Sunshine this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 91F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
The Colonnade Park Apartments in Inverness offer affordable housing for those who reside in the new complex.
Twenty-month-old Keanu Evangelista-Bell lives in an Inverness apartment complex with his mother Alexis. The Colonnade Park complex is an affordable-housing apartment complex.
Alexis Evangelista works from home checking emails as she holds her 20-month-old son Keanu Evangelista-Bell in the work space of her apartment.
Alexis Evangelista plays with her 20-minth-old son Keanu Evangelista-Bell Thursday morning, July 21 in her apartment in Inverness. The two live in the Colonnade Park Apartments complex.
Twenty-month-old Keanu Evangelista-Bell lives in an Inverness apartment complex with his mother Alexis. The Colonnade Park complex is an affordable-housing apartment complex.
Alexis Evangelista works from home checking emails as she holds her 20-month-old son Keanu Evangelista-Bell in the work space of her apartment.
Alexis Evangelista plays with her 20-minth-old son Keanu Evangelista-Bell Thursday morning, July 21 in her apartment in Inverness. The two live in the Colonnade Park Apartments complex.
Lee Winburn is the kind of neighbor most people would want.
When she was a young woman in New York she worked for an ambulance company and later as an animal control officer in Rochester. She also started a Humane Society office in Ontario, New York.
She was married for 38 tears and had three children.
She became a certified nursing assistant in New York and worked mostly caring for older clients who couldn’t care for themselves.
When she moved to Florida to retire, she still worked part time as a CNA to make extra money after her divorce.
Now fully retired, the 74-year woman living in Colonnade Apartments, an affordable housing complex, gets $1,082 a month in Social Security. She has no other income. She knows it’s not much.
She qualifies for affordable housing and gets some financial help from federal programs to make her rent. She told the Chronicle she could not be happier about where she lives.
“There are people of different ages here and the kids are well behaved and there are different races and we all get along,” she said, sitting in the community lounge where the management company offers residents free coffee, sodas, and bottled water.
Outside the commons area is the apartment’s pool, and television and game rooms where residents gather to watch televised sports, and an exercise room.
Just a few miles away in Meadowcrest subdivision, where the developer of Colonnade wants to build another affordable housing complex, many of the Meadowcrest residents oppose the project. Many say an affordable housing complex wouldn’t be a good fit and the additional traffic would be a burden.
The Colonnade Park Apartments in Inverness offer affordable housing for those who reside in the new complex.
Winburn said she knows what that really means: they don’t want her kind.
“They don’t want us there. We’re low income people. They think we all are on dope or we bring crime,” she said.
The apartment complex requires its residents to have an income at least twice their rent, although the rent is reduced. They undergo criminal background checks and once a month apartment staff inspect apartments to ensure they are maintained, orderly, and if anything is broken that it’s reported and fixed.
The rent is $658 per month for a one bathroom and $785 for a two-bedroom apartment.
“Every other month I go to the food bank,” she said.
She can go more often but, “I live alone and don’t really eat very much.”
“So I squeeze through (financially),” she said.
Winburn goes to the second-hand store for deals and to the farmers’ market. Sometimes she goes with a friend to Liberty Park in Inverness and they sit on a bench and eat ice cream.
“Sometimes we scrape our money together and we get breakfast at Huddle House,” she said.
Winburn said her only crime is that she is poor.
She said she likes the apartment complex because it’s quiet and the neighbors are friendly. Most of her neighbors work, some have children, some are retired.
Without subsidized housing, Winburn said she would have few options.
“I’d probably would have to go live with my kids or in my car, one or the other,” she said.
She paused a moment and said she was determined not to be a burden on her children and would take care of herself.
“I have my pride,” she said.
She is not alone in needing help and being priced out of the rental market.
In a Pew Research Center study published in early 2022, nearly 50% of people surveyed about the availability of affordable housing in 2021 said it was a major problem in their lives. That was a 10% increase from 2018. Another 36% said it was at least a minor problem.
The affordable housing problem cuts across all racial groups with 55% of Asians and Hispanics saying it was a major problem, 57% Blacks and 44% whites saying it was a major problem. That was a 9% increase from 2018 for whites and 14% increase for Blacks.
When it came to age, 55% of 18-29 year olds and 55% of 30-49 year olds said finding affordable housing was a major problem for them. That was more than a 10% increase for both groups. The percent declined as surveyed respondents were older.
The study also reported that 57% of those surveyed who were also lower income said finding affordable housing was a major problem, 47% of middle income, and 42% of upper income.
Of those who identified as Republican or leaning Republican, 36% said affordable housing was a major problem for them and 59% of Democrats. Each had also increased several percentage points since 2018.
Nationally, the average rent has increased 18% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Meanwhile, housing prices increased 25% during the same period.
The rising costs are squeezing many Americans.
In 2020, 46% of renters spent 30% or more of their income on housing, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. During that same year, 23% spent at least 50% of their income on housing.
Spending 30% of income on housing has long been considered the most a household should spend in order to have money left over for essentials.
But as inflation continues to rise, outpacing wages, money left over for essentials is not going nearly as far.
Nick Mastrototaro, 67, has played by the rules most of his life.
He’s worked decades, mostly in sales.
His latest job was selling cell phones and direct TV. He’s worked in malls as a vendor selling beauty and hair products. He’s sold clothing in a men’s store in Yonkers. His wife worked part time at Bealls and as a graphic artist.
He started collecting his Social Security at 65, but kept working part time until the pandemic and his job wouldn’t allow him to keep working.
Until moving to Colonnade Apartments, he lived in a mobile home park in Homosassa with his wife of 11 years. His rent was $850 a month and he was responsible for his lawn care. He considered buying the home but it needed too many repairs.
He and his wife now pay $785 for a two bedroom and two bath apartment. He volunteers as a cook at his church.
Mastrototaro, now 67, thinks the same apartment would rent between $1,100 and $1,200 a month if it wasn’t affordable housing.
“If I had to pay $1,200 I could afford it, but I’d probably have to go back to work,” he said. “That’s if we had to.”
He understands why Meadowcrest residents are resistant to an affordable housing complex in their neighborhoods.
He understands they want to protect their home values and are afraid their neighborhood might change.
“But if they came by here and saw what it looked like ... it’s beautiful,” he said. “They maintain it all. The pool is crystal clear.”
“Most of the people here are young people looking to save up (for a single family home), or retired like myself not wanting to worry about maintaining a house, or single people on a limited income,” he said.
“I would say (to people resistant to living near affordable housing) I understand why you have a little bit of a reservation,” he said.
“But I would encourage you to drive by and look at this place,” he said. “They’re the nicest people here. We’re a benefit to the community.”
Fred Hiers is a reporter at the Citrus Chronicle. Email him at fred.hiers@chronicleonline.com.
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