prone Arch Creek last year.

Instead, the most well-known historic communities of color, like Liberty City, Little Haiti, Overtown and Allapattah, bloomed on what was then considered less attractive real estate — more inland, on higher ground. Now those communities are being gentrified quickly, and some activists worry it’s because developers are looking for higher elevation land.

Developers push back on the premise, suggesting that areas like Little Haiti are being gentrified because of their proximity to the Design District and Wynwood, not for their elevation. But a Harvard study this year showed that higher elevation land is gaining value more quickly than lower elevation properties, which the author called empirical evidence of “climate gentrification.”

Activists are increasingly sounding the alarm about the trend, including Catalyst Miami, New Florida Majority and the CLEO Institute. Miami’s sea level rise committee dedicated its most recent meeting to the topic. Board members asked city staff to research possible policy choices that would protect low-income homeowners from being forced out of their homes before they find a new place to live, like a delay on paying property taxes for a few years until the property is sold.

Whatever causes it, gentrification is clearly happening in these neighborhoods, and it’s pushing low-income residents out of some of the area’s highest ground. In Liberty City, only about 4 percent of homes were worth more than $100,000 in 2000, according to Florida International University’s Neighborhood Changes project. By 2014, more than half of homes were worth more than $100,000.

As flood insurance premiums rise and property values begin to be affected by sea rise, experts worry there will be less affordable neighborhoods for the region’s working class.

That will be a crisis “way before sea level rise hits,” said Florida International University Professor Hugh Gladwin, who studies climate gentrification in the area. “It’s like we’re losing what we need to keep going, which is a workforce that can stay here.”

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This article was originally posted on the Miami Herald.

June 2018
By Tropical Audubon Society

HOW YOU CAN TAKE ACTION NOW:

Call & Email your own your own Commissioner and the swing votes below in bold. Ask them to HOLD THE LINE and deny SR 836 application 8, and to support transit-oriented infill development instead.

Green means already in support. Plain means no need to call.

District 1: Barbara J. Jordan
Downtown 305-375-5393
District 305-636-2331

District 2: Jean Monestime
Downtown 305-375-4833
District 305-694-2779
[email protected]

District 3: Audrey M. Edmonson
Downtown 305-375-5393     
District 305-636-2331
[email protected]

District 4: Sally A. Heyman
Downtown 305-375-5128
District 305-787-5999
[email protected]

District 6: Rebecca Sosa
Downtown 305-375-5690
District 305-267-6377
[email protected]

District 7: Xavier L. Suarez
Downtown 305-375-5680      
District 305-375-5680
[email protected]

District 8: Daniela L. Cava
Downtown 305-375-5218     
District 305-378-6677
[email protected]

District 9: Dennis C. Moss
Downtown 305-375-4832
District 305-245-4420
[email protected]

District 10: Javier D. Souto
Downtown 305-375-4835
District 305-222-2116
[email protected]

District 11: Joe A Martinez
Downtown 305-375-5511
District 305-552-1155

District 12: Jose “Pepe” Diaz
Downtown 305-375-4343
District 305-599-1200

District 13: Esteban L. Bovo Jr. (Chairman)
Downtown 305-375-4831
District 305-820-8424
[email protected]

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This article was originally posted by Tropical Audubon.

May 2018
By The Florida Health Justice Project

The Advocate’s Guide to the Florida Medicaid Program provides a useful roadmap to a complex and critical safety net program serving over 4 million Floridians.

Medicaid is a complex and frequently changing federal-­state insurance program that covers medical expenses for eligible beneficiaries. Each state implements its own Medicaid plan in compliance with the federal Medicaid statute and regulations. While the federal statute and regulations prescribe the basic rules of the Medicaid program, states have significant flexibility and each state’s Medicaid program is unique.

This Guide provides an overview of the authority governing Florida’s Medicaid program and addresses basic questions asked by advocates, applicants and beneficiaries including:

• who is eligible for Medicaid;
• how to apply;
• what to do if an application is denied or delayed;
• what to do if eligibility is terminated;
• what services are covered;
• how does managed care work;
• what to do if services are denied, delayed, terminated or reduced? ¹

View the full guide here: https://medicaidguide.floridahealthjustice.org/

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="699"] The Mama Summit featured information sheets about the negative effects of climate change and measures mothers can take to fight them. CREDIT DANNY HWANG / WLRN NEWS[/caption]

May 10, 2018
By Danny Hwang
From WLRN News

South Florida moms celebrated Mother’s Day by hosting a panel discussion about climate change resilience, calling it a "Mama Summit."

