Miami breaks ground on 13 affordable Little Haiti townhomes on community land trust model

City and county leaders broke ground on a new townhome development in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood aimed at giving working-class buyers an affordable path to homeownership, though the project relies on a shared-equity land model that has left some longtime residents cautious.

The project, named Place Louverture, will bring 13 permanently affordable townhomes to a corner lot along Northeast 67th Street.

The development marks the first Miami-Dade County project for the South Florida Community Land Trust, a Broward-based nonprofit that helps first-time homebuyers and families displaced by South Florida's soaring housing costs. Under the community land trust model, buyers purchase the home itself at a reduced price while the nonprofit retains permanent ownership of the underlying land.

"The idea of that shared ownership is that the homebuyer, once they buy the home, can pay that same opportunity forward to somebody else like them," a project representative said.

The groundbreaking comes as soaring property taxes and living expenses weigh heavily on longtime residents in the historically working-class neighborhood.

Sampson Lisca, who bought his Little Haiti home 20 years ago, said escalating expenses are making it increasingly difficult to hold onto his property.

"I just paid $5,200 for taxes," Lisca said, nodding when asked if the bill was a heavy financial burden.

City of Miami Commissioner Christine King, who represents the district, said local leaders must ensure longtime community members are not priced out of the neighborhood.

"We have to look out for everybody," King said.

Residents express skepticism over the land ownership structure 

While developers say families who qualify for Place Louverture townhomes will be able to pass the properties down for generations, split land-and-home ownership structures have faced scrutiny across Miami-Dade County.

Last year in Sweetwater, mobile home owners who rented the land beneath their residences were evicted after developers purchased the Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park. In Overtown, dozens of shareholders in the Town Park Village cooperative—which opened in the 1970s—have also faced eviction proceedings decades later.

Pointing to neighbors who have been displaced, Lisca questioned whether long-term stability is guaranteed when buyers do not own the land beneath their homes.

"No joke, there's somebody who lost their house," Lisca said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava pushed back against concerns that future residents could be displaced, saying that strict legal covenants govern community land trust properties.

"Well, in this case, it's the law," Levine Cava said when asked about skepticism surrounding the model. "So this is enshrined in all of the legal requirements, so I don't see this going away."

Levine Cava added that Place Louverture will not be the last community land trust development in Miami-Dade, noting county staff is working with dozens of public and private funding partners to launch additional affordable housing projects across the county.