I stood before the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners and spoke on items 10A1 and 10A2 because I am watching something painful happen in real time. I am a community chaplain, and I work directly with people who are unhoused and looking for housing every day. At the same time, I am hearing from homesteaders and seniors who have lived in their homes for 30 and 40 years and now feel like they are being pushed out by costs they can no longer carry.

This is not just about numbers on paper. These are elders, longtime neighbors, and working families who did what they were supposed to do, stayed rooted, and built their lives here in Miami-Dade County. Now rising insurance costs and housing-related debt are putting them in impossible situations, and when people lose homes they have held onto for decades, the damage reaches entire blocks, families, and communities.

I am asking the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners to create real debt relief for homesteaders and seniors in multifamily homes who are at risk of displacement. Relief should be designed to keep people in place, protect those on fixed incomes, and stop longtime residents from being forced out because costs have outpaced what they can survive. If the county can act on housing, then it must act for the people who are still fighting to hold onto the little stability they have left.

I am speaking up because I see the housing crisis from both sides: people trying to find a home and people trying not to lose the one they already have. We cannot wait until more seniors are displaced and more families fall into homelessness. Please sign this petition and tell Miami-Dade County to provide debt relief that keeps longtime residents in their homes.