18-03-2025
Little Haiti is changing. Could a strategic plan help preserve its roots?
Reginald Liger recalled the Little Haiti of his youth: the community events all around the bustling neighborhood, the many times his dad would take him to the Notre Dame D'Haiti Church, hanging out at his uncle's tire shop.
'It was a lot more active,' he said, describing the many gatherings of family and friends he attended in the neighborhood his father lived in when he came to the United States from Haiti.
But that's changed, he said. 'Gentrification is real,' he said. Haitians have left the neighborhood in increasing numbers because their dollar goes further in other places. His family eventually moved to Weston when they realized they could get more house for a growing family. 'We haven't been able to keep up with that gentrification as a local community. So, it's still Little Haiti, but you kind of see it shrinking in front of your eyes.'
And the neighborhood, which was formally recognized in 2016, will need a lot of work if it wants to retain its identity as the heart of the Haitian diaspora.
The Little Haiti Revitalization Trust shared its 10-year strategic plan, dubbed the The Little Haiti Strategic Playbook, Saturday at a presentation at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex to about 40 people to address these concerns. The plan outlines how to grow Little Haiti's economy while protecting the neighborhood's culture. The plan, which was developed by Florida International University, community stakeholders and consultants like Liger, details the state of Little Haiti and what its future could be and what it will take to get there.
The plan is in the draft stage and is seeking feedback from residents and stakeholders through online surveys and in-person meetings before the trust's board approves it.
The trust's CEO and president Joann Milord said work on the plan began 2023, after they contracted FIU by Design, a professional service unit in FIU's College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts (CARTA) that provides consulting services. The draft plan recommends the trust find ways to expand access to affordable housing and homeownership, increase resident-owned business growth, invest in its existing residents and preserve and protect Haitian and Caribbean culture.
Milord said the board is expected to vote on the final draft at its April board meeting and present the final plan to the community in May, coinciding with Haitian Heritage Month.
'We have the opportunity to capitalize off of the Haitian culture to make it an economic and cultural destination, similar to when people go visit Little Havana,' she said. 'But in order for us to be able to come to that level, we do need to be able to provide some resources, provide some assistance in order for us to be able to be there, so that when people come here, they get to experience the culture, but they also experience everything that they there is to offer.'
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Aging homeowners and cost-burdened renters
Kevin Greiner, principal of consulting firm Urban Centric Analytics, who worked on the plan, painted a potentially grim picture of the neighborhood's future, which has already seen many changes due to gentrification. 'If Little Haiti is diminished significantly, that's the loss of the heart of the Haitian Diaspora in the US. It really is. There's also really hard economic losses.'
The stretch of Second Avenue in the Little Haiti neighborhood will soon be home to several developments poised to bring in new residents, including the Magic City Innovation District which is expected to bring more than 11,000 jobs to the region and another development expected to bring 5,000 affordable housing units.
Little Haiti is home to 21,759 residents of which a little more than 37 percent, around 8,152, are Haitian Americans, according to a draft of the strategic plan. And that number is dwindling, said Greiner. The neighborhood lost 5 percent of its population of Haitian descent between 2010 and 2023.
Only 16 percent of homes are owned by Little Haiti residents, Greiner said, and since 2019, 37 percent percent of homes purchased in Little Haiti were by outside investors. More than 63 percent of renters in Little Haiti are cost burdened. Greiner also noted that the number of people who are 65 and older and own a home far outpaces the rest of South Florida.
Liger said he has advocated for younger residents to be a priority with an aging Little Haiti population. The trust's strategic plans outline some solutions such as prioritizing single family ownership and buying businesses along the Second Avenue corridor.
'If this same pace continues, if you can't find ways to empower residents to own homes, to own businesses and to own commercial property. What do you have?' Greiner said. 'More communities like this than not have been either severely diminished, and in some cases, just erased. And Miami, South Florida is famous for rapidly reconfiguring neighborhoods. We don't want to see that happen to Little Haiti.'
He estimated that the trust needed between $80 and $110 million over the next 10 years to address these issues.
The trust has already implemented programs that could take the neighborhood in the right direction, including a small business grant program for commercial and operation improvements and home rehabilitation program for homeowners to do needed upgrades.
But Greiner noted it will take more to keep Little Haiti economically sufficient and maintain its culture. There's only one plan that makes sense, he said.
'Buy back the block.'