The moms, who represent a group called Moms Clean Air Force, told government officials they share a concern for a sustainable future.

Karina Castillo is the Florida Field Consultant for the group, a national community of over one million parents working to combat air pollution and climate change. She emphasized the importance of local community engagement against climate change.

“We know that in a warming world we’ll be faced with more intense storms and more intense heat, as well as mosquito-borne diseases," Castillo said. "We want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with local leaders, supporting them, urging them to do more, and celebrating the innovations that improve the quality of our air, the quality of our lives, and our communities everywhere for future generations. ”

Moms Clean Air Force organized Mother's Day summits in 11 cities across the country, engaging local government officials and stakeholders to address the negative impacts of climate change. Miami City Hall was one of the hosts.

In recognition of their work, members of Moms Clean Air Force were awarded a certificate of appreciation at the Miami City Commission meeting.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="699"] Magaly Fuentes brought her son Avel to participate in the summit. CREDIT DANNY HWANG / WLRN NEWS[/caption]

Magaly Fuentes was at the summit with her five-year-old son Avel. She said environmental activism turned personal when she became a mother.

“I’ve always cared a lot about the environment to begin with, but my son also got diagnosed when he was two-years-old with asthma, and that’s made it even more important," she said. "The clean air, I mean, what can be more important than your child’s health?”

The panel discussion featured remarks by City of Miami’s Chief Resilience Officer Jane Gilbert, Executive Director of The CLEO Institute Caroline Lewis, and Catalyst Miami’s Climate Resilience Director Zelalem Adefris. Discussion topics included not only climate change prevention but also the need to raise public awareness surrounding the issue and work with government officials to improve climate resilience infrastructure.

Moms Clean Air Force is planning the Annual Play-In for Climate Action on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on July 11, where families from across the country will be able to meet with legislators. More information on Moms Clean Air Force can be found here.

—–

This article was originally posted on WLRN.org.

By The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has published its 2018 State of Florida CDBG-DR Action Plan for how it proposes to spend $791 million dollars in federal funds to meet the housing needs of low and moderate-income Irma survivors. Comments are due to DEO no later than Friday May 4, 2018 at 5pm. A roadmap of some of the issues you may want to raise in your comments can be found below.

1. Increase the opportunity for citizen participation in the State Action Plan (SAP) by:

a. Extending the deadline for receiving public comments to Tuesday, May 8, 2018.​ ​While we understand the state of Florida is only required to provide a 14-day public comment period, extending the deadline will increase the ability of people to participate in the process.

b. Provide an opportunity for public hearings to be held across the state before submitting the final state action plan.​ Hurricane Irma was a massive storm impacting most of the state. Holding public hearings in multiple locations would increase the ability of people across the state to participate in the citizen comment period. This is particularly important given that 20% of Floridians over 16 years old lack basic reading skills. This is especially true in some of the hardest hit counties of Florida.

c. Make resources accessible to people with language barriers, including those who speak Spanish, Vietnamese, or Creole.​ To address its LEP populations in the impacted counties, Florida should develop a detailed Language Action Plan (LAP), which would address outreach techniques to inform Limited English Proficient (LEP) people of their right to access this important program. As part of the LAP, Florida should look to HUD guidelines suggesting that vital materials should be translated.¹ For example, HUD guidelines specify 1 that “HUD would expect translations of vital documents to be provided when the eligible LEP population in the market area or the current beneficiaries exceeds 1,000 persons or if it exceeds 5 percent of the eligible population or beneficiaries along with more than 50 persons.”² Across the twelve counties hit hardest by 2 Hurricane Irma, there are many LEP communities that meet the 1,000 person threshold. In addition to Spanish, many of the impacted counties have qualifying LEP populations that speak Creole, Russian, Polish, or another Slavic language, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Arabic. We recommend that Florida make materials in all of these languages to allow substantive public comment from the communities impacted and likely to apply for aid.

d. Make resources available to people with disabilities.​ We commend the state for including people with disabilities as one of the groups prioritized for assistance in the SAP. However, to allow persons with disabilities access to and an opportunity to provide input into the SAP, both the SAP and DEO’s website (where the SAP is posted), must be in compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504). This is particularly important for persons whose disability prevents them from accessing DEO’s website and the SAP, such as persons who are visually or mobility impaired and persons with cognitive disabilities. Approximately 13.7% of persons in Florida have a disability. Of persons with disabilities who are of working age, 25.8% live in poverty.³ We suggest that DEO take immediate steps 3 to make its website and the SAP compliant with both Section 504 and the ADA so that the thousands of Floridians with disabilities who are impacted by DEO’s proposal have equal access in providing input.

