Lee, Collier Counties to Widen Affordable Housing, Florida Mortgage Assistance Program
A Bonita Bay Group program that provides Lee County’s work force with affordable housing is expanding to include Collier County workers and offering more economic subsidies to entice applicants.
The Bonita developer dubbed the revamped program Homes for Heroes, a plan that puts teachers, university professors, firefighters, law enforcement, EMS and health care personnel into 40 condos in Estero.
Under this plan, a qualifying household’s annual income can be no greater than $125,000, up from $80,000 when the program was initially launched in October for teachers.
This plan also provides private Florida mortgage loans of up to $50,000 that do not have to be repaid if the worker stays in Southwest Florida for eight years. The old program gave workers $10,000 loans.
“The worst thing we can do is think our current soft housing market will solve this problem. It won’t,” said Brian Settle, vice president of human resources at Naples Community Hospital.
The Naples housing market has been one of the nation’s most overvalued for years, prompting officials to take action as far as providing affordable homes for its vital workforce.
The program was amplified after only two teachers participated in the program and moved into the Osprey Cove community in Estero.
“It helped us out tremendously,” said Michelle Hayford, an FGCU assistant professor of theater who lives in Osprey Cove with her husband and 1-year-old daughter.
“We wouldn’t have been able to afford our own home if it weren’t for the program,” said Hayford, who called the plan user-friendly and quick.
Typical monthly Florida home mortgage payments, including condo fees, work out to between $1,300-1,500. The condos are regularly priced from $173,846 to $220,292.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Ray Baker, superintendent of the Collier County School District. “We’re on the brink of having our recruitment fair.”
The median price of a single-family home in Lee County in January was $266,900, a tall order for a first-time Florida mortgage seeker.
SOURCE: The News-Press
