[Joey Falcon]

Originally Posted by jambo101

The keys sound like a horrible place full of homeless bums where poverty is in abundance, Thanks for the heads up i'll make sure my vacation plans dont include the Keys.

yes, it sounds worse than Orlando. I didn't that was possible.

[bigh110]

God Bless the Florida keys!! cant wait to get down there for good in 2017!! looking forward to Fantasy Fest this year!!! some people are just too damn negative. don't blame the the keys for for your own lack of a plan. hell moving anywhere without a job or savings is just plain stupid no matter what location you choose to call home. At least key west will provide the homeless with a place to sleep and shower every night. It usually never reaches max capacity so the homeless are choosing to live in the mangroves and party in paradise. I have friends been living hand to mouth in the keys for 15 years and they are not complaining. they love life drinking cheap beer and socializing with their friends its what they want and choose to do!!

[Spring Hillian]

[quote=StarfishKey;41069637]The Florida Keys have so much to offer. They don't have many beaches, but they do have lots of clear water, amazing sealife, great snorkeling and diving, and calm waters great for kayaking, paddleboarding, easy kiteboarding and sailing, etc. And of course, plenty of sunshine, heat, and humidity.
SNIP.......



Anybody who moves any where with nothing more than the shirt on thier back
are doomed. I checked out CL and while I found a few sob stories I also found
over 100 help wanted ads.

The Keys are the last place I would think of going to with no plan and hoping for the best.

[Joey Falcon]

Originally Posted by StarfishKey

Section 8 is not accepted almost anywhere

And that's a bad thing?

[thrillobyte]

Originally Posted by StarfishKey

I think this this reasonable for everyone to think about who wants to escape their current life, but it's important for people to understand that the Keys really do have a legitimately much worse situation than most other places in the country. The expectations on people who come here are really high - it is the norm to require 3x the rent up front in cash (first, last, and security), and to require proof of a job and sufficient income, as well as LOCAL references.

We have an actual affordable housing shortage, which is not the case of almost any other county. Working class people truly cannot afford to live here without roommates, Section 8 is not accepted almost anywhere (because most of the housing is illegal and in someone's below-flood storage area under their residential house), we have almost no corporation-owned apartment buildings, and many companies will actually truck worked in from Homestead to do their minimum wage jobs because people down here can't afford to live on Kmart wages. Plus, we have nowhere for the homeless to hide if they just want to bum it somewhere in their van or whatever.

I'm not saying these people should go to another part of Florida to become a burden on society. But in other counties, at least you can survive on a 35k job if you have to. Here in Monroe County, there is literally nowhere to live, unless you take illegal unsafe housing and share with a roommate, or you are one of the extremely lucky ones (usually only locals) who can get one of the very few legal apartments we have here. And those still will not be cheap at all, they cost way more than in other parts of the state.

So it's just something to be aware of and try to be reasonable about, we have an actual crisis here, even for people WITH jobs and who try really hard, the Keys have become a resort community that will chew you up and spit you out. I'm not saying I'm better than anybody, it could happen to me one day too. I was homeless several times before, so I get it. I am very lucky that so far, my life has been stable here, I have a house and can pay the mortgage. But whether or not people like that truth, it really is a truth that the Keys are gentrifying in a massive way, mostly due to flood regulations and the majority of the county being below flood, and above-flood housing being so expensive to built and to keep insurance on. The working class people here are holding on by the skin of their teeth, and every week more of them are forced out because they just can't make it anymore. That situation is not getting better, it is getting worse, because these are islands - property values are not going to go down, because there is always going to be a limited amount of space to be able to live on here. And every year, people more and more want the "carefree" island lifestyle, with the pretty water. Unless we get hit by a catastrophic hurricane - in which case NOBODY can manage to safely live here - then the demand will keep going up, and the people who have less will keep getting forced out.

