Touching Miami with Love serves local families through after-school and summer programs, job training and family services. Its leader, Trina Harris, said the need for stable housing has become clear among both the families the organization serves and its own employees.

Some residents have had to leave the area, Harris said, while staff members have struggled to afford rents in the community where they grew up. The project is intended to help families stay connected to their neighborhoods, she said.

A survey of families served by the nonprofit identified housing as a major concern about five years ago. Harris said the organization then began exploring how it could develop housing itself, with training and assistance from groups including the Greater Miami Housing Funders Collaborative.

The development would add homes in a county where Miami Homes For All estimates a shortage of about 90,000 affordable units. Annie Lord, the nonprofit’s leader, has described the gap as a challenge for working families trying to keep up with housing costs.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has said the county is streamlining permitting and prioritizing affordable housing proposals. Nonprofits and community groups are also exploring ways to use underdeveloped land to increase the supply of homes.

Harris hopes the Homestead project will encourage other nonprofits to consider housing development as a way to address needs in their communities. She said families and staff have responded with excitement when shown what is planned.