IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Affordable housing is not easy to find, especially for working families in Immokalee, but now sixteen families have a new place to call home.
The smile on Carlos Paiz's face said it all.
"Happy that I can finally say my kids are gonna have their own place to be comfortable and run around make mess," he said.
The Immokalee Fair Housing Alliance chose Paiz, his wife and four kids as one of the 16 families to move in to the new affordable apartment community.
Eventually, the community will have eight buildings to provide homes for 128 families. IFHA said they received grants and people donated the funds for construction.
Watch Immokalee Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
Rent costs 30% of the household income for each unit. The buildings can withstand a Category 5 hurricane, come with air conditioning and new appliances.
Carlos Paiz and his wife, Maria, grew up in Immokalee, but they found it expensive to find a home when they started their family.
Maria Paiz said, "It means a lot it really that we have a home that we could come to. We could cook meals. We could you know enjoy each others company."
The family of six used to share a room they rented in an apartment, which is not unheard of in Immokalee.
Six years ago, Dr. Arol Buntzman started his dream, an affordable housing complex for working families like The Paiz Family.
"They need to live here they're being exploited you know there's not enough decent safe affordable housing," Dr. Buntzman said.
Find previous reporting on the construction of the complex here.
Seven months after FOX 4 got a tour of the complex, The Paiz family calls it home.
When Dr. Buntzman told Paiz the good news, it was a