Archives

July 2007

Miami's Los Sueños affordable rental apartments the real deal

Posted at 3:17 AM, Jul. 30, 2007

(Cross-posted from Florida Workforce Housing Network with permission).

RealEstateMiami blog posts a dazzling image of Miami architect Chad Oppenheim's design for Miami Dade College in downtown Miami. George Jetson would love it.

Further down, more noteworthy: on-the-street details about Los Sueños, Pinnacle Housing Group's recently-opened 179-unit highrise not far away on 36th St., where:

...179 families now have homes in the one-, two- and three-bedroom units at manageable rents for their incomes — from $273 to $857 per month, based on 60 percent of the average median income or below.

Funding, RealEstateMiami reports:

...included a state of Florida allocation of Housing Tax Credit Financing plus $4.5 million from Miami-Dade County Surtax Funds and $1.99 million from the city of Miami’s HOME Funds.

Palatka expects rush for 12 new homes priced at $100k financed by Dept. of Agriculture grant

Posted at 4:31 AM, Jul. 27, 2007

(Cross-posted from Florida Workforce Housing Network)

PALATKA, Fla. --- Palatka, Fla., and Putnam Co. plan to sell up to 12 publicly-owned home sites for $1 each and use $500,000 in U.S. Dept. of Agriculture grant funds to spur development of 12 new homes, half in the city and half in the county.

John Nelson, executive director of the Palatka Housing Authority, said his staff has already located four sites and are working to identify eight more to build 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom two-bath homes.

Chris DeVitto at Palatka Daily News has the story:

Nelson said people need to recognize that these homes are not subsidized housing.

"This is not public housing," he said Wednesday. "The homes will cost $100,000 to $110,000 and part of that will be paid for with money from the grant."

Each family that qualifies will receive $35,000 to apply to the mortgage, and the rest will be financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Nelson said.

"They will be responsible for the difference between the cost of the house and a $35,000 soft second mortgage," he said. "And if they live in the house for five years they will not have to repay the $35,000."

The hope is that building these homes on vacant lots will bring additional revenue into county and city coffers through property taxes and also provide affordable housing, he also said.

Showcase of new, single-family homes in Tampa offers up to $60,000 in financial aid

Posted at 8:36 PM, Jul. 25, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. --- This is how you rebuild a neighborhood with families, not facades. The City of Tampa and Tampa's Housing and Community Development Dept. are hosting a New Single-Family Homes Showcase on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at the Ragan Park Community Center, 1200 E. Lake Ave. in Tampa.

The event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Builders, lenders, community development organizations and city representatives will be on hand to assist buyers in qualifying for up to $60,000 in financial aid and down-payment assistance.

Florida Workforce Housing Network will be on hand to photograph the event and report on it over the weekend, which will also be shared here.

The video---hosted by YouTube---marks an important milestone in the evolution of this web site and the marketing of affordable housing in Florida. Click on the image at left to go to the YouTube page with the video, then click on that image to play the video (RealTown, which ranks as one of the most sophisticated and powerful web communities in real estate, does not yet accommodate YouTube video embeds but (I'm just guessing) will eventually do so as more Realtors learn of the power of this marketing format. RealTown is so sophisticated that the 'workaround' to present this video was very simple. So...click on the picture and we'll be glad to welcome your participation in this historic event.

If you'd like to email us with your name, we'll inscribe it in our Annals of History so you'll have something to show your grandkids one day.

Many thanks to Israel Segara, Contract Management Officer at the City of Tampa-Housing and Community Development's Ybor Service Center, for making this video available to our project.

Tampa developer: turn abandoned school into teacher town homes & condos under community land trust

Posted at 9:28 AM, Jul. 25, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. --- Don Shea, left, CEO of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, has an idea. And it's a good one.

He wants to turn an abandoned school building---the former Euclid Elementary School in St. Petersburg, now Euclid Center---into condominiums and town homes teachers can afford to buy. For now, the school board is listening.

So is the media. Jane Meinhardt broke the story in Tampa Bay Business Journal six weeks ago. Last week Paul Swider followed up in the St. Petersburg Times. On Friday, Isabel Mascareñas at WTSP-TV Channel 10 did it again---with video.

"It's really a brilliant idea," says Nick Pavonetti, right, founder and managing director of PDC Affordable Housing in St. Petersburg. One of Fla.'s leading affordable housing consultants, the former banker and commercial developer would like to partner with Shea and build town homes designed to complement the two-story red brick school house built in 1925 (Meinhardt) or 1940 (Swider).

Shea, who lives across the street from the school facility, envisions nine condos in the building shell and 10-12 new town homes on the nearly two-acre site---much of which is now covered by parking lot. The project could get under way as early as next year, Shea says.

First, a community land trust

Shea told Meinhardt he wants St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership to form a community land trust and convince the school board to deed Euclid Center over. Taking land costs out of the equation---and utilizing economical construction techniques like Pavonetti's modular two-story town homes---could deliver three-bedroom homes priced as low as $170,000, within reach of a teacher's salary.

"Don Shea has done his homework," said Pavonetti. "A community land trust could assure that the homes remain affordable to the next generation of teachers."

Pinellas schools superintendent Dr. Clayton Wilcox, right, said Shea's proposal might be dicey. Not all teachers would qualify , he told Swider at the St. Pete Times, and and that could raise legal issues. But, Swider reports, Wilcox thinks they can work a deal.

