MIAMI – After living in a motel for three months, Felicia Fernandez finally got an upgrade: an apartment in Miami.
“Table, kitchen, refrigerator, bathroom, closet,” Fernandez said Monday.
She got to see her new apartment at Sawyer’s Walk in Overtown after she lost nearly everything from the fire at the Temple Court Apartments in June.
“There was a big fire,” Fernandez said.
Miami city officials say more than 70 people were displaced from the fire, and more than 50 of them moved to Sawyer’s Walk.
Fernandez couldn’t take much with her when she got out of her old place.
“I lost everything,” Fernandez said.
The owners of the building and the Atlantic Housing Foundation chipped in to pay for furniture. Residents will get silverware, pots and pans, and a gift card to pay for other expenses.
But some of Fernandez’s things can’t be replaced.
“Savings. Passport. Pictures my kids my grandson,” Fernandez said.
Management said each tenant only has to pay 30% of their monthly income for rent. A Housing and Urban Development subsidy and Sawyer’s Walk took care of the rest.
Management told CBS News Miami that they could easily charge more for these units, but this isn’t about money.
“It won’t be as much as we might be able to get but that’s not the point. Let’s make sure we provide an option to these people because they’re in need,” Michael Liu of Swerdlow Group, who owns the building, said.
Fernandez will miss her old home for the last 16 years. But she will have some new perks here that she didn’t have at Temple Court.
“I love the swimming pool,” Fernandez said. “I can bring my grandson and take him swimming.”
The timing was convenient for the new residents. Sawyer’s Walk is a new building and it’s only a few blocks away from their old building.
