Members of the Miami Local of Black Rose Anarchist Federation/Federación
Anarquista Rosa Negra have been supporting the Li'l Abner Mobile HomePark residents' struggle against CREI Holdings. In this report, they
document the situation residents face, the business and political elites
who are causing it, and some next steps to stop the evictions. ---- By
Adam Weaver, Robin Young, and Juan Verala Luz
A Swelling Struggle in Suburban Sweetwater
A new fight over housing has erupted in the Miami suburb of Sweetwater,
culminating in local police tackling and arresting an elderly resident
leader. On November 13 thousands of residents living in the massive 900
unit Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park received a surprise notice taped to
their doors, on top of garbage bins, and strewn around in dark puddles
on the property, announcing they had only months until they would be
displaced from their homes. Those who were aware and could understand
these notices quickly spread awareness to those who didn't or couldn't,
as soon residents will have nowhere to go.
Rental prices in Miami-Dade County have skyrocketed by 58% over the past
five years and the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is now over
$3,300 per month according to Rent.com. The population of the park is
almost entirely multi-generational, working-class Latino immigrants,
with a significant number of them being elderly and disabled residents
living on fixed incomes who find the park to be one of the few
affordable options left in the region.
Residents and supporters of Li'l Abner hold a mass meeting on Monday
November 18th to determine their demands. Photo: Miami BRRN.
As typical with mobile home parks, Li'l Abner residents own the units
they live in and pay rent on the land they occupy, so relocation is
possible but at a high cost. The notice offered residents $14,000 - or
just 10% of the median home's listing price - if they leave by January
31, which then reduces to $7,000 if they move by March 31 and finally
the legal required minimum of $3,000 if they move by April 30. This
notice was largely perceived to be a slap in the face by residents,
giving them only 80 days to upend their entire lives, after many spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars towards their homes and decades leasing
in the park.
The newly formed residents' board is demanding $50,000 to move and three
to four years to do so, because otherwise, whether residents recently
bought into the park or spent decades paying off a mortgage, their homes
and their investments therein will be wiped away. One example reported
by the Miami Herald is resident Hamilton Dos Santos who liquidated his
life savings, including his 401(k), to purchase a four-bedroom unit for
$160,000 only four months ago. "It's a completely lost investment," he says.
Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park's directory illustrates the hundreds of
units that will be demolished - and families cast aside - if CREI
Holdings owned by Raul Rodriguez successfully evicts its tenants. Photo:
Miami BRRN.
Who are the Chief Eviction Officers?
Eviction orders came signed by The Urban Group, a firm that specializes
in helping developers displace their tenants. However, the real holder
of the reins at Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park lies with CREI Holdings,
owned by Miami businessman Raul F. Rodriguez. If Rodriguez gets his way,
an eight-story apartment complex with 328 units known as Li'l Abner III
will replace the land's 900 mobile homes. Given that many tenants have
added rooms onto their homes, such redevelopment would cut the available
number of units by more than two-thirds. Despite marketing the project
as "affordable and workforce housing," only 40% of the units would be
reserved for tenants who make 80% of the area median income. Meanwhile,
Rodriguez lives comfortably in a 6,000 square foot, five-bedroom home in
Sweetwater Estates, just two miles shy from his current tenants. His
cynical cash-grab puts to shame his efforts to cultivate an image as a
humanitarian community investor from humble beginnings.
Rodriguez's father, Raul Sr., amassed a small fortune as a Cuban
businessman who established the Corvet chain of appliance and television
stores in Venezuela. In the mid-1960s, Raul Sr. relocated to Miami,
where he built a speculative real estate empire. These investments then
financed Raul Jr.'s schooling at the elite Belen Jesuit Preparatory
Academy, where Raul Sr.'s and his wife Nidia's donations were so
generous that the school named its science pavilion and a multimedia
center after the couple. The couple was later posthumously inducted into
Belen's Hall of Fame in 2024.
