ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Pete leaders are investing another practically $4 million towards affordable housing.
Of that, $1.4 million will go towards making fixes at Citrus Grove Apartments in South St. Pete, the place residents pay simply 30% of their family revenue towards hire.
The upgrades embody new home windows, electrical work, a brand new roof, inside renovations and higher lighting.
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Dejah Hagen lives at Citrus Grove Apartments and mentioned the upgrades are desperately wanted. Besides a number of damaged home windows on the condominium advanced, she mentioned she hasn’t had dependable air con or sizzling water for about two months.
“No air, no hot water, everybody is going through the same thing because they lack the maintenance. We want to bathe our children in hot water. We want to enjoy air. We shouldn’t have to be gone from our house every day just to feel comfortable. Our home is where we are supposed to feel comfortable,” she defined.
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Besides making fixes, St. Pete leaders are additionally extending the affordability interval of the 84 flats at Citrus Grove for another 20 years, retaining the advanced affordable till 2061.
“It feels good for them to finally be fixing it up over here because I hate going to sleep sweating,” Hagen added.
Almost $2.3 million will go towards a brand new affordable housing undertaking that may flip a lumber yard on Fairfield Avenue into 264 affordable models.
RELATED: St. Petersburg City Council approves $3.7M in funding for affordable housing tasks
St. Petersburg leaders mentioned that they’re the primary metropolis within the state to benefit from a brand new regulation permitting for the development of sure affordable housing tasks on industrial land.
Of the whole models, which vary from one to 3 bedrooms, 53 might be reserved for people incomes at or beneath 50% of the Area Median Income; 67 at or beneath 80% AMI; and 144 at or beneath 120% AMI.
Yet, housing advocates mentioned these initiatives nonetheless don’t go far sufficient to handle the group’s wants.
“Taking this broken system and putting just a little more money into it, that’s not going to help. We need to fundamentally change the system and the way we do housing,” defined William Kilgore of the St. Pete Tenant’s Union. Kilgore and his group members are advocating for hire management and tenant protections.
The common condominium in St. Pete now rented for about $2,000 a month, in line with rent.com.
“This need that they’re filling here is like half a percent of what we need. At the rate they are doing these affordable housing projects, it’s going to take a century for them to get caught up. Meanwhile, people with little babies are living in cars, old folks are getting kicked out onto the streets in the golden years of their lives. It’s unconscionable,” Kilgore added.
Kilgore mentioned he and his group gained’t surrender on preventing for long-term choices regardless of metropolis leaders voting down a proposal to put hire management measures on the November poll just lately.