Desperate seniors search for shelter as church shuts their Little Havana apartment building

Couch-surfing in your 20s is one thing, but if you are 73, retired, set in your ways and have some miles on your knees and back, staying with friends and moving from place to place is brutal.

These are hard times for the longtime residents of the Holy Comforter Senior Housing building in Little Havana, once a happy hive of activity where elderly residents lived, played dominoes, and drank Cuban coffee within a stone’s throw of the church that nurtured many of them and gave them a feeling of belonging.

Those apartments, the church and their peace of mind will soon be history.

Almost all of the 42 apartments in the pale green, three-story building at 190 SW 13th Ave. in Little Havana have emptied out since the church, which owns the building, told residents in a letter dated July 5 that they must vacate by the end of October.

That letter, and subsequent communications, claim the building, erected in the ‘70s, had to go because its insurance was canceled by the carrier and that regardless the building has outlived its usefulness. The church and the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida, of which it is a part, say a new “state-of-the-art” building will rise from its footprint that will allow them to “continue the mission of providing affordable housing.”

But some of the people who have lived there for years and who say their building is anything but worn out feel bitter, abandoned and suspicious that money — specifically, the chance to capitalize on a white-hot housing market — is the real motive for the loss of their homes.

The church has ceased talking to the news media except through a public relations company, Conceptual Communications. The PR outfit confirmed that the church has offered assistance with the transition in the form of a 15% discount on moving services, a month’s free rent and contact information for resources such as Miami-Dade Public Housing and Community Development. Moving supplies and a Publix gift card to replenish perishables were also given out.

Despite that assistance, some residents remain in place a little more than a week before the building is set to close.

Housing prices in Miami have soared in recent years, making it difficult for many people to find an affordable space. But for elderly residents, it can be especially difficult to navigate the housing search process — which in recent years has become increasingly digital, a sphere that is alien to many in their 70s and 80s.

As they figure out where they will live, some of the residents, who have paid $800-$900 for an efficiency or one-bedroom, had to throw out the majority of their lives’ belongings — beds, paintings, lamps, books — in anticipation of moving to a smaller space.

“It really infuriates me, because we all saw it coming,” said Dr. Edward Murray, associate director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University in Miami, speaking in general about the shortage of affordable housing. He was involved in authoring an affordable housing plan in 2018 for Miami-Dade County that was never fully adopted.

Many neighborhoods in Miami, including Little Havana and Allapatah, have high percentages of low-income elderly people living off small fixed incomes, and the plan would have taken steps to ensure elderly people can remain in their neighborhoods despite development.

Some of the residents at Holy Comforter are now living a two- or three-hour drive away — as far as Cape Coral, near Fort Myers.

Murray says this is more than gentrification, but rather a new development pattern driven by an investors’ market.

“The bottom line is there is a lot of money to be made by building housing at the upper-income spectrum, and everyone else is left out.”

The residents, some of whom are battling illness and living off small fixed-incomes, say they were initially told they did not have to pay rent in October.

Then, they say, when they followed that advice, they received notices that they must vacate by Oct. 13 — 18 days earlier than they expected.

During a meeting to air out concerns that was held in the small lobby of the building shortly after the notice to vacate was sent out, residents were upset. Some felt betrayed, having been longtime parishioners at Holy Comforter, the marigold-colored church across the parking lot from the apartment building.

Residents told the Herald they asked in July for an extension, but were denied.

State Sen. Ileana Garcia got involved with the building after learning through news coverage about the residents’ need to vacate. She told the Miami Herald that after meeting with residents she contacted Citizens, the last-resort insurance company in Florida. She said she was told Citizens could have worked out a way to make sure the building was insurable.

Garcia said it was clear the owners were committed to demolishing and rebuilding

Juana Nelia Alfonso is 88 and has lived in the building for about 15 years.

“It is very ugly what is going on here,” Alfonso said in Spanish. “I still have nowhere to go and I have to leave by the end of the month.” She did not pay rent in October, because she believed she did not need to.

Alfonso sat at her small kitchen table in her studio apartment, where she had begun boxing up her things. She loves her apartment, although it is small. Her bed was neatly made with a white quilted bedspread and white sheets. A thriving house plant was behind her bed, and next to it an exercise bike. Photos of her family hung on the wall.

“The apartments are nice, I don’t know why they want to destroy it!” said the woman, who followed her two children to the United States after 25 years as a house cleaner in Cuba, working in the residence of the Danish Consulate.

“I don’t have money to move and I do not know what is in my destiny,” she said.

Her two sons both have families of their own, and are themselves contending with crowded living situations. She does not want to be a burden on them, she said.

“I don’t know if I am going to live under a bridge,” she said.

Earlier that day, a former neighbor in the building, Jose Olive, 73, gave Alfonso a ride to the store to buy a few groceries. Olive moved out of the building and is sleeping at a friend’s house during the night. But he cannot be there during the day, so he spends his time on the street — and is happy to help out Alfonso.

Some of the residents at Holy Comforter have Section 8 vouchers, a federally subsidized housing program. For them, it has been easier to find a new apartment.

Joel Diaz Romero, 77, a political refugee from Cuba who is battling a stomach disease, was ultimately able to find an apartment by walking around the neighborhood and asking if landlords accept vouchers.

Like many residents, he used to attend the Episcopal church every Sunday.

The Miami-Dade Office of Housing Advocacy has been working with the city of Miami to provide resources to the elderly residents, which include offering expedited applications for assisted living facilities (ALFs) and helping those with Section 8 vouchers.

Still, a handful of residents remain, unable to find an apartment they can afford and unwilling to go to an ALF after becoming accustomed to living independently.

Juana Neli Alfonso is no longer one of them. Reached by phone on Friday, days after she was initially interviewed, she burst into tears as she described how she had just moved into a small room at the home of a relative.

The Rev. Rafael Garcia, who authored the notice to vacate, said that it was not his decision to close the building, but rather the decision of the Episcopal Diocese.

He is listed as the president of the Holy Comforter Senior Facility Inc., which owns the property.

So far, seven formal evictions have been filed, according to the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts, and each day, there are fewer people living out the last years of their lives in those apartments, and more empty apartments without doors — ready to be demolished.

“This situation brings attention to the fact that Miami residents are suffering from an unattainable housing market,” said Yesenia Arocha, an attorney at Legal Services of Greater Miami, who is helping the residents with their plight.

“As a community, we have a responsibility to make sure these people have a place to go,” she said.