Public Land for Public Good Miami

For years, Miami-Dade County has suffered an acute affordability crisis, with half of all households burdened by the cost of putting a roof over their heads. In 2019, a new tool from the University of Miami's Office of Civic and Community Engagement identified a half-billion square-feet of vacant or underused public parcels scattered throughout Miami-Dade County. Because privately-owned land is scarce and expensive, this public land is key to equitably increasing the supply of affordable housing for our residents.

The recent unveiling of LAND: The Land Access for Neighborhood Development, a tool developed by the University of Miami's Office of Civic and Community Engagement, demonstrated that there is approximately 500 million square feet of publicly-owned vacant or underused land scattered throughout Miami-Dade County. LAND: Land Access for Neighborhood Development. The LAND tool presents a unique opportunity for entities to coordinate public resources for the benefit of the community. This tool has become available as our communities face an unprecedented and growing threat of displacement from various fronts. Residents feel the burden of unaffordability ever more acutely when Opportunity Zones are ushering in new incentives for speculation, sea level rise is shifting the real estate market, and the demographics of cultural neighborhoods are changing drastically. In the face of these pressures, the disposition of publicly-owned land should be guided by the following core values:

1. Housing
2. Resiliency and Strategic Location
3. Community Engagement
4. Systemic Interventions