The Mayor and Commissioner referred this item to the Neighborhood/Community Affairs Committee at its July 31, 2019 meeting.

The City of Miami Beach administers 89 affordable housing units at five housing properties:

·       Neptune Apartments

·       The Lottie

·       Madeleine Village Apartments

·       London House Apartments

·       Biscayne Beach Apartments

These properties were acquired and rehabilitated with federal funds – including HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds – that establish the maximum income that can be earned by building tenants as well as the maximum threshold that could be charged as rents. These maximum rent amounts are known as fair market rents and are established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Fair Market Rents tend to be lower than market rents and are, therefore, attractive to low- and moderate-income households seeking affordable housing.

The affordability of subsidized units generates broad community interest when the housing waitlist is opened. HOME rents can be considerably lower than fair market rents, as illustrated below:

The city, has worked diligently to keep rents at its affordable housing properties as low as possible and is currently charging rents lower than allowed by HUD:

Please note that those properties assisted with Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds, were required to maintain 25% of their units as low HOME rents, which are about 22% less than HUD’s high HOME rents.

It is worth stressing that the city’s affordable housing program is not comparable to the Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher Program or public housing programs which limit the tenants’ rent contribution to a percentage of their household income. The city’s rents are determined by the size of the unit and not the income of its occupant.

The city is required to maintain a waitlist as a means of ensuring the orderly and compliant administratation of its affordable housing portfolio. Placement on the waitlist does not indicates that an applicant is eligible for tenancy. A final determination of eligibility is made when the applicant is selected for interview when a unit becomes available. Prospective tenants of the city’s affordable housing properties much meet the following criteria:

·       Meet HUD’s requirement for citizenship or immigration status;

·       Meet HUD’s established household income limits;

·       Provide documentation of Social Security numbers for all household members;

·       Provide documentation validating the identity of each adult and emanicpated minor in the      household;

·       Meet the Applicant Selection Criteria (including household size for unit available); and

·       Other requirements as promulgated by HUD.

Since the inauguration of its affordable housing program in 2015, the City of Miami Beach has utilized an online application process followed by a randomized lottery to select names for inclusion in its affordable housing waitlist. The randomized drawing, held after the official close of the application period, is conducted by the Information Technology Department at a public meeting held in Commission Chambers. The results of the drawing are posted online so that applicants can immediately confirm their place in the drawing.

As in prior years, the city only accepted 1,000 names for addition to its waitlist. This year, 12,670 applications were received. While most applicants were from Miami-Dade County, the city received applications from throughout the United States, Caribbean and South America. As a reminder, the city must comply with fair housing rules and cannot discriminate in its application process.

The online application, which enabled equitable access to persons regardless of geography, income, or household age or size, collected only sufficient information so as to identify the applicant. The process was designed to minimize applicant effort while maximizing applicant access.

In support of the application process, the city sent advance notice of the waitlist opening to its network of providers and published an advertisement in The Miami Herald announcing that the waitlist would be open July 1– 5, 2019. City staff was made available to assist those residents without internet access and those uncomfortable with the online process. In addition to city staff, County Commissioner Eileen Higgins’ district office staff was also made available to assist constituents with applying. The vast majority of people assisted in the office had actually successfully applied online independently but wanted to know if they were accepted for housing.

Attachment 1 is a screenshot of the actual online application used this year.

Once the applicant submitted their application, he/she received a confirmation message as outlined in attachment 2.

In addition, applicants received a confirmation email (see attachment 3) which confirmed the success of the application as well as issued a confirmation number which served as the applicant’s identification number for the public lottery.