Metro commissioners have agreed to turn the reins of the financially troubled Everglades Migrant Labor Camp over to a 15- member nonprofit corporation controlled by farmworkers. The management plan accepted last week was a blend of proposals forwarded by rival camp factions who recently have smoothed out their differences.
Read the article Nonprofit Group to Take Control
This past week our legislators slashed $190M in affordable housing construction. Just as essential elected officials broke faith with working people, investors and other governments as it violated signed loan commitments previously agreed. Such rash, unthinking action results in the loss of $1B in construction expenditures, a thousand jobs and the risk of bankruptcy to…
Former Gourmet editor and James Beard award-winner Barry Estabrook traces the supermarket tomato from Immokalee, FL and presents a who’s who cast of characters in the tomato industry. This New York Times best-seller includes The Builder, a chapter highlighting Rural Neighborhood’s role in improving agricultural housing.
An effort by Naranja Lakes residents to block construction of farmworker housing near their hurricane-ravaged neighborhood failed Tuesday when Metro commissioners overwhelmingly approved the project. Rejecting worries about more crime and poverty encroaching on the area, the commissioners voted 11-1 to go ahead with a plan for temporary housing for 300 migrant families on 42…
Proponents of a plan to provide permanent housing for South Dade farmworkers are not backing down from a key part that has come under fire in the last week. The housing plan developed by the Everglades Community Association includes the purchase of a trailer park in Leisure City that would provide temporary housing for about 1,500 farmworkers. Read…
When Carmen Rivera gets to work every morning, she checks her office for messages and then starts walking. She’s a social worker who goes door-to-door at the Everglades farmworker camp, which houses about 400 families, visiting residents and identifying needs. She rarely has time to sit down in her sparsely furnished office. But when the…
Miami-Dade Parks kicked off the opening of its newest addition Saturday with mariachis, Mexican food and a hot-air balloon – all while fighting off rain and mosquitoes. But the dreary day did not stop residents from enjoying the celebration. “We came to see the opening,” said Vanessa Godinez, 12, who went with her family. Read…