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If was a low income worker, I'd pursue long term RV parking communities. I'd buy a nice older RV I'd live in, and park it in a nice RV park as close in as possible. I know of one in Palmer Ranch just off 41. Maybe during season, you move it inland to save $, and drive further to work in your older used Chevy Volt...maybe make extra $'s carpooling..picking up and tranporting co-workers.
No kids or life. Yea, perfect solution. Me move to a better economy and find work where one can still eat
Single mothers and fathers with minor children will soon be getting help with supportive housing in part because of a grant from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation to Help To Home Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to helping parents threatened with homelessness.
Barancik Foundation’s recent $350,000 grant to Help To Home is the largest to date for the construction of Hope Village, a community of 53 homes on 30th Avenue West between 14th and 26th Streets West in Bradenton. Construction is scheduled to begin late this year on the first 16 homes and the remaining 37 homes will follow about a year later.
Help to Home will use Hope Village to provide temporary supportive housing at below market rents while also requiring residents to participate in life skills development. The program is open to parents with minor children experiencing or threatened with homelessness.
Many low-income families live one illness, one car repair bill or one other unexpected financial event away from homelessness. Hope Village gives them two years of stable, low-rent housing while improving their life skills in order to get better-paying jobs. The residents are expected to move at the end of two years into other market-based housing.
More than 1,500 renters in the greater Tampa Bay region were evicted from their homes in March. That marks a 26 percent jump compared to January of 2020, according to data from the Eviction Lab.
Researcher Jacob Haas points to the expiration of COVID-era relief as a chief reason for the rebounding number of evictions nationwide.
“During the depths of the pandemic, there were eviction protections in place, both federally and at the state and local level. And those caps kept evictions fairly low,” he said.
Since the expiration of the national eviction moratorium and the exhaustion of emergency rental assistance funds, the number of families facing eviction has returned to – or in some cases, exceeded – pre-pandemic levels.
Haas said the greater Tampa Bay region falls in the category of places in the U.S. where things are worse than they were three years ago.
Why are there so many foreclosures in Florida? Here's what to know
Florida has the third highest number of foreclosures in the country so far this year, according to a foreclosure activity report from ATTOM, a property and real estate data research firm.
The report, which examines the year's first quarter foreclosure activity, shows that there’s been a total of 95,712 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing, up 6% from the previous quarter and up 22% from a year ago.
While foreclosures have been on the rise nationwide, Florida had the third greatest number of foreclosures in the first quarter of 2023 with 4,724 foreclosure starts. Texas came in second with 6,764 foreclosure starts, and California came in first with 6,867 foreclosure starts.
The study attributed the rise in foreclosures to be from unemployment rates, foreclosure filings making their way through after two years of government assistance and other economic issues.
Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Forecasting, said that although Florida's foreclosure filing numbers are nowhere near the catastrophic 2008 housing market crash, the state – like most of the nation – has seen high cost of living without wages to match. The dramatic rise in housing prices coupled with rising interest rates have added strain to household budgets.
"Checks aren't being mailed out like they were during the pandemic, and people had a fair amount of savings, because of all this government support of the economy in the wake of COVID-19," Snaith said. "I think a lot of that has been drawn down because wages and salaries have just not kept up with the cost of living."
While Snaith said that the labor market in Florida has remained very strong, another element that could be leading to high foreclosure rates is Florida's homeowners' insurance crisis, where owners are finding their premiums are going up two- or three-fold.
So many developments have been sidetracked or delayed that some experts expect a “production cliff” to hit in a year or so, meaning fewer new homes coming onto the market.
To some people buying a mobile home in FL seems like a way to save some money compared to a conventional home. However aside from weather the other big risk of going this route is not owning the land as explained in detail in this article:
A Florida mobile home park closed. What happened to its residents?
The news that would upend Griselda Cano’s life came casually.
The same letter was tacked to every homeowner’s door that balmy September day. Its message, packed with legal jargon, spread quickly: The owner of their Clearwater mobile home park had new plans for the land.
In six months, they would be evicted.
“One never imagines such a thing,” said Cano, 34, in Spanish. “It’s such a big place, with so many families.”
But what was unfolding at Capri Mobile Home Park has become a familiar story.
When land for development is scarce and a housing market is hot, mobile home parks are particularly vulnerable to closures, housing experts say. Over the last decade, dozens have shuttered in Tampa Bay and across Florida — displacing hundreds of people as affordable housing has become harder and harder to find, a Tampa Bay Times analysis of state records shows.
Housing advocates say there’s no end in sight, and at least one additional park is slated to close in Tampa Bay this fall.
Florida has a larger share of mobile homes at risk than the national average. Mobile homes make up roughly 8% of the state’s housing, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Residents often own their houses but not the land underneath, making them still susceptible to the whims of landlords. Park owners can sell the land to developers for hefty sums, while residents, who tend to be older or make lower wages, often have little recourse.
Their houses may be mobile only in name: Structural vulnerabilities or prohibitive relocation costs often make it impossible to move a manufactured home. Few residents can afford to buy a new home after losing one, and bloated wait lists for area low-income apartments heighten the challenge of securing new housing.
Homelessness advocates say it’s part of a “sad new trend” as real estate becomes increasingly desirable — and increasingly scarce — throughout the region.
As school districts across Florida struggle to fill growing numbers of teacher vacancies, they must grapple with more than the working conditions they offer and the state creates.
They also must deal with the rising cost of living that in many locations has made it too expensive for many educators and other employees to afford homes near where they work.
