The County Tried to Shut Us Down

Today Miami Dade Housing Agency head Kris Warren sent workers to the de-facto headquarters of the Find Our People Campaign at 7255 NW 22nd Ave to fence-off the property and prepare the last remianing Scott building for demolition.

Former Scott residents, members of LIFFT and Miami Workers Center have maintained a 24-hour presence on the site for four days now. Over 50 new people come through each day to share information and help out with the campaign.

“We called Kris Warren [MDHA Head]. She told us this building is slated for demolition. She said we had to move,” said Tony Romano of the Miami Workers Center. “Just yesterday Ms. Warren came down here and told us she wants to work with us. She said she wanted to support us in this campaign. Here we are doing work they should be doing anyway and she tries to shuts us down.”

Romano informed Warren that the site is essential for the campaign, he credits its centrality with the early success of finding people from Scotts. “She told us we couldn’t stay over night. We told her we need to protect the wall and the hundreds of human hours that have gone into collecting information.”

Eventually Warren backed off and told Romano that as long as the group doesn’t put up tents they wont be kicked off the land.

According to a demolition worker the site at 7255 NW 22nd Ave was not part of the original demolition schedule and was only added after the Find Our People Campaign took up residency.