2. Maintain the current threshold for income targeting for CDBG-DR funds to make sure that the people who are most in need of housing are able to obtain housing. Currently, 70% of CDBG-DR funds must be used for the benefit of low and moderate income (LMI) people and communities. As estimated by the State of Florida, the federal disaster recovery funds being directed to the state will not meet all of the affordable housing need. Therefore, it is important that these dollars be directed in a way that provides maximum recovery benefits. The program budget contained in the SAP focuses on assisting renter households through the Workforce Affordable Rental New Construction Program. However, the SAP does not define what constitutes workforce housing or that such housing will be affordable to LMI households. Florida’s wages, especially for low-income workers, have not kept up with the price of housing. In addition, several impacted populations may not be able to work, including seniors and people with disabilities.

3. Allocate resources equitably between homeowners and renters.​ Several state disaster recovery resources have already been directed at assisting homeowners. For example, Florida has made special allocations under its State Housing Initiatives Partnership program (SHIP), to provide assistance to homeowners post-disaster. However, the SHIP program prioritizes assistance for homeowners by requiring that 65 percent of allocated funds be spent on homeownership activities. Units housing low-income households, many of whom are renters, represent 75% of the units damaged from Hurricane Irma. It is important that the CDBG-DR allocation recognize the decrease in homeownership and increase in renter households that has taken place in the state.⁴

4. Allocate funding for Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA).​ The SAP provides funding for new construction for rental housing but does little to address the needs of tenants who were displaced due to hurricane damage and are in need of housing now. Prior to the damage caused by Hurricane Irma, Florida was already experiencing an affordable rental housing shortage in several of the counties most impacted by the storm.⁵ As such, we recommend providing TBRA that can be extended for up to 48 5 months while renters wait for new affordable rental housing to be constructed.

5. Prohibit recipients of federal and state disaster recovery funds from refusing to rent to tenants based on their source of income.​ Florida’s fair housing statute does not currently prohibit discrimination based on source of income, thereby allowing housing providers to refuse to rent to people who receive assistance with paying their rent. LIHTC properties are already prohibited from refusing to rent to Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher participants.⁶ Such a requirement ensures that low income families have 6 access to affordable housing in more areas and are not forced to live in housing in high poverty and/or low opportunity areas.

6. Require 50 year affordability period to address long-term affordability and maximize the federal investment.​ The SAP only requires a 20 year affordability period for rental housing rehabilitated under the Housing Repair Program. Yet, the current affordability restriction for Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties in Florida is 50 years. There’s no reason why the affordability restrictions for affordable rental housing developed with CDBG-DR funds should be less than 50 years.

7. Provide low income residents with the ability to return to their communities.​ The SAP provides funding for land acquisition for affordable workforce housing as well as home buyout programs. However, there is no discussion as to what will happen to tenants or homeowners displaced by such programs. With regard to tenants, the SAP should provide a right of first refusal to tenants displaced by land acquisition programs as well as one for one replacement of rental units lost by such activities.

8. Provide funding to address the preservation of damaged rental units.​ The SAP designates funding for new construction under the LIHTC program, but there doesn't appear to be any set asides for using the LIHTC program for rehabilitation to preserve affordable rental housing. Florida currently utilizes 15% of its LIHTC funding for preservation. Therefore, the SAP should set aside at least 15% of the LIHTC funding for preservation to rehabilitate existing affordable housing units. This would greatly increase the effectiveness of the LIHTC program, as preservation requires far less subsidy per unit than new construction.

9. Reduce barriers for LMI households to LIHTC properties.​ LIHTC properties often have admission policies which prevent LMI households from accessing the housing and are designed to screen people out instead of screening people in to housing. These include policies such as charging application fees as high as $85 for each adult applying; requiring applicants to pay a security deposit, first and last month’s rent, and miscellaneous fees up front; minimum income requirements for tenants with rental assistance; and unreasonable criminal and credit background checks. These policies deter many households from applying. For those that do apply, they are rejected because of these policies. Reducing the entry barriers to LIHTC properties is necessary to ensure that LMI households are able to access this housing.

10. Eliminate barriers to continued occupancy in LIHTC properties.​ Many LIHTC properties utilize continued occupancy policies that result in households unnecessarily losing their housing. For example, Section 5.2 E.4 of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation Manual permits rent increases during the term of lease when HUD issues new income limits, if so provided in the lease. Many LMI renters are already rent burdened such that an unexpected increases in their monthly rent during the middle of their lease term can lead to eviction or homelessness.

