Big Trouble
Scandal rocks Miami-Dade County Housing Agency.
The Miami-Dade County Housing Agency has mismanaged millions of dollars in funds, according to a late July exposé published in the Miami Herald. Among the lowlights: the agency’s payments of more than $12 million to developers who built only two houses and never returned the money; its loans to developers without signed loan documents or land as collateral; its allocation of $5 million for a new office building instead of housing; and its allowing developers to miss construction deadlines on 12 projects that added up to 13 years of delays.
Local developers fault the city’s practice of paying for work that wasn’t completed. “There is something wrong when payments are made without verification of fair value in return,” says Ken Gordon, a principal with Pembroke Park Place, which is developing workforce housing in Pembroke Park, Fla.
With the recent condominium conversion boom pulling affordable rentals out of the grasp of many South Floridians, the last thing the area needed was the loss of units due to corruption. “It’s just disheartening, because there are a lot of us down here who are trying to make affordable housing a reality for the majority of Floridians,” says Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla. “It’s just such a scandal. To see developers and politicians who are lining their pockets at the expense of the people this program is trying to help is horrible.”
It didn’t take Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez long to respond. The day after the article appeared, Alvarez called for an immediate review of the housing agency, including a full audit and criminal investigation, and an attempt to regain the money and property lost by MDHA.