Theresa Pinto

The current affordable housing crisis is quickly becoming an issue of environmental justice, resulting in discriminatory impacts and hyper-segregative effects exacerbated by current environmental laws, zoning policies, development, and private behavior around affordable housing.

 

The greater Miami area is no different when it comes to decades-old issues of segregation and housing disparity. Both hyper-segregation coupled with a lack of green, resilient affordable housing, particularly at the lower income levels, are endemic. Moreover, Miami is not alone in already attempting to tackle affordable housing issues with promises of funds for and construction of new developments. The City of Miami last year passed a mandatory inclusionary zoning ordinance. Miami-Dade County recently held a summit celebrating 10,000 new affordable housing units. But where those units are placed and who inhabits them is a question of environmental justice.

 

This work will document affordable housing NIMBYism in the Miami area in the hopes that we can avoid the same historical discriminatory impacts of the past during the current trend of urban development and redevelopment.

Affordable housing is quickly becoming an issue of environmental justice. Historic discriminatory impacts resulting in hyper-segregative effects and toxic waste sites located in vulnerable communities are exacerbated by housing codes, zoning policies, development, and private behavior around affordable housing. Additionally, evidence of a growing climate gap and unfairness in ‘distributional energy justice’ is creating ‘energy poverty’ amongst vulnerable populations. As affordable housing takes on the urgency that climate change has in recent years, disparities in green, resilient housing are emerging along the lines of gender, race, and income. Municipalities are dealing with affordable housing issues and some policymakers are taking drastic measures; for example, eliminating single-family zoning or discussing separations in earnest. Yet, attempts to alleviate environmental injustice have only perpetuated discriminatory impacts historically. Often, vulnerable communities are left out of the decision-making process. In fact, recent analyses show that the transition to or implementation of Form-Based Code zoning can contribute to displacement in low-income communities due to the encouragement of development. Moreover, public hearings on zoning and development anecdotally seem dominated by affordable housing ‘NIMBY’ers. In addition to a paucity of affordable housing developments at the bottom tiers of income, affordable developments are not often wanted in moderate- to high-income areas and forced displacement has happened with redevelopment and rehabilitation.

 

This study sets an empirical baseline for (1) affordable housing discrimination by analyzing the content of relevant public hearings, comparing Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami, and the City of Royal Palm Beach (the two fastest growing South Florida cities between 2017-2018) over a 2-year period of time and quantifying the public response to affordable housing developments by gender, race, and income; and (2) the public health implications of forced displacement in urban areas by evaluating environmental assessments, public health assessments, and community selfassessments done via Photovoicing.