11. Assess the rehabilitation needs of federally subsidized affordable housing units. In the SAP, the only attempt at assessing the damage caused to federally subsidized housing units appears to be letters that were sent to PHAs and to which no PHAs responded. However, the majority of federally subsidized housing units, such as Project Based Section 8 properties, are owned and operated by private housing providers. As such, the state should obtain a copy of the Preliminary Disaster Assessment for Florida and the Affected Portfolio List/and Tracking Reports for HUD-funded properties in Florida to make an accurate assessment of the impact on HUD-funded properties.

12. Provide training to ensure that recipients of CDBG-DR funds comply with federal civil rights laws.

¹ HUD suggests that “[t]he recipient may conduct an individualized assessment that balances the following four factors: (1) Number or proportion of LEP persons served or encountered in the eligible service population (“served or encountered” includes those persons who would be served or encountered by the recipient if the persons were afforded adequate education and outreach); (2) frequency with which LEP persons come into contact with the program; (3) nature and importance of the program, activity, or service provided by the program; and (4) resources available to the recipient and costs to the recipient.”

² 72 FR 2731

³ Cornell University, 2016 Disability Status Report: Florida at https://goo.gl/b7ejox.

⁴ See e.g., Florida’s Affordable Rental Housing Needs: An Update by The Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.

⁵ See e.g., Florida’s Affordable Rental Housing Needs: An Update by The Shimberg Center for Housing Studies; Affordable Rental Housing Trends: Orlando Area by The Shimberg Center for Housing Studies; Affordable Rental Housing Trends: South Florida by The Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.

⁶ 26 U.S.C. § 42(h)(6)(B).

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This article was originally posted on the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity website.

By Cathleen Kelly, Miranda Peterson, and Yoca Arditi-Rocha
Posted on April 12, 2018, 1:19 pm

[caption id="attachment_6272" align="alignnone" width="699"] DigitalGlobe satellite image of the Everglades National Park in Florida, September 2017.[/caption]

Florida is on the front lines of sea-level rise and will likely see stronger and more frequent storm surges and heat waves as well as more intense hurricanes and other extreme weather events. These threats are increasing the strain on Florida’s aging energy, transportation, and water systems as well as other infrastructure that supports the state’s economy and the daily lives of Floridians. Based on insured value, Florida’s coastal properties are the second-most vulnerable to hurricanes among U.S. coastal states. In addition to the human toll of such disasters, businesses and residents lose money when hurricanes knock out the power or damage roads, leaving people in the dark and unable to get to work. Hurricane Irma caused a staggering $50 billion in damages and is projected to cost Florida’s state government roughly $442 million. Additionally, 72 Floridians died as a result of the storm, including 12 nursing home residents left for 62 hours in rooms that reached 99 degrees after air conditioning cut out due to a loss of power.

Florida’s growing population puts additional pressure on the state’s already overburdened infrastructure, which received a C grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers. For example, traffic congestion and delays cost each commuter in Miami and Orlando at least $1,000 annually. While modern and efficient public transit can substantially reduce traffic jams, 98 percent of commuters in Florida do not use public transit because they lack access to reliable, linked and safe transit services. In rural areas, mobility options are mainly limited to driving personal vehicles, which not everyone can afford and are expensive to maintain. In fact, the condition of Florida’s transit system ranks 19th nationally, just behind Georgia. These problems are particularly hard-felt in low-income areas, indigenous communities, and communities of color that are already overburdened by the legacies of historic inequities, pollution, and disinvestment.

As a state on the frontline of sea-level rise, Florida cannot afford to wait for federal action to implement workable infrastructure solutions that support the state’s economy and the daily lives of Floridians. The Trump administration has canceled flood protection standards, which would reduced infrastructure repair costs by baking resilience into federally supported projects, and continues to roll back environmental regulations that protect public health and Florida’s greatest asset—its natural resources.

The majority of Floridians demand a smarter and more forward-thinking response to the state’s pressing infrastructure and environmental challenges. In the absence of federal leadership, Florida’s policymakers have an opportunity to lead the way on building infrastructure that will support a strong, clean, and inclusive economy; improve neighborhood livability; and protect the air, water, and natural areas that voters deeply value.

