Affordable Housing Plans Continue to Meet Opposition in Tampa-St. Petersburg Area
The Tarpon Springs city staff called it a “redevelopment opportunity.”
The landowners suggested it may address one of most serious problems facing the Tampa Bay region. But resistance from residents was so swift and steadfast, it might as well have been Yucca Mountain moving into their neighborhood.
One source of the outrage was clearly a suggestion the project may include ample “affordable housing,” an evolving term for homes middle class families can afford in overheated real estate markets.
Politicians, business leaders and city planners agree the stock of workforce housing in Tampa is perilously low and anticipate the shortage will create more sprawl, congestion and longer commutes.
“Workforce housing” is one fix widely touted by experts and officials. But the mere mention of the term touched off waves of confusion and hesitation in Tarpon Springs. To prospective neighbors it was just a thinly veiled euphemism, a polite way of saying “the projects.”
“I am strongly opposed to any building of ‘workforce housing better known as low income housing,’” one resident wrote. “Clearly this action would create higher crimes and lower property valuations.”
Even as Florida mortgage costs become more than many residents can bear, the creation of affordable housing continues to meet resistance on many grounds. The backlash in this case began at a City Commission meeting in October.
The impetus was a presentation by Cynthia Tarapani, a consultant hired by two landowners planning to build a cluster of new townhomes. Tarapani was facing a formidable task: persuading officials to approve land use and zoning changes to allow denser development along Jasmine Avenue.
It is not exactly a location ripe for increased density. The twisting two-lane road provides the only outlet to major throughways for hundreds of multi-family home units and the city’s recreation center. To bolster her argument, the professional planner argued that there was a common good served by allowing more units per acre.
“The purpose is quite simply to provide for workforce housing,” Tarapani said. “There is a need for housing throughout Pinellas County… for our policemen, our teachers, our public workers, folks who may be buying their first home.”
Consider the alternative, she urged:
“The lower the density, the larger the lot. The larger the lot, the bigger the house. The bigger the house, the more it costs. It is not affordable and it is not workforce housing.”
It is a paradox that the Southwest Florida housing market - and countless communities across the state and nation - created a housing shortage.
“Increasing land cost, construction costs, insurance costs - all get into housing prices. It’s becoming more and more difficult for people to find affordable housing,” said Ian Smith, a spokesman for the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
The gap between income and cost of living has priced many out of the market and forced teachers, police offers, firefighters to live far away from the cities where they work. In Pinellas County, the median household income increased 43 percent over the past decade, while home prices have surged 144 percent, according to a recent county report.
Yet until there is widespread support, and plans are worked out that can clearly benefit the intended recipients, qualifying for a Florida home loan will remain out of reach for many lower- and middle-class residents. It is not proving to be an easy fix, regardless of the intentions of the powers that be.
