Interview with Adrian Madriz

Interview with Adrian Madriz, Executive Director of the Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing (SMASH). This program started in 2016 defending black and brown low-income residents from Liberty City, Overtown and Little Havana against slumlords. This program has made partnership with grassroots organizations in order to deal with housing developers, large corporations and other interests, which are the main obstacle for this program. SMASH is putting the residents of low-income communities in charge of their own residences, so that they can control their own destiny and build their own history. According to Madriz, racism is an obstacle that SMASH confronts at every moment. Other factors affect housing opportunities like climate change, COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, and gentrification.