Rehabbed foreclosures in Miami’s Overtown add to limited stock for low-income renters

Two apartment buildings fully rehabilitated with federal government dollars have opened in Miami’s Overtown, adding to the architectural heritage of the historically black neighborhood as well as to Miami-Dade County’s much sought-after affordable housing inventory, the Miami Herald reported.

Built in the 1950s style of Masonry Vernacular, St. John Village, 1410 NW First Place and 1731-41 NW First Court,  two-story structures with jointly 34 one- and two-bedroom apartments, was developed by St. John Community Development Corp., the developer arm of a Baptist congregation with more than a century’s roots in Overtown.

Many of the apartment buildings in Overtown, built by black pioneers who labored on Miami’s ill-fated railway, followed a similar building style.

St. John CDC gave the previously foreclosed properties a new coat of pastel paint, new landscaping and a fence, the Herald said.

The units are intended for renters earning less then half the local median income, or about $32,700 for a family of four, according to the newspaper.

The two buildings are part of a group of foreclosed properties to receive some of the $89 million in funding awarded from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the second phase of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. [Miami Herald] –Emily Schmall