One example is the small community of Knights Key in the Middle Keys. As the communities here change, more and more newcomers are willing to vote for development here, because they are more attached to the way things are on the mainland than they are to how it used to be here in the Keys. So now there has been less opposition to big developers, like this guy Singh who is trying to develop the most ultra-1% resort on Knights Key. It looks like it's going to happen, and while the poorer locals are up in arms because they know what this means, the wealthier ones are happy because they ALSO know what this means - when this place becomes the ultimate international destination for the world's wealthy, property values on that key and the surrounding keys will skyrocket. All the poorer residents, and also all of the poorer vacations who used to like to come there for camping, will be forced out by the new sky-high prices, fancier stores and restaurants, a totally new way of life for that area. And other companies will be attracted to the wealthy clientele and try to buy more land and build their resorts and gated neighborhoods too. That hasn't happened yet and there's already a problem, and already there is nobody who can afford to work for these places. So they are building worker housing, like a mining camp - because we all know what a joy it is to work for your employer and never get to leave work, to live under their rules too and always be on guard that they're watching your personal life and deciding how much rent you should pay them out of the measly hourly wage they give you. Anyway, imagine when they build this how much worse the situation here is going to get. It means the whole Keys has more cache, because an ultra-trendy mega-resort is here. It's not good news for people who don't own yet and aren't in the 1%. It's not necessarily good news for those of us who do own, either, because taxes and local groceries, etc. may go so high that we can't afford to stay, either. Which is what they want, because we are not posh enough. Plus, they will destroy the local ecosystem with their carelessness and building, which gradually ruins the thing we are all down here for.

So, this is something for everyone who wants to move down here to think about. Long-term, it is pretty hard to sustain, and basically impossible if all you've got is a waitressing job, or no job at all. The tidal wave of economic change here will come and will wipe you out, as it has so many others already. You need to have a good plan to have a shot.

I thought there was some sort of point system if you want to build in the Keys. I looked into this about 10 years ago and was told by a RE agent that if someone wants to build, say a 3+2 they have to start with a small lot and then leave it vacant to preserve a certain % of natural untouched land. This gives you like 500 points or something and when you accumulate 1500 points you are then granted the right to apply for a building permit. Is this sounding familiar or was the agent BS-ing me?

PS this could all have been written about Honolulu without changing a thing except the name of the city.

[ckkspap]

It's the USA in general. The keys are just a concentrated effect. Consider that every last one of us, except the bow and arrow crowd, are only here because someone at sometime wanted to escape someone else. Everyone one of us.

You might say the whole nation is built on restless people. Now, in good times people buckle down and make something of themselves. In bad times, they find what they can and make do. There are fewer and fewer good ways to make a living in this nation in these times and yet we have all these restless people. In fact, we are getting the restless people from central america and in FL's case, Puerto Rico.

Few jobs, lots of drugs and warm weather draw ever more disillusioned Americans, who's ancestors wanted a better life and it seems paradise has not worked out. It's not just Key West, it's every town USA. Meanwhile we want to teach the world lessons... Whoops.

[lenniel]

When you think about it, there are a LOT of people who have failed jobs, failed education, failed marriages, etc and are basically willing to give it up and live the bum life. They're at such a point of desperation or simply don't care anymore that the prospect of just moving somewhere like Key West sounds better than where they currently are and they actually decide to do it.
Most of these people base their ideas on a Jimmy Buffett song or a TV commercial they saw advertising the Keys. They figure, "Hell, if I'm gonna drop out of society, I might as well do so where the weather won't be one more then I have to worry about".

Again, think how many adults, between 18-50 might find themselves in this situation. It doesn't take that many to actually make the leap of faith and move to start impacting the local scene.

[ld75]

Originally Posted by StarfishKey

Section 8 is not accepted almost anywhere

Section 8 is the equivalent of cancer to a person. Once a neighborhood gets a section 8 area, that neighborhood is as good as dead.

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by bigh110

I have friends been living hand to mouth in the keys for 15 years

that explains who those no-working, dirty-appearing, talking-to-themselves people are at McDonald on N. Roosevelt are.....those peeps spook me whenever I go there for a McMuffin.....

[bigh110]

Originally Posted by BucFan

that explains who those no-working, dirty-appearing, talking-to-themselves people are at McDonald on N. Roosevelt are.....those peeps spook me whenever I go there for a McMuffin.....

sorry to hear you spook that easy.