Florida leadership can do this by creating a Florida Future Fund—a state revolving-loan fund that would provide state funding for innovative energy, transportation, flood protections, and other neighborhood improvements designed to withstand sea-level rise and more extreme weather. These investments would increase energy security and water quality, cut energy bills, and reduce time wasted sitting in heavy traffic, strengthening Florida’s economy and improving residents’ daily lives. These investments would also lower public health risks and economic losses tied to extreme weather damage to homes, businesses, and industrial and hazardous waste sites.

For every $1 invested in building resilient communities and infrastructure, $6 are savedin future costs, including economic disruptions, property damage, public health crises, and deaths caused by extreme weather disasters. The Florida Future Fund would also create new jobs and improve local clean energy and community resilience job training programs. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), every $1 billion invested in modernizing infrastructure over 10 years creates roughly 12,500 direct and indirect jobs. Based on this DOT analysis, if Florida state leaders dedicated the $1.3 billion needed to improve and connect its existing transit systems alone, it could create approximately 16,250 direct and indirect jobs.

State leaders could pursue several pathways to capitalize the Florida Future Fund. For example, they could issue state bonds; use a minor expansion of state revenue collected from the documentary stamps tax placed on real estate transactions, which is how the Florida Forever program was initially supported; and identify other potential tax revenues. The Florida Legislature could appropriate resources for the fund. In addition, state leaders could add a small future-ready surcharge to utility bills in order to support the fund, require a 20 percent project-cost share from local governments, and leverage philanthropic investments and federal funding as well as private capital raised by other infrastructure banks. The fund could also be eligible to tap into other pools of private capital that become available.

Lastly, all of Florida’s electric utilities, which contribute nearly half of all of energy-related carbon pollution in the state, could do more to support clean and resilient energy infrastructure. Well-designed public-private partnerships (P3s) with electric utilities could help to leverage limited public resources to improve the state’s energy security and expand renewable energy generation capacity.

The Florida Future Fund would improve economic mobility in urban, rural, and tribal communities by expanding affordable transportation options and increasing access to good jobs, schools, child care, and community services. For example, the fund could provide low-interest loans, loan guarantees, direct investment, and other support to upgrade and link regional transportation services, modernize public transit systems, install electric vehicle charging stations, deploy electric buses, and build bike and pedestrian paths. The fund could also strengthen energy security and affordability by building smart grids, community solar projects, and large-scale renewable energy generation facilities; upgrading the power grid; and supporting energy efficiency improvements. Lastly, the fund could improve neighborhood livability and safety by building new parks, expanding the urban tree canopy, and protecting coasts and natural areas—such as wetlands and the Everglades—that help to shield residents, businesses, and farms from floods and storm surges. These investments would safeguard water and air quality, reduce heat and flood risks, and support Florida’s strong agricultural, outdoor recreation, and tourism economies.

The Florida Future Fund would prioritize investments in places that need new infrastructure the most, including low-income areas, indigenous communities, and communities of color. In addition, the fund would complement successful ongoing initiatives, including Florida Forever, the Florida Resilient Coastline Partnership Initiative Grant Program, Resiliency Florida, Florida Solar Energy Loan Fund, and the state’s transportation infrastructure bank. While these programs make critical investments in land conservation, coastal protections, water, as well as energy and transportation resilience, more resources are needed to protect Florida’s infrastructure and communities from more severe storms, sea level rise, and flooding. The Florida Future Fund would help to fill current investment gaps.

The fund would be designed to invest in projects that create good jobs with fair wages. The fund would also be structured to meet high governance standards by establishing a fair and transparent project review process and strong investment criteria to ensure Florida Future Fund resources are well spent and do not inadvertently encourage unwise development in vulnerable areas. The fund would also require projects to be developed with meaningful and equitable public and stakeholder engagement. Lastly, the fund would call for project developers to design and implement strategies to ensure that changes in the cost of living would not displace low-income and long-time residents from their communities.

Ultimately, Florida’s leadership could also propose that Congress pass legislation to help capitalize State Future Funds in every state using federal funds to help modernize infrastructure in Florida and across the nation.

By creating a Florida Future Fund, state leaders can make giant leaps in smart and forward-leaning infrastructure and community investments needed to improve the safety, public health, and prosperity of all Floridians.

Cathleen Kelly is a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress. Miranda Peterson is a research Associate for the Center for American Progress. Yoca Arditi-Rocha is senior climate advisor at the CLEO Institute.

