Inside the numbers on Florida’s dire affordable housing situation – Gulfshore Business

Tom Rossi discusses the Lack of Affordable Housing in Southwest Florida

Tom Rossi arrives at Seed & Bean, a downtown Fort Myers cafe, and walks inside not-quite soaked after a late summer downpour. He is here to talk about affordable housing—and the lack thereof across Southwest Florida—but before he can do that, he must define it.

Understanding Affordable Housing

Affordable housing, the term, has become a great misconception, Rossi explained, because people paying $2,000 a month to rent a two-bedroom, market-rate apartment would like to pay less. They would like to have more affordable housing.

But paying $2,100 instead of $2,600 per month isn’t what “affordable housing” means, at least not to the federal government and the entities that subsidize these projects. It’s not even close.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

“Affordable housing is for people making below 60% of the area median income (AMI),” Rossi says. For true affordable housing projects to work, the tenants must not be paying more than 30% of their income toward housing, either.

The AMI for Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties’ households in 2022 was about $80,815, $71,072 and $64,860, respectively, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics. With market-rate rents hovering above $2,273 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in Lee County, for example, that means the average household there is paying about 38% of its income toward rent instead of the recommended 30%.

To qualify for federally subsidized, affordable housing programs, a household must be making an average of $48,489, $42,653 or $38,916 per year or less, respectively, in each of those counties.

Renaissance Development and Workforce Housing

Rossi’s company, Renaissance Development, doesn’t even build affordable housing projects. Instead, he specializes in “workforce housing,” which often gets confused with affordable housing, because workforce housing is “more affordable” than market-rate and luxury apartments. A little confusion is understandable.

“Workforce housing is for people making between 100% and 120% of AMI,” Rossi says, which in the three-county area will be about $80,000 per household. These are teachers and firefighters, police officers and the like. “We will be 15% to 20% less monthly rent than anybody else in the U.S. 41 corridor.”

Rossi’s talking about his planned apartment project called Bloom, which has yet to figuratively bloom—or literally, break ground—due to delays.

Bloom: A Workforce Housing Project

Renaissance Development bought the 5.7-acre site at 2010 Hanson St. in midtown Fort Myers in January 2022 for $2 million. It had been an abandoned Araba Shriner’s Hall that was razed earlier this year. The plan remains to build 336 workforce housing units at the site. The delays, Rossi said, have resulted from inflation, rising interest rates and a rise in AMI in Lee County.

The Live Local Act and State Incentives

On July 1, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Live Local Act, also known as Senate Bill 102. The laws, introduced by Alexis Calatayud, a Republican senator from Miami, provided state incentives to developers to try to get them to build more workforce housing units.

Effective through Oct. 1, 2033, taxpayers can contribute money to Florida Housing in exchange for dollar-for-dollar credits toward their corporate income tax liability and/or insurance premium tax liability, the law states.

Taxpayers who wish to participate can apply for an allocation of tax credits. They cannot claim the credits until receiving a certificate of contribution from Florida Housing. The program has a $100 million cap in tax credit allocation.

These incentives should help spur development of workforce housing, Rossi said. “The idea was to increase the housing supply,” he says. “The only way rents are going to go down is with supply and demand. It’s helped encourage more units to be built.”

ReVital Development and Affordable Housing

Michael Allan founded ReVital Development in 2020, positioning it to build a mix of affordable and workforce housing complexes. His company’s first project, Civitas, will be the first affordable apartment complex built in Cape Coral in 25 years, and the first-ever workforce apartment complex in Florida’s second-largest city in terms of land mass after Jacksonville.

“The City Walk deal, that was the last market-rate project I did,” says Allan, who had partnered with Joe Bonora on that apartment complex near downtown Fort Myers before starting ReVital. “Anything new has been a focus on affordable or workforce.”

Civitas will have 96 units off Pine Island Road. “With Civitas, it’s an affordable and a workforce community,” he says. “One-, two- and three-bedroom units.”

Of the 96 units, 23 of them will be set aside for households making 30% of AMI. There will be 45 units set aside for households making up to 60% of AMI. And there will be 28 workforce units for households making up to 80% of AMI.

Challenges in Developing Affordable Housing

Some of the challenges in developing these projects are neighboring property owners who don’t want them nearby, Allan said. “Oftentimes, people are saying they don’t want a brick building like one that’s in the Bronx,” he says. “That’s the stigma that’s there. In Cape Coral, there’s a market-rate property going right next door. Aesthetically, our goal is to not be able to tell the difference between low income and market rate.

“It’s all concrete block. We have hurricane-impact windows. We have energy-efficient appliances. We do have some granite countertops, but not all of them do; some of them have Formica.”

Affordable and workforce projects have been

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

SDG 1: No Poverty

• Target 1.4: By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular, the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership, and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology, and financial services, including microfinance.
• Indicator 1.4.2: Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and type of tenure.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

• Target 11.1: By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.
• Indicator 11.1.1: Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

• Target 17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.
• Indicator 17.17.1: Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships (PPPs).

Analysis

1. The SDGs addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article are SDG 1: No Poverty, SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

2. Specific targets under those SDGs based on the article’s content are:
– Target 1.4: Ensuring equal rights to economic resources and access to basic services.
– Target 11.1: Ensuring access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services.
– Target 17.17: Encouraging effective partnerships for sustainable development.

3. Indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets are:
– Indicator 1.4.2: Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land.
– Indicator 11.1.1: Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements, or inadequate housing.
– Indicator 17.17.1: Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships (PPPs).

4. Table presenting the findings:

| SDGs | Targets | Indicators |
|——|———|————|
| SDG 1: No Poverty | Target 1.4: By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular, the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership, and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology, and financial services, including microfinance. | Indicator 1.4.2: Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and type of tenure. |
| SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities | Target 11.1: By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums. | Indicator 11.1.1: Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing. |
| SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals | Target 17.17: Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships. | Indicator 17.17.1: Amount of United States dollars committed to public-private partnerships (PPPs). |

Behold! This splendid article springs forth from the wellspring of knowledge, shaped by a wondrous proprietary AI technology that delved into a vast ocean of data, illuminating the path towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Remember that all rights are reserved by SDG Investors LLC, empowering us to champion progress together.

Source: gulfshorebusiness.com

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