To combat that situation, some school systems have turned to establishing low-cost housing for their faculty and staff. It’s an idea that they hope will attract applicants, but also draws criticism from those who liken it to creating a company town where the employer holds all the cards.
The Pinellas County school district is the latest to attempt this model. It recently picked a developer to transform a former junior high into 225 apartments.
As school districts across Florida struggle to fill growing numbers of teacher vacancies, they must grapple with more than the working conditions they offer and the state creates.
They also must deal with the rising cost of living that in many locations has made it too expensive for many educators and other employees to afford homes near where they work.
To combat that situation, some school systems have turned to establishing low-cost housing for their faculty and staff. It’s an idea that they hope will attract applicants, but also draws criticism from those who liken it to creating a company town where the employer holds all the cards.
The Pinellas County school district is the latest to attempt this model. It recently picked a developer to transform a former junior high into 225 apartments.
Teachers to get reduced rent in new St. Pete affordable housing building
St. Petersburg's historic Tomlinson building is being turned into affordable housing for teachers — and Pinellas County Schools is giving us a first look at the plans.
The district, which is partnering with Tomlinson Community Partners for the project, previewed some of the planned amenities for the building earlier this month.
The 99-year-old building will be completely renovated with the goal of addressing the workforce housing shortage while preserving its historical significance.
“To attract and retain the best teachers and district employees, we must proactively provide accessible and appealing housing choices," said Kevin Hendrick, the superintendent of Pinellas County Schools.
The proposed project will include 225 residential units with 113 designated specifically for teachers and district employees. The remaining 112 units will be made available to the public.
Plans include a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.
The estimated monthly rent will range between $1,263 and $2,160 for teachers and school employees. Those rates will increase to between $2,156 to $2,771 for members of the public.
Amenities like a common area for teachers, a gym and parking will be included.
Right now, the project is expected to be completed by July 2026. However, Pinellas County Schools and Tomlinson Community Partners still need to develop a comprehensive plan and timeline to present to the school board for approval in the coming months.
As homeless populations rise in Sarasota and Manatee counties, Sarasota’s Homeless Outreach Team remains a key component in the city, helping those without a roof over their heads find assistance and resources.
The city’s team, based at police headquarters since 2014, consists of four sworn police officers, a police sergeant, civilian case workers and a coordinator. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office operates a similar team in unincorporated areas, and the two agencies frequently collaborate and more frequently communicate.
As the cost of living in Sarasota has risen and affordable housing becomes harder to find, so called point-in-time censuses of the area’s homeless have risen since 2021. Generally, people who are homeless beyond two weeks can begin receiving services, but the team typically focuses on those chronically homeless in the city — those experiencing homelessness for more than a year.
With a divorce behind her and her credit in disarray, Dana Landin has spent months at homeless shelters, unable to afford area rents.
Once an executive recruiter with a six-figure salary and a cute home of her own, the 47-year-old Sarasota native is now collecting disability for a connective tissue disorder and other ailments.
After finally obtaining a Housing Choice Voucher, formerly called Section 8, she felt at first like she’d hit the Lotto. At last, she thought, she could provide stability to her daughter Zoey, age 4.
Instead, like hundreds to thousands of voucher holders, Dana found her nightmare dragging on.
Some qualified places looked unsafe. Other rentals were beyond the program’s price cap. And many private landlords wouldn’t accept the voucher at all.
“I think people have a preconceived notion about who receives Section 8,” Landin said about negative impressions she once shared. “But life can change in an instant.”
A tough market
In an effort to help thousands of struggling families through the housing crisis, the Sarasota Housing Authority, or SHA, has launched a major drive to recruit more landlords into the voucher program.
From hiring a new landlord liaison to offering financial incentives to property owners to revamping its website, the SHA hopes to get more families into homes they can afford.
The almost 600 landlords currently renting to nearly 1,900 voucher-holding households are critical to the area’s housing stock and economy, said William Russell, the SHA’s president and CEO.
“As a group, they are the largest providers of affordable housing in our community,” Russell said.
Another 1,300 applicants remain on the waiting list, faced with a one- to four-year wait before receiving a voucher.
When they do get a voucher, there is no guarantee they will find a home with it.
Following the pandemic’s onset, as rents soared along with demand, many landlords turned voucher-holders away, able to pick and choose from a large pool of candidates.
By the end of last year, success rates of applicants finding a landlord to accept their voucher within four months plummeted to 56%.
“In my 18 years here, I’ve never seen the market this tough,” Russell said.
Among SHA’s new initiatives, the creation of a landlord liaison post was rooted in HUD research showing that a designated contact could overcome stiff bureaucratic barriers to landlord participation.
With $15 million in state funding secured, the Loveland Center and Habitat for Humanity of South Sarasota County will embark on the public phase of fundraising for the “Senator Nancy C. Detert Home of Your Own,” 122-unit inclusive affordable housing community.
The $24.4 million community includes a three-story apartment complex featuring 84 one- and two-bedroom apartments that can be rented by individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities or seniors age 65 and older who live on no more than 65% of the annual median income for Sarasota County.
Groundbreaking for the apartment complex is targeted for early 2024, with the goal of having units ready sometime in 2025 and a grand opening in 2026.
The south Sarasota County-based nonprofit, which was established in 1962, provides life skills training for more than 400 individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities at four locations in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Loveland still needs to raise at least $5 million for the apartments and its portion of the villas, while Habitat will have to raise about $7 million.
The apartments will be built on 7.5 acres on the east side of Loveland’s campus at 157 South Havana Road in Venice, along with 38 two- and three-bedroom villas that are being built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of South Sarasota County.
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