PACT's membership will be holding the Nehemiah Assembly, where over 1,000 Miami-Dade residents will be gathering to demand justice for residents related to mental healthcare and high rents in Miami-Dade County on April 13th at 7pm at Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

In Miami-Dade County, there is a shortage of crisis stabilization beds for people in mental health crisis. There are also thousands of people each year who cycle between living on the streets and jail, as they are criminalized for mental illness & homelessness. The Center for Mental Health & Recovery is an essential piece to the puzzle in solving this issue. The Center will have crisis stabilization, healthcare, mental healthcare, dental care, transitional housing, job training, and more all under one roof. The Center is ready to open, but the County Commission has delayed the opening for over 6 months because a private, for-profit corporation is trying to overtake the building behind the scenes to profit off of people who are ill. 

We also know our members and many residents of Miami-Dade County cannot afford the high cost of rent in Miami-Dade County. "Workforce Housing" rent can be as high as $3,000 per month for a studio apartment! Developers get tax waivers and benefits from building "workforce housing," which most people in Miami's real workforce cannot afford. This is unacceptable. The County currently calculates "Workforce Housing" as AMI between 60-140% AMI, which goes up to $122,000/year because AMI is calculated on a county-wide scale. 

At PACT's Nehemiah Action, we will be asking the Miami-Dade Mayor, County & City Commissioners, and the Housing & Community Development Department Director to make commitments to:

1) Open the non-profit Center for Mental Health & Recovery

2) Change the calculation for AMI (Area Median Income) to be based on census-tract, instead of county-wide, to be more representative of Miami's true workforce & stop displacement from neighborhoods. 

3) Lower the definition for "Workforce Housing" to be up to 100% AMI, instead of 140%. 

4) Create a sliding scale of benefits for affordable housing developers, instead of a threshold. The more affordable the development, the more benefits a developer receives. This is instead of having them receive full benefits for the bare minimum. 

At the 2025 Annual Assembly, PACT Membership voted to tackle our housing crisis in Miami-Dade County.

Due to stagnant wages and gentrification, Miami-Dade County residents cannot afford the high cost of rent. According to the FIU Metropolitan Center, 62% of Miami-Dade renters are cost burdened, and eviction filing rates have now exceeded pre-pandemic numbers. Redfin also recently named Miami as the second least affordable city to rent in the United States, even ranking ahead of New York City.

To combat the affordable housing crisis, PACT demanded action from Miami=Dade Public Officials:

1) Ensure funding and permanence of the Miami-Dade Eviction Diversion Program

2) Require community input meetings to determine Community Benefit Agreements on housing development projects above $15,000,000

On April 7, 2025, nearly 1000 PACT community members witnessed Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava commit to championing $3,000,000 annually for the county’s election diversion program and ensuring the program’s longevity. PACT also received a commitment from the incoming interim Director of Housing and Community Development for Miami-Dade County, Nathan Kogan, to hold meetings for large developments on public land and to publish community benefits agreements and reports on the progress of those agreements on public-facing websites.