MDEAT Releases Disparity Study After 7-Month Delay
Johania Charles Miami Times Staff Writer Updated Apr 24, 2024
Seven months after the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust (MDEAT) said it would release its much-anticipated disparity study, the 272-page report surfaced on the agency’s website recently with no fanfare.
MDEAT executive director William “Bill” Diggs claims the study’s delayed release is due in part to the agency being preoccupied with implementing housing and youth initiatives.
“It was more so just trying to get everything else in line,” said Diggs. “We released some new programs … our Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RAP), and some other things, and we were just finishing up with the study that we did for teen court in regards to youth arrest records so we didn’t want to kind of just cloud everything. Then I realized that we needed to get it out for sure.”
The 2023 study, which examined living conditions within more than a dozen Targeted Urban Areas (TUAs) in Miami-Dade using drive-by site reviews, anonymous surveys, community listening sessions, focus groups and individual interviews, lists a number of ways MDEAT can address housing, education, crime prevention and community, youth, business and economic development needs in those communities.
As previously reported in The Miami Times – when we divulged the contents of the 43-page executive summary – solutions proposed to MDEAT include:
· Establishing legislative initiatives for affordable and senior housing.
· Partnering with local agencies to provide “business readiness” services and financial literacy programs.
· Advocating for more educational programs before, during and after school.
· Mandating comprehensive orientation for MDEAT staff and board members on the history of the agency.
· Creating MDEAT committees for education, health and wellness, and community development.
Compared to the executive summary, the final report contains more secondary resource review including news articles; a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health study and past county studies; a look at commercial development in TUAs; maps that include a breakdown of which county commissioners represent the respective TUAs analyzed; the number of survey responses received by subject category; and TUA site review photos, which weren’t previously included.
While Diggs says he doesn’t know when the study was uploaded to his agency’s website or whether MDEAT’s former public information officer put out an official announcement publicizing its release before recently leaving the agency, MDEAT is planning to formally roll out the study in the form of three community events in north, south and central parts of Miami-Dade County.
The events, projected to take place in May or June, will feature study results and discussion on how MDEAT will move forward in advocating for programs to address disparities uncovered in respective county districts. However, the event locations, dates and times have not been finalized.
“We’re hoping to make [meetings] specific to the areas that we’re going to be in,” noted Diggs. “I want to make sure that the communities that are addressed in it and folk that have questions, that we can answer them as they may come up.”
There was no mention of the study’s release or its recommendations at MDEAT’s board meeting last Thursday, or the one prior. Given the size of the study, Diggs said, he’d like board members to discuss and review it at their June retreat without the two-hour time constraint of a board meeting.
It’s unclear when the study will go before the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners.
Since MDEAT announced in February 2023 that it would be conducting a disparity study, The Miami Times has extensively monitored and covered its progress – including seeking answers to questions about dubious research methods utilized by CMA Enterprise Inc. and E.L. Waters and Company LLC, the two firms that together received a $234,915 sole-source contract to conduct the study.
Those methods include a $6,200 charge to MDEAT for interviews with five community stakeholders – three of whom told The Miami Times that they were never contacted – naming former city of Miami Commissioner Jeffrey Watson among members of their research team though he denies involvement, and providing little to no explanation for involving a group of Clark Atlanta University students and Georgia professor Edward Davis in the project despite MDEAT terminating an earlier contract with an out-of-state firm hired to conduct the study before CMA-Waters, because MDEAT said it wanted community responses collected locally.
It should be noted that Diggs is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University and that the names of stakeholders and elected officials interviewed were omitted from the final study.
“I don’t think that affects the integrity of [the study] at all. From what we understand, what we asked for them to do, we believe that they’ve done a good job at it,” said Diggs, who added that it was time to focus on the bigger picture and move forward with the agency’s mission of serving the county’s Black communities.
“We believe that the study that we’ve put together is a really good one. We think there’s a lot of good information … and stand behind the work that’s been done,” he said. “I’m trying to move forward with the idea that we can utilize the information we have, go to the community to kind of work through this process because many studies that are done, they’re works in progress. It’s trying to help us understand as an organization what we need to do to better equip and help our community.”
The study’s release comes months after Diggs, who stated at an October board meeting that MDEAT was working to get its act together, disclosed that the agency was undergoing two financial audits after it hadn’t been audited since it was known as MMAP, the agency that was restructured as MDEAT in 2009. The county audit, according to the Audit and Management Services Department, is still ongoing with no anticipated date of completion.
“There are times that, you know, the vendors that we use probably should do more (and) we ought to do a better job in compliance but we’re learning,” said Diggs. “What we’re not doing is, we’re not wasting anybody’s money. We’re trying our level best to figure out how to [help] within housing, within youth services, teen court. There’s so many things that we’re up to and all we’re trying to do is … get better every day.”
subhed = Study findings
Over a 4-to-6-month data collection phase, CMA-Waters said it photographed and observed the Princeton, Richmond Heights, South Miami Heights, West Dixie Highway District, North Miami Biscayne Boulevard, West Little River, Naranja, Model City, Liberty City, Little Haiti, Homestead, Goulds and Coconut Grove neighborhoods as part of its site review.
Site review findings indicated that many of these neighborhoods were “bedroom communities”; contained deteriorating homes, businesses and public buildings; had damaged streets and driveways; lacked readily accessible public transportation; and are in need of infrastructure upgrades. According to CMA-Waters, south Dade’s TUAs contains more food deserts than northern neighborhoods.
In its U.S. Census data observation, CMA-Waters said that because more Black residents are moving to northern parts of the county, Goulds, Florida City, southwest Homestead, Leisure City, Naranja, Princeton and south Miami are no longer majority-Black, recommending that such communities have their TUA designation changed.
According to responses CMA-Waters says it received through surveys and public forums, of which attendance and responses were often very low, there is a lack of equity in funding TUA groups from The Children’s Trust; application processes for housing programs need to be streamlined; students in under-resourced schools are falling behind; residents are seeking alternative workforce opportunities outside the higher education path; there is a need for mental health awareness and resources; and South Florida’s “affordable” housing options aren’t in fact affordable for residents struggling to get by.
“We have a program right now where we’re giving out over $5 or $6 million to Black developers in the Black community to help them build housing for Black people,” said Diggs, disclosing plans to host a housing summit. “We know the value of the work that we do … we actually do more down payment assistance loans than Public Housing and Community Development does, and we have just 8% of the surtax dollars … but yet I’m charged to do it from Florida City all the way to the county line.”