Population, Need, and Rationale
The participant pool was sourced from Miami-Dade, Florida — a region with significant housing needs at affordable rates. Rolfe et al. (2020) found that this grew to one-fifth (21.8%) of Miami-Dade County households who were cost-burdened — spending more significantly than 60% of their earnings on home. Cheap housing has an increasing body of work documenting its impacts on individuals and communities. Low-price housing is associated with numerous positive results —better health, more ambitious educational targets, less crime — and there may be little if any, trade-off between affordability and access to amenities.
Innovation, Evidence, and Past Intervention
Several evidence-based approaches, such as zoning, could increase the supply of affordable housing to help address this challenge (Wijburg, 2021). Some alternatives include public housing, housing vouchers, and inclusionary zoning (IZ). The socioeconomic health factors serve as the theoretical underpinning for activities in the affordable housing sector (Rolfe et al., 2020). This frame of view admits that a person’s health is heavily influenced by their social and economic conditions.
When working with any group, a social worker must be aware of cultural humility and power dynamics, such as those of the group and the individual. Cultural humility is the process of respecting and being open to the cultures and experiences of others. The aim to change something is about the absence of affordable housing in Miami-Dade County. Changing for the better would mean more access to affordable housing options for people below the poverty line.
People need affordable housing to stay in the community and have the required services and amenities. From my perspective, I think one could envision a successful intervention here, such as a social media campaign promoting support for inclusive zoning. To implement the intervention, my duty as a social worker would involve organizing and mobilizing the community to push for IZ. It might mean informing communities about the benefits of inclusion zoning, garnering public support for this idea, and talking to elected officials about passing an IZ ordinance.
Macro Intervention and Planning
The macro intervention I want to establish within the Miami-Dade County community is a campaign to promote inclusive zoning. Inclusionary zoning adoption may be hard to implement since some developers may see it as a threat (Wijburg, 2021). However, it allows developers to gain incentives to build affordable houses. IZ is often encouraged in Miami-Dade by the county’s good political environment. I know that zoning for inclusionary housing is a practical way to increase the availability of affordable homes. However, I still need to know more about the difficulties in putting IZ into practice in Miami-Dade County.
The goals for the intervention would involve increasing the number of affordable houses and improving people’s health within three years. An increase in affordable houses and life expectancy would evaluate success. Implementation might be hindered by insufficient funding and opposition from developers, but this can be mitigated by educating the community and building support. Key stakeholders include neighborhood organizations, elected representatives, developers, and residents (Velarde, 2019). Their roles involve educating the community and liaising with elected officials to pass laws. Education, advocacy, and political organizing will be used to effect change.
Miami-Dade needs much more affordable housing to improve people’s lives. I recommend pushing for IZ as one possible solution to this issue. It is a long-term solution and part of an extended community in which it was supported, and the theories supporting it are good. By increasing the affordable housing inventory in Miami-Dade County, the government will foster better health and well-being for the community.
References
Rolfe, S., Garnham, L., Godwin, J., Anderson, I., Seaman, P., & Donaldson, C. (2020). Housing as a social determinant of health and wellbeing: Developing an empirically-informedrealist theoretical framework. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1-19. Web.
Velarde, C. (2019). Analyzing affordable housing policy in Miami-Dade County [Doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University]. Florida Atlantic University Digital Library. Web.
Wijburg, G. (2021). The governance of affordable housing in post-crisis Amsterdam and Miami. Geoforum, 119, 30-42. Web.