Miami-Dade’s Housing Crisis is Also a Public Health Crisis
By Erin Black and Berbeth Foster
In Miami-Dade County, many renters, especially working-class Black and Brown renters, face abhorrent housing conditions. Affordable and below market rate housing is too often substandard — rife with mold, leaks, pest infestations, unsafe structures and other deficiencies that have a disparate impact on the physical and mental health of our neighbors.
One Miami-Dade County tenant, we’ll call her “Lisa,” recently told us her story about living with black mold for eight years in her public housing unit, the only housing she can afford. In this case, her landlord is Miami-Dade County, which oversees public housing. Lisa has Chronic Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, and low oxygen — all conditions that are exacerbated by the presence of mold in her home. She asked that her real name not be used out of fear of retaliation. In the past when Lisa complained about the condition of her unit to management, she was harassed and threatened with eviction for advocating for safe and decent housing.
Lisa has been hospitalized multiple times for reasons she said were related to the mold and her respiratory health. The result has been growing hospital bills, stress and chronic discomfort only to return to the unit that is making her sicker in the first place. Neighbors in her public housing complex have also complained about the mold in their units and the impact on their health.
This is not only an issue in county-run public housing which has experienced intentional disinvestment with no alternative to permanent affordable housing. Private landlords all over Miami-Dade also maintain housing in similar substandard conditions.
The United Nations establishes that adequate housing is a basic human right. “Housing is not adequate if it does not guarantee physical safety or provide adequate space, as well as protection against the cold, damp, heat, rain, wind, other threats to health and structural hazards,” according to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing.
In public health, it is well documented that safe housing is one of the most important determinants of health and overall wellness. The Corporation for Supportive Housing found that “for individuals and families trapped in a cycle of crisis and housing instability due to extreme poverty, trauma, violence, mental illness, addiction or other chronic health conditions, housing can entirely dictate their health and health trajectory.”
Yet, despite state and local laws requiring landlords to maintain safe habitable conditions, in practice, landlords in Miami-Dade are rarely held accountable for the substandard living conditions in their properties. In fact, tenants experiencing poor housing conditions like Lisa report facing retaliation and threats from their landlords or property managers in response to complaints about conditions issues.
Although this type of retaliation is already illegal under state law, the Miami-Dade Tenant Bill of Rights which was recently codified on the local level, provides expanded protections against landlord retaliation. The Tenant Bill of Rights created an Office of the Tenant Advocate as an added resource for renters. However, tenants experiencing conditions issues may still be hesitant to speak up due to fear of retaliatory evictions in an already grim housing market.
On a policy level, organizations like The Miami Workers Center are fighting to raise the issue of the quality of housing being offered to poor and working-class families. The Miami Workers Center is also calling for the Miami-Dade County Commission and Mayor to fund the Right to Counsel for tenants facing evictions within the county, but can’t afford a lawyer. Legal representation will allow low-income communities of color to raise the issues of retaliation and uninhabitable living conditions with the court while helping tenants to remain housed.
Miami-Dade renters facing poor housing conditions or retaliatory evictions can contact the newly established Miami-Dade County Office of Housing Advocacy at (786) 469–4545.
Erin Black is a third-year law student at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. She interned with Community Justice Project during the summer of 2022, and hopes to use her legal education to support grassroots movements that are creating a more just and equitable future.
Berbeth Foster is a senior staff attorney at Community Justice Project. She works with various statewide and national coalitions advocating for housing as a human right, reimagining public safety and climate justice; to name a few.
Community Justice Project supports grassroots organizing for power, racial justice and human rights with innovative lawyering, research and creative strategy tools. Based in Miami, FL, Community Justice Project is deeply and unapologetically committed to Black and brown communities throughout Florida.
