Beginning in January 2022, the University of Miami Office of Civic and Community Engagement, affiliated faculty, and community partners embarked on a research study to examine the genesis, criteria, and relevance of the term “climate gentrification” as it relates to concerns about equitable development in Miami. The project complemented an academic literature review with a collection of oral histories to expand the understanding of climate gentrification based on lived experiences. Students in Dr. Robin Bachin’s Environmental History course at the University of Miami in Spring 2022 partnered with community organizations to engage interested residents in recording oral histories in the Overtown, Little Havana, Liberty City, and Allapattah neighborhoods in Miami.

This collection contains the oral history videos that were created as part of the project and can be accessed online.

The records contain legal cases, research files, correspondence, audio-visual materials (VHS, CD-ROM, audiocassettes, microcassettes), and trial notes from the Miami Community Justice Project. Topics covered include development for low income housing, gentrification, public housing, and privately run detention centers. In particular, the materials discuss the Scott Homes/Hope VI housing revitalization plan and the Reese v. Miami-Dade County court case; the Sawyer's Walk (Overtown) and Crosswinds (Overtown) redevelopment projects; the Manuel et al. v. city of Lake Worth court case; and the Miami Workers Centers Transit HUB. Other organizations mentioned in the files include Power U Center for Social Change and Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC).

Thanks to a grant sponsored by UM Libraries as part of the CREATE Grant Fall 2019 grant Cycle Awards, students under the supervision of Professor Robin Bachin (Associate Professor/Assistant Provost for Civic and Community Engagement) conducted interviews with Miami community members in neighborhoods that have undergone significant transformations over the last several decades.

The Race, housing, and displacement oral history collection documents the complicated and significant interconnections among race, housing, and displacement in Miami during the twentieth century. The 6 interviewees are from various neighborhoods including Overtown, Liberty City, and Little Haiti. The interviews were conducted over Zoom during April 2020.

The following individuals were interviewed as part of this collection:

1. Adrian Madriz: Executive Director of the Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing (SMASH)
2. Alana Greer: Co-founder of the Community Justice Project
3. Mileyka Burgos: Executive Director of The Allapattah Collaborative, CDC
4. Nancy Metayer: Candidate for Coral Springs Commissioner; member on the Steering Committee of the Miami Climate Alliance; former member of the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District; Co-Founder of the Florida Disaster Preparedness Plan; environmental scientist; community organizer
5. Shirley Plantin, Chief Executive Consultant for U-Turn Youth Consulting Firm and the author of The Backstory of a New Reality
6. Yanick Landess, Director of Homeownership Programs at Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida

The Scott Carver Housing History collection includes photographs, clippings, reports, ephemera, and digitized files of oral history interviews that document the advocacy work of Scott Carver Miami residents and activists for the restitution of the demolished Scott Carver homes.