City and county leaders broke ground on Place Louverture, a 13-unit townhome development on a corner lot along Northeast 67th Street in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. The homes are designed to stay permanently affordable and aim to give working-class buyers a path to ownership.
The project is the first in Miami-Dade County for the South Florida Community Land Trust, a Broward-based nonprofit that works with first-time buyers and families displaced by rising housing costs. Buyers purchase the house at a reduced price, while the nonprofit keeps ownership of the land beneath it. A project representative said buyers can later pass the opportunity to another eligible family.
Not everyone in the neighborhood is convinced. Sampson Lisca, who bought his Little Haiti home 20 years ago, said he recently paid $5,200 in property taxes and that rising costs are making it harder to stay. He pointed to neighbors who have been displaced and questioned whether buyers who do not own the land can count on lasting stability.
Similar split-ownership arrangements have drawn scrutiny elsewhere in Miami-Dade. Mobile home owners in Sweetwater were evicted last year after developers bought the Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park, and shareholders at the Town Park Village cooperative in Overtown have faced eviction proceedings.
City of Miami Commissioner Christine King, whose district includes the site, said leaders must make sure longtime residents are not priced out. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said strict legal covenants govern community land trust homes and that the model is written into the law. She added that the county is working with dozens of public and private partners on more projects like it.
