SOUTH TAMPA, Fla — The need for affordable housing is great in the Tampa Bay area. For several years, ABC Action News has reported on the need in the Price of Paradise series.
According to the Tampa Housing Authority, 15,000 people are currently waiting for affordable housing or for Section 8 vouchers to offset the cost of rising rents. It's a similar story across the bay; the St. Pete Housing Authority says 10,000 people are waiting there.
RELATED: Tens of thousands of people on affordable housing waitlists as construction steams forward
Construction will begin Wednesday on CasaBel-Mar, a new complex in South Tampa. It has 100 units, 75 of which will go to people waiting on the waitlist; 25 will go to people not on that list.
The units will be rented to those making 30-80% of the area's median income. According to Fannie Mae's area income lookup tool, the median income is a little more than $82,000; 50% would be about $41,000.
“If you look just at the city of Tampa, 25% of our homeowners and 75% of renters are house burdened," said Mayor Jane Castor. "That means they pay over 30% on their mortgage or rent. Whatever we can do to lighten the burden. And to ensure we take the second piece of that budget pie off their plate, transportation needs, we take that off by building next to transit options.”
CasaBel-Mar will have one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. The entire project will cost $2.5 million. There will be a community center, library/tech lab, and fitness center. There will also be an area for adult literacy programs and employment assistance. The goal is to help people who live at CasaBel-Mar get better jobs and eventually move into home ownership.
“There’s now a lot of funding that’s coming down. One challenge in the city is land," said Frank DeBose, the Vice Chairman for the Hillsborough Housing Finance Authority. "There's funding, there's more opportunity — we have a major problem with affordable housing. We look to be a part of that solution now that we have more capital to work with."
He's referring to a bill that just passed called the "Live Local Act." It will become law next month. It was passed to make Affordable housing more attainable from the building process to the funding fueled into it.
CasaBel-Mar is expected to be completed by next summer.
