Friday, May 04, 2007

County and City of Miami are Wasting More of Your Money by Geniusofdespair

According to Miami Herald reporters MICHAEL VASQUEZ AND MATTHEW HAGGMAN MIAMI-DADE | AFFORDABLE HOUSING:Condo money came with few strings the city of Miami and Miami Dade County gave Jorge Perez’s Related Group $1,000,000 each. Makes sense, billionaire needs the funds. I don't blame the developer directly. I blame the lobbyists that dreamed this up and the commissioners that went along with it.

The article stated:

"The Miami Herald reported on Tuesday that $1 million from the city of Miami's Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $300,000 from Miami-Dade County's general fund had gone into the condo, named Loft One. In return, the condo was to offer 102 of its 196 units as lower-priced housing.”

"But no one thought to put qualifications on the buyers."

“In fact, the lack of such income qualifications kept Miami-Dade from using federal housing funds for the project, as it had promised the developer, the Related Group."

So they KNEW what they were doing: Maneuvering around the safeguards that were in place:

"Instead, the county paid $300,000 from its own general fund -- and an additional $700,000 from the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust, money meant to spur new businesses in struggling neighborhoods".

The County Commission Chair Bruno Barreiro said:

''It caught me by surprise that people flipped the units, the intention was for workforce housing -- you know, people who are teachers, firefighters.'' (Everything catches him by surprise unless Natacha explains it to him).

Read the article and weep. Another boondoggle with your money people.

Type the rest of the post here

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How many times can this scenario be played before we finally get it? This commission will continue to kiss the rings of developers until we, the people, vote them out! When they get caught, they play stupid (Or are they playing?). Enough.