The authors would like to thank the following experts for their contributions to this column: Allison Cassady, Kevin DeGood, Guillermo Ortiz, Lia Cattaneo, Ryan Richards, and Will Beaudouin from the Center for American Progress; Caroline Lewis and Maribel Balbin from the CLEO Institute; Zelalem Adefris and Mayra Cruz from Catalyst Miami; Former Mayor of Pinecrest, Florida, Cindy Lerner; Alec Bogdanoff of Brizaga, Inc. and Sea Level Rise Ready; Alex Kragie from the Coalition for Green Capitol; Kim Ross of Rethink Energy Florida; Aliki Moncrief of Florida Conservation Voters; and Lauren Ordway of the Institute for Sustainable Communities.

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This article was originally posted on the Center for American Progress.

$500,000 Investment in core operating support will enable Catalyst Miami to deepen community engagement and disaster preparedness work

APRIL 26, 2018, MIAMI, The Citi Foundation announced that Catalyst Miami was selected as the recipient of a $500,000 grant as part of the 2018 Community Progress Makers Fund. The Fund is a $20 million, two-year initiative by the Citi Foundation to support high-impact community organizations that are driving economic opportunities in our communities by bringing together residents, nonprofits, businesses, and municipal agencies. Catalyst Miami joins a group of 40 change agents who are playing a key role in coordinating the efforts of multiple partners toward common goals and working in new ways to address urban challenges in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington D.C.

“We launched this program in 2015 as our version of ‘venture philanthropy’ – a chance to invest in the vision and mission of these organizations who are helping positively transform their communities,” said Brandee McHale, President of the Citi Foundation. “We’re pleased with the results from our inaugural Community Progress Makers and are looking forward to implementing the lessons we’ve learned with this next, impressive group of community leaders as they scale, innovate and drive impact.”

Nearly 60 percent of Miamians don’t have enough savings to cover basic life expenses for three months. So when a disaster – like Hurricane Irma – happens, they literally don't have the ability to ‘weather the storm'.

“Catalyst Miami has been working with a broad array of partners to help low-wealth residents prepare for, survive, and recover from natural disasters,” said Gretchen Beesing, CEO of Catalyst Miami. “This grant will enable us to deepen our community engagement and disaster preparedness work, integrating our financial coaching and benefits access platform, so that community members will be prepared when the next disaster hits.”

In 2016-2017, the inaugural cohort of Community Progress Makers helped more than 14,700 low-income people secure financial assets; built over 10,500 affordable housing units; strengthened more than 1,100 small businesses; and connected 1,800 young people to jobs in their communities.

Below is a full list of 2018 Community Progress Makers:

Chicago
Cara
Chicago Commons
Elevate Energy
Greater Southwest Development Corporation
North Lawndale Employment Network

Los Angeles
East LA Community Corporation
Homeboy Industries
Koreatown Youth & Community Center
LISC Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation
Los Angeles LGBT Center
United Way of Greater Los Angeles

Miami
Catalyst Miami
Hispanic Unity of Florida (HUF)
The Miami Foundation
United Way of Miami-Dade
Urban League of Broward County

New York City
Brooklyn Workforce Innovations
Center for NYC Neighborhoods
Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation
Green City Force
Hot Bread Kitchen
LISC NYC
Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF)
Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners
Start Small Think Big
The HOPE Program
The POINT Community Development Corporation
WHEDco

San Francisco Bay Area
Enterprise Community Partners Northern CA
Jewish Vocational Service
Main Street Launch
Pacific Community Ventures
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation (SFHDC)
Social Finance

Washington, D.C.
Building Bridges Across the River
Byte Back
Groundswell
Latino Economic Development Center-LEDC
Mary’s Center

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About Catalyst Miami
Catalyst Miami believes everyone deserves a healthy and financially secure life; but 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 (catalystmiami.org).

About the Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit www.citifoundation.com.

Contact
Molly Delahunty
786-414-1292
[email protected]

Click here to see the Citi Foundation press release.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Diane Gaffield, Photographer: Alicia Vera/Bloomberg[/caption]

April 23, 2018
By Christopher Flavelle
From Bloomberg

When Hurricane Irma reached Florida’s Big Pine Key in September, it caused the floor of Terry and Sharon Baron’s cream-colored mobile home to collapse. On Marathon Key, twenty miles north, the winds lifted Diane Gaffield’s mobile home off its concrete pad and smashed it against her neighbor’s house.

A few blocks over, Kimberly Ruth’s mobile home simply vanished into the storm.