Since inheriting his family's wealth, Raul F. Rodriguez has pursued
accumulating more of it through a network of investments and business
ownership. Rodriguez has swelled his coffers as a Managing Partner at
Fuentes Consulting Group, a one-time investor in the regional Segafredo
restaurant chains, and former proprietor of the private investment firm
Agua Dulce Investments. Besides CREI Holdings, Rodriguez has shielded
his property investments under numerous limited-liability corporations,
including Rayni Investments and Properties (both inactive) and Luar
Entertainment (inactive) and Luar Investments (currently Managing
Partner). He founded and is currently President/CEO of National Health
Transport, a Miami based medical transport provider.
When he's not busy kicking residents out of their homes, Raul F.
Rodriguez (second from right with wife Paola Rodriguez) spends the
holidays with his politician pals, Miami-Dade County District 12
Commissioner Juan Carlos "JC" Bermudez (far left) and Mayor of
Sweetwater José "Pepe" Díaz (second from left). Source: Li'l Abner
Foundation Facebook page, 2023 Thanksgiving Bash Photo Album.
Rodriguez has also put key politicians in his deep pockets. During Juan
Carlos "JC" Bermudez's 2022 campaign for Miami-Dade Commission District
12, which represents the City of Sweetwater, Rodriguez's Luar
Investments was reported as one of the largest contributors. Bermudez
replaced José "Pepe" Díaz, who previously held the office from 2002
before terming out in 2023. Similar to Bermudez's run, at least eight
different corporate entities run by Raul Rodriguez, his family members,
or close associates, contributed thousands to Díaz's 2010 commissioner
campaign. Although Díaz ran unopposed for the mayor of Sweetwater in
2023, Rodriguez donated to the campaign in similarly shady ways.
Bermudez and Diaz as the respective Miami-Dade County Commissioner and
Mayor of Sweetwater would be the key political stakeholders for moving
forward Raul Rodriguez's development ambitions.
Mayor Díaz claimed to be as surprised as the residents by the eviction
notices, but has since been revealed to have sponsored a 2022 resolution
which allocated more than half a million dollars to CREI Holdings for
the Li'l Abner redevelopment project. Even more, the Miami-Dade County
Board of Commissioners committed up to an additional $4,000,000 in
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funding for the
project in 2023. Despite HUD's stated mission to expand affordable
housing, Li'l Abner III will displace far more individuals than the
future project will house.
Adding insult to injury, Rodriguez prides himself on his honorary
service to the Sweetwater Police Department, including his volunteer
membership as a member of its SWAT team. His "service" comes replete
with a badge, weapon, and uniform.
Li'l Abner Residents' Big Time Resistance
Residents of Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park have mobilized quickly against
Rodriguez's eviction orders.
Residents of Li'l Abner held demonstrations on street corners around
their homes. Photo: Miami BRRN.
Furious at facing mass displacement, they immediately began staging
daily protests at the park's street-side intersection under the slogan
"Li'l Abner Se Defiende, No Se Vende" or "Protect, Don't Sell, Li'l
Abner." The Sweetwater Police Department of only 24 sworn officers
regularly sends over half its force to these protests to intimidate
residents. On multiple occasions, the Sweetwater police have verbally
harassed protesters, threatened them with jaywalking tickets, called
towing companies to remove their vehicles, cited residents who are
simply driving by to stop and share a few words of support with their
neighbors, and have pushed elderly protesters to the ground. At these
actions, residents have been overheard proclaiming that the situation is
"worse than Cuba" and that local politicians are paid off by developers,
have abandoned them, and that local police do not treat them humanely.
