A Miami company has gotten the okay to access money to build affordable housing in Lee County.
Lee commissioners Tuesday approved a deal that uses post-Ian recovery money for mortgage revenue bonds. The Housing Finance Authority of Lee County got permission to take out up to $80 million in bonds. McDowell Housing Partners of Miami then can tap up to $28.5 million to help it build a low-cost apartment building.
Some Southwest Floridians may wonder: with all the talk about affordable housing, how long will it take until people can move in?
McDowell Housing said its project, called Ekos on Evans in Fort Myers, will take 20 to 22 months from ground-breaking to move-in.
Ekos, which is Greek for home, will have 144 apartments, and will be built along Evans Avenue, just south of the LeeTran headquarters complex.
Chris Shear is chief operating officer at McDowell. He said It takes that long to build because there are not enough workers to re-build after Hurricanes Ian, Helene and Milton. He said a lot of general contractors cannot get enough subcontractors to construct new places for all the people moving to Southwest Florida.
"So we're seeing pressure on the time to complete construction, due to the amount of availability of subcontractors," Shear said.
Thirty-three year old Wes Boudreau said he left Massachusetts because he couldn't afford rents there. Now, two years later, he said he can't afford rents in the Fort Myers area either.
Boudreau blamed apartment building owners.
"iI's just greed," he said about high rents in Lee County.
He said his small, one-bedroom unit is going up another $80 — to about $1550 a month. He asks: where is all that affordable housing that the elected officials keep talking about?
"I wish I could be optimistic.," he said. "But I am very much an 'I have to see it' kind of guy. It's always empty promises on a lot of things."
Shear said many units at Ekos will rent to people making 30 percent or less of the area's median income. Thirty percent would be about $22,500 a year.
Those one-bedrooms would rent for about $450 a month. That includes a subsidy for utilities, according to Shear.
He also said families making less than about $52,000 a year could rent a two-bedroom for just over $1200 a month, counting the utilities discount
Lee commissioners made no comments about the mortgage revenue bonds during their meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 21. They unanimously approved the bonds for McDowell, and the $80 million total purchase.
Builder Chris Shear said there's not much, if anything, to do about the timelines on building. He said Lee County and the City of Fort Myers do everything in their power to speed up the permitting process. And even though it takes time, Shear said he feels good that lower-cost housing is coming to this area.
"It's a sleep well at night sort of feeling," he said. "We know we are adding to the fabric of the community, and we are improving the quality of life of tenants. Housing means so much for stability and success of the family."
Wes Boudreau said he's done with waiting and renting. He said he just used his savings to buy a condo. He said he will save more than $100 a month compared to paying rent for his former apartment.
"It's ridiculous," he said. "It's backwards where a mortgage is cheaper than rent."
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. Mike Walcher is a reporter at WGCU, and also teaches journalism at FGCU.