Irma was only the start of their troubles. The Florida Keys building code effectively prohibits replacing or substantially repairing damaged mobile homes because of their vulnerability to hurricanes. That leaves people living in one of the nearly 1,000 trailers and RVs damaged or destroyed by the storm with three options: find sturdier but more expensive accommodation, repair or replace the homes and hope code officials don’t notice, or leave the Keys.

“There’s no place to live,” said Sharon Baron.

Around the country, the government’s response to extreme weather is pushing lower-income people like the Barons away from the waterfront, often in the name of safety. Those homes, in turn, are often replaced with more costly houses, such as those built higher off the ground and are better able to withstand storms. Housing experts, economists and activists have coined the term “climate gentrification.”

Flood Insurance

Ever-stricter building requirements make homes more expensive to construct. Rising premiums for federal flood insurance make them costlier to live in. And when local governments issue bonds to pay for sea walls and other protections, as Miami did last year, taxes are often raised, further increasing costs.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Terry and Sharon Baron stand in front of their mobile home damaged from Hurricane Irma. Photographer: Alicia Vera/Bloomberg[/caption]

Hurricanes and floods disproportionately damage lower-cost homes, which tend to be older and more vulnerable to water and wind. And when public housing is destroyed by storms, it may not be replaced at all, further shrinking the available options for people who can’t afford rising market rates.

On a recent sun-bleached afternoon, Sharon Baron, 73, stood on a patch of gravel outside the temporary trailer that she and her husband got from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and considered their options.

After 44 years in the Keys, they don’t want to leave. But together they earn just $32,000 a year, mostly from Social Security, so can’t afford the $2,000 a month they say it costs to rent anything nearby. Each month, a FEMA employee stops by, gently nudging the couple to find a new home by June 1, when the next hurricane season starts.

Tourism Impact

“I’m just like a ship with no rudder,” said Terry Baron.

Gaffield, who rented the trailer that was destroyed by Irma, said her landlord is building a high-end vacation rental home on the spot she used to live. She echoed a sentiment that seemed common among residents: The wealthy, and the investors who cater to them, are pushing locals out, building climate-resilient homes that most people can’t afford.

Residents, researchers and housing advocates say global warming is beginning to shift not just the physical characteristics of coastal cities, but their economic and demographic makeup as well. And local officials are starting to worry about it.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] A mobile home blown into the water during a hurricane is seen in the water near Big Pine Key. Photographer: Alicia Vera/Bloomberg[/caption]

“Hospitality is the backbone of the economy here,” said Christine Hurley, the county official responsible for buildings, planning, and code compliance in the Florida Keys. She said the tourism industry can’t function without workers who can afford to live there. “The hotels and the restaurants, are they going to have to start busing people an hour and a half from Miami?”

In Stafford Township, New Jersey, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 destroyed 3,000 homes. But its lasting effect was more subtle: the superstorm also reshaped the town’s population. Developers have filled lots left empty by the deluge with larger houses, which command higher prices -- and therefore wealthier residents.

Property Taxes

“The demographics have changed somewhat dramatically,” said Stafford Township Mayor John Spodofora. “I’m seeing $750,000 homes going up where there was a $200,000 or $300,000 home in the past.”

That’s good news for the tax base. Spodofora estimated that Stafford Township has rebuilt just 70 percent of the homes it lost, yet because of their higher value the town’s property tax revenue has almost returned to was before Sandy. But it’s also pushed less wealthy people away from the shore.

“They’re moving further inland,” Spodofora said. The effect of Sandy, he said, “kind of weeds out people who can’t afford to live on those waterfront properties.”

The increase in extreme weather has meant less housing for the poorest Americans in other parts of the U.S. as well. In Texas, hurricanes over the past decade have been particularly hard on public housing -- units that are often older and built in places that are especially vulnerable to flooding, where land tended to be cheap.

Public Housing

Among the toll inflicted by 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, which caused widespread flooding in the Houston area, was the damage or destruction of almost 1,500 public housing units, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Local housing authorities, which administer those units with funding from HUD, face no federal requirement to repair or replace them -- and prior experience suggests many of them won’t be.

Texas has yet to replace all of the 1,260 public housing units destroyed by Hurricanes Dolly and Ike in 2008, according to Maddie Sloan, director of the disaster recovery and fair housing project for Texas Appleseed, an advocacy group in Austin. She said Galveston, a city on a barrier island that lost 569 units to those storms, has replaced only about half of them.

As with the Keys, Texas’s coastal areas suffer when public and affordable disappears, pushing people further inland, Sloan said.

“They have tourist-driven economies, and their low-income workforce has been displaced,” she said. “This has a real economic impact on these cities.”

