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Miami Herald
February 10, 2011

Carrfour building affordable housing in Naranja

Casa Matias, which will be open to low-income families, will be complete by the end of the year. Upload and share your own.

A nonprofit company has started construction on a six-story affordable-housing apartment building in Naranja.

Carrfour Supportive Housing will build the 80 apartments at the corner of South Dixie Highway and Southwest 260th Street. Construction on the $21 million project began in November and is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

Half the apartments will be rented to formerly homeless families and the other half to other low-income families.

Rents for qualified low- and moderate-income families will range from $238 to $914, said Stephanie Berman, president of Carrfour. A family of four would have to earn less than $35,150 to qualify for the reduced rent.

About $8 million in government funding will go into the project, from sources including tax credits, federal stimulus money, and aid from Miami Dade County.

The building will be called Casa Matias, after the former owner of the property, Matias Romero. Romero, who died in 1982, owned MCR Lumber and Materials Supply, which is next to the apartments.

Jose “Manny” Romero, grandson of Matias, said he is moved by the project’s being named after his grandfather.

"I am very excited and proud,” he said.

The project will include 12 one-bedroom/one-bathroom apartments, 50 two-bedroom/two bathrooms, and 18 three-bedroom/two bathrooms units.