Dave Metz, St. Petersburg's deputy mayor for neighborhoods, told Swider the city plans to put some of its property near Mercy Hospital into a land trust and let Habitat for Humanity and Grady Pridgen build an affordable-housing development.

The school-recycling-as-community land trust strategy might be the first of its kind in the U.S. And it might be one that other Fla. counties will adopt as young families move away in search of more affordable places to live and Fla. public school enrollments decline.

 

Coveted SEBC Aurora Award goes to new concept in safe, affordable housing

Posted at 10:01 PM, Jul. 20, 2007

ORLANDO, Fla. --- TV host, producer, author and licensed Florida building contractor Kristin Beall, left, earned a prestigious Aurora Award at the Southeast Builders Conference in Orlando last week for 'a new concept in safe, affordable housing called "Storm Safe Homes."

The SEBC's Aurora cited Beall's Summerwind model home, right, for Charlie Johnson Builder (she's vice president) at The Oaks at Summer Glen in Eustis. The three-bedroom, two-bath house offers 1,546 square feet of living space priced at $229,999, and like all 59 homes at the Oaks at Summer Glen, it's Fortified...for safer living®, which probably looks better in a headline than a news release.

You'll want to hear her tell it. Click on There's More to read her news release, posted at Earthtimes.org.

(This brief is cross-posted from Florida Workforce Housing Network with permission, photographs courtesy Homes By Her (Ms. Beale) and Charlie Johnson Builder (Summerwinds model).

Miami Housing Prices Should Drop by 40 Percent to Meet Affordable Goal

Posted at 9:48 PM, Jul. 16, 2007

(Cross-posted at Florida Workforce Housing Network).

MIAMI, Fla. --- Average housing prices in Miami need to drop by 40 percent if Miami is to restore its historic income-to-housing costs ratio, according to Irvine, Calif.-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Miami's Local 10 TV reported the story Friday:

But despite recent record-breaking foreclosure months and an abundance of luxury high-rise condos being built, real estate prices in South Florida continue to hold relatively steady.

Buyers know that sooner or later prices will have to go down, so they're biding their time. Sellers think that sooner or later prices will start to inch back up. Is this what they call a Florida standoff? Who's going to blink first? And who cares?

Financial analysts expect that to change in the coming months, when thousands of adjustable-rate mortgages come due -- forcing financially strapped sellers and "flippers" to ditch the property or risk foreclosure.

But even if prices fall, it won't be enough to make a dent in South Florida's affordable housing shortage.

Seven East Tampa community organizations to host Community Survival Day July 28

Posted at 4:45 PM, Jul. 13, 2007

(Cross-posted from Florida Workforce Housing Network and mynewfloridahome.org)

TAMPA, Fla. --- Seven East Tampa community organizations will host Community Survival Day – Moving To The Next Level from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 18th Ave. Park (west of S.R. 41 between 18th Ave. E and 21st Ave. E).

The seven organizations---the Tampa Bay Community and Family Development Corp., Family and School Support Teams (FASST), Hillsborough Co. Health Department, Lee Davis Neighborhood Service Center, Lee Davis Advisory Board, The East Tampa Community Revitalization Committee, and the CDC of Tampa, Inc.---want to provide families, aspiring leaders, students, and community members in East Tampa and surrounding areas with information, resources and enrichment activities that will improve the availability of services and the community's access to them.

That's a lot of people power under development.

That's a living, breathing, sweating kind of democracy under a July sun. In Florida, where we know sun. The spirits of America's Founding Fathers must be kicking up their heels with glee.

Six hundred to 1,000 participants are expected.

Conchita L. Canty-Jones of the Tampa Bay Community and Family Development Corp. (a 501(c)(3) community service organization) is looking for sponsors.

"Our goal with Community Survival Day is to provide community linkages to resources that will impact the community," Ms. Canty-Jones explained.

Event themes will include Minority Health Disparities, Education, Economic Development, Housing, and Youth Relations, with activities for children and adults.

Ms. Canty-Jones: "Our agenda, at a glance, includes: Walk-A-Thon, Booth Displays, Smoke-Out (Stop Smoking Campaign), Bogie Bear (Mascot and entertainment for youth and adults), back-to-school supplies, and of course food and music."

In the past, this event has drawn more than 600 people.

This is democracy in action. Smoking cigarettes is a problem in East Tampa---it shortens lives, wastes precious economic resources, and dirties the environment (just as it does at Tampa Palms). And ultimately, it effects everyone in one way or another. But while many Americans might imagine that TV commercials and restrictive ordinances will do the trick, Community Survival Day will feature a Stop Smoking booth manned by volunteers who aim to help those afflicted kick the habit.

Housing is a problem too, for too many families. The CDC of Tampa, Inc. will be on hand to showcase new homes for sale in East Tampa---single-family homes with lawns to mow that a family income of $41,600 can afford to buy.

Not to go all Norman Rockwell, but this is the throbbing heart of community laid bare and it's an awesome sight.

Sponsors: Please send contributions---including donations of gift cards, supplies, etc.---to Tampa Bay Community and Family Development Corp., 3000 N. 34th Street, Tampa, FL 33605.

Sponsor Levels and Benefits: