"Everybody that needs something, they come to me."
In Overtown, a few blocks south of Northwest 20th Street, where public housing complexes abruptly give way to artfully graffitied walls, Pilates studios and coffee shops peddling $7 lattes, Michael Harley presides as tribune of his senior low-income housing complex.
“Everybody that needs something, they come to me,” Harley chuckled as a neighbor shuffled out of his living room, freshly schooled on how to navigate some Byzantine process involving a health insurance claim.
Harley has lived in the complex for four years. His adopted duties include fundraising for holiday and birthday parties, organizing game nights, and advocating for accessibility changes to his building, like automatic doors for wheelchair-bound residents like himself.
The more involved he gets, the more attached the 72-year-old feels to his community.
That made the eviction notice he received in 2022 — and the effort to terminate his lease that followed soon after — so devastating.
Harley suspected both efforts to remove him were wrongful. Legal Services of Greater Miami agreed. The VA referred Harley, an Army veteran, to the organization. At no cost, it took his case, represented him in court and won, staving off his displacement.
Read more at the Miami Herald