Affordable housing advances for Miami Beach school’s grounds

An affordable housing development by Jewish Community Services on the grounds of a middle school in Miami Beach’s Washington Avenue has gained support from the City of Miami Beach and needs to continue negotiating with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system to have the land conveyed to the county for a lease.

Jewish Community Service, a social services organization that is almost 103 years old, is advancing its plans to develop affordable housing within the 8 acres of the Fienberg-Fisher K8 School. Jewish Community Services currently leases 7,573 square feet at 610 Espanola Way – a parking lot and two buildings – to provide social services to elderly residents of Miami Beach and surrounding areas.

To develop this project, which does not have final renderings yet, the organization must continue negotiating with the school board to give the land to Miami-Dade County to lease it to the social services organization.

The City of Miami Beach, in a resolution sponsored by Mayor Dan Gelber that passed unanimously, gave its support to Jewish Community Services in its plan to continue conversations with the school system to provide affordable and workforce housing on the site of the Fienberg-Fisher campus, said Miriam Singer, president and CEO of Jewish Community Services.

The school board, she added, also unanimously approved allowing its staff to continue talks with Jewish Community Services for the programming needs necessary to develop the housing project. “So, we are really looking forward to receiving those program requirements, and to continuing our very positive conversations with the school system and Miami-Dade County as partners in this,” she said.

Those programmatic requirements list the benefits to the school system of developing the project. “Once we complete those,” Ms. Singer said, “we will start to have talks about the legislative actions required for the school system to convey the land to a ground lease. Then, the county will continue working with us, as the entity responsible for the development, the programming and other services for the future.”

There are only preliminary drawings for the vision of this housing project that will not be the ultimate design, Ms. Singer also said. “We are not spending money on architects until we have the conveyance of the property processed. We also want to make sure that whatever rendering comes, it is consistent with the community in that area, that [it] is complementary to the community and there is a historically designated building on the site that may be part of the project.”

The organization could receive site control by the end of July, Ms. Singer said. After that, construction would take 24 to 36 months.

The non-profit organization has more than 40 years in Miami Beach serving as a community-based agency, providing services to individuals with transitional difficulties, long-term difficulties, or trauma. “We provide four unique pillars of service, including food services, case management, mental health services for children and adults, and informational referral and access to other community services,” said Ms. Singer.

It also provides care services to over 400 seniors whose average age is 90; a food bank that services 900 persons a month; and a food and grocery delivery service to over 600 home-bound seniors every week, among other services.

“We see this [affordable housing project] as very possible,” said Ms. Singer, “and that holds a lot of promise, not only for the Miami Beach community, but perhaps in the future for other similar projects that JCS would be involved in, whether with the school system or another governmental entity that has the footprints and the interest to collaborate and be a partner.”