Reverse Gentifrication

Brianna Fernandez, a data analyst at the American Action Forum think-tank, who studies the demographic effects of hurricanes, said that coastal areas often become wealthier after a severe storm.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] A new development is seen behind an abandoned lot in Miami. Photographer: Alicia Vera/Bloomberg[/caption]

Parishes in Louisiana and counties in Mississippi hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 showed an increase in median household income years later, long after the short-term boost of rebuilding would have faded, she said. The same was true in New Jersey counties hit by Sandy.

But the trend isn’t true everywhere. Fernandez found that in Galveston and Orange Counties, the parts of Texas hit hardest by Ike, median income six years later had fallen by $6,000.

The explanation is straightforward, she said: in counties that are poor to begin with, hurricanes can push away wealthy residents and leave mostly the poor behind.

‘Amenity Gradient’

Matthew Kahn, an economics professor at the University of Southern California who focuses on climate change, explained those different outcomes through what he called an “amenity gradient.” Plainly put: in coastal areas that people find attractive, extreme weather will entice wealthy people to invest in homes, even as costs and insurance premiums increase. In coastal areas without that physical appeal, or whose appeal isn’t widely appreciated, the opposite will happen.

“In an area that has no amenities, and that’s now at greater risk of climate change, I don’t see climate gentrification occurring,” Kahn said. But in places that people want to live, like South Florida, the wealthy are willing to pay for that privilege -- even as others get priced out.

New research suggests the effects of climate gentrification are spreading further inland. In a just-published paper, Harvard University researchers found evidence that concern over flooding is boosting demand for higher ground, expanding the already exclusive band of real estate along coasts to include some formerly less desirable inland areas.

Flight to Elevation

Lead author Jesse Keenan, a lecturer in architecture, found that since 2000 or so, the value of single-family homes in Miami-Dade County has increased faster for higher-elevation properties, even after controlling for size, age and when they changed hands. That’s increased demand in areas like Overtown, an historically black neighborhood, and Little Haiti, for years a magnet for immigrants from the Caribbean.

Carlos Fausto Miranda, a commercial real estate broker in Miami, said the increased interest in those areas reflects more than just a hot market; it also shows some degree of concern over sea-level rise, as well as the normal pattern of a growing and wealthy city.

“Our awareness has increased dramatically about this concern,” Miranda said.

Housing advocates say that climate worries have exacerbated the existing pressure that increased development and rising property values put on low-income housing. In Overtown, a neighborhood just a mile from the shore, that pressure is evident: blocks of decrepit houses are interspersed with brand-new five-and six-story developments, painted in fresh pastel colors.

Poverty and Climate

Gretchen Beesing, chief executive officer of Catalyst Miami, a community-development and advocacy group, said she’s not surprised to see data suggesting that climate change is accelerating the gentrification of places like Overtown.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Residential community in Key Biscayne. Photographer: Alicia Vera/Bloomberg[/caption]

“We see climate as a really important issue that intersects with poverty and financial security,” Beesing said. “For some families, this may feel like an opportunity to get cash for their house. But the problem is then, where do they go?”

A more contentious element of the Harvard study may be its conclusion that prices for single-family homes along the water are appreciating more slowly, and may eventually fall. James Murley, Miami-Dade County’s chief resilience officer, pointed out that Fisher Island, just off Miami’s coast, is the most expensive zip code in the country.

Still, Murley acknowledged that increased flooding and other types of extreme weather would have some effect on real estate trends -- the question is what. “I don’t know where all this plays out,” he said.

Martha’s Vineyard

Keenan said he doesn’t expect places like Miami Beach and Key Biscayne to become poorer; rather, he thinks the populations will fall over time, leaving only the very rich.

That’s what worries some people in the Florida Keys. Lisa Tennyson, a local official who deals with flood insurance, said it’s essential to prevent the islands from turning into a tropical versions of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

“I’ve been to Martha’s Vineyard,” Tennyson said. “It’s not an interesting place to live.”

If the Keys can’t find a way to retain a mix that includes working class and middle class residents, Tennyson said, “that would be the future, right? Quiet, boring, rich.”

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This article was originally posted on Bloomberg.

Ten Principles for Building Resilience Report

ULI members developed Ten Principles for Building Resilience through a 2017 workshop that analyzed the findings of the Institute’s ten resilience-focused Advisory Services panels, which Catalyst Miami's Climate Resilience Program Manager, Zelalem Adefris, sat on, as well as other resilience-focused projects led by theUrban Resilience program and ULI district councils.