Hialeah, Miami Beach pass local laws to limit huge rent hikes
The Miami City Commission may set aside $5 million on Thursday to help reenters in the city who are “unable to absorb dramatic rent increases.”
But only some people.
Even though the resolution would establish a new “special revenue project” called “Miami for Everyone Rental Assistance Program,” it’s really not for everyone, as the title would imply. Of course it is sponsored by Mayor Francis Suarez, who has a political action committee by the same name, even though he’s really only the mayor for the rich and beautiful now.
Maybe he’s feeling bad for all the people who have lost so much money on his MiamiCoin cryptocurrency scam,
The resolution, as written in the agenda for Thursday’s commission meeting, said the program would allocate and appropriate funding, not to exceed $5 million, “to provide assistance to middle class city of Miami residents.”
So, neither rich people nor poor people need apply. Where is the line drawn?
The resolution would also authorize the city manager to allocate $250,251.19 to the Department of Housing and Community Development for the administration of the program. So it costs a quarter of a million dollars to give a million away?
Read related: Miami International Airport vendors get no-bid rent breaks for ‘COVID relief’
If approved Thursday, this move would make Miami the third city in the county to address rising rents, which has become a huge problem in Miami, forcing people into homelessness. Media have reported a 38% increase in rents in 2021, the highest in the nation. Earlier this week, it was announced that Miami had surpassed New York City as the most expensive housing market in the country — fueled, in part, by all the nuyorquinos who moved here during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tenants in one Hialeah building held a demonstration recently after their landlord hiked their monthly rent by up to $650.
On Tuesday, the city of Hialeah — which had already set up a rental assistance program for those residents — passed a resolution that requires landlords to provide 60-days notice if they are going to raise rents by 10% or more. Newly-elected Councilman Bryan Calvo wanted it the threshold to be 5% like the resolution that passed in Miami Beach earlier this month, sponsored by Commissioner Alex Fernandez. But he said he was satisfied with the compromise.
“Ten percent is still going to help thousands of people,” he told the Spanish-language news media. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
A better step would be statewide legislation that regulated rent increases the same way property value assessments are regulated.
In 1995, the state constitution was amended with what is known as the homestead “Save Our Homes” 3% cap. That means homesteaded property values cannot rise more than 3% in one year, helping to keep tax increases down when property values rise. And allowing people to stay in their homes. The cap, which is 10% for non homesteaded properties, resets when a property is sold.
That was needed then. Rental increase caps are needed now. They could be treated the same way, where the landlord can bring it up however much the market can bear once the lease is up or, where there is no lease, once the home is rented to someone else.
Would it be too much to ask our state legislators to do something that would really help their constituents?
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez wants $5 mil set aside for rental assistance added by Ladra on
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