Residents have also taken to social media to spread awareness as to
their eviction and find allies in their struggle. Throughout November,
some residents believed that President Trump would heroically swoop in
and stop the mass eviction. Others similarly believed that the mayor of
Sweetwater would stop it once he became aware. Disillusioned by the
obvious complicity of local politicians in their displacement, these
residents have begun to resolve the inconsistencies in their usual
politics by identifying landlords, developers, and the police as truer
enemies to their livelihood than they'd previously assumed. Together
with their neighbors, residents at Li'l Abner have turned to each other
for a more honest dialogue that is focused on keeping everyone in their
homes, as well as a strategy that fights to achieve that goal.
The campaign took a significant turn on the morning of December 4.
Resident Vivian Hernández, who has played a key role in leading protests
and canvassing efforts, began to vocalize the concerns of park tenants
against the demolition of their mobile homes to property management when
she went to drop off her rent check.
According to Hernández, management reportedly shut down the conversation
about these issues before calling the Sweetwater police to the office. A
viral video of the incident showed an officer slamming Hernández into
the ground and roughly handcuffing the 61-year-old, five-foot-five
woman, injuring her face and neck. She was immediately charged and
booked with disorderly conduct, trespassing and resisting an officer.
Hernández's arrest "definitely wasn't an accident," says Will Suarez,
who is one of many community supporters involved in the campaign. Will
previously led an effort to unionize Starbucks workers in nearby
Hialeah. He described the arrest as a complete injustice which left many
residents traumatized and some crying. But he also says the incident has
united the residents, who have shown a great deal of bravery in the face
of the Sweetwater police's campaign of intimidation tactics.
Outraged over the arrest, over 100 residents and supporters massed
outside Sweetwater City Hall later that evening to call for Vivian's
release. In response, Sweetwater police called a tow truck to impound
residents' nearby cars. Enraged residents surrounded the trucks until
they left, with one resident even using his vehicle to physically block
access. All the while residents chanted phrases at the police like
"Justicia Para Vivían" ("Justice for Vivian"), "No al Abusó Policial"
("No police abuse") "Vecinos Unidos Jamás Serán Vencidos" ("The
Neighbors United Will Never Be Defeated"), and "Policia Singao" (a
vulgar Cuban insult which is roughly equivalent to "motherf**ker" but
has grown recently in political significance). The crowd closed out the
evening with a one-mile candlelight march back to the mobile home park.
Next Steps: #LilAbnerLuchaSigue
The Sweetwater struggle exemplifies how suburban small business owners
run their fiefdoms with political support and police suppression.
Despite the odds stacked against them, Li'l Abner residents' resistance
shows us that we can fight local elites' grips on our lives by fighting
for control of where we live. Consolidating that control requires
greater organization and widespread support, however.
Li'l Abner residents are currently working to revitalize the existing
homeowners association for the park, which had gone defunct when the
previous president passed away. Meanwhile, resident leaders have made
large strides in bringing more cohesion to the residents' demands by
forming an informal "junta" (board or committee). The group hired legal
representation and is asking residents to refuse any relocation offer
while they collectively negotiate. So far, residents and the junta have
demanded CREI Holdings allow three to four years for relocation and
provide $50,000 in compensation for each unit. Other potential demands
include an eviction moratorium issued by Miami-Dade County or Sweetwater
officials, or negotiations to buy out CREI Holdings and establish a
cooperative association of owner-residents.
Here's how we are mobilizing to support Li'l Abner's residents-and how
you can, too:
Follow @lilabner_homeowners on Instagram.
Donate to the residents' GoFundMe page to help with legal support and
other immediate needs.
Demand Raul F. Rodriguez withdraw eviction orders by emailing him at
rrodriguez@nationalhealthtransport.com and info@creiholdings.com and
calling him at (305) 479-5471.
Tell The Urban Group to cancel their contract with CREI Holdings at
info@theurbangroup.com and (954) 522-6226.
Call on José "Pepe" Díaz's office to demand the City of Sweetwater take
action to stop the eviction of Li'l Abner residents at
mayordiaz@cityofsweetwater.fl.gov and (305) 221-0411.
https://www.blackrosefed.org/lil-abner-tenant-organizing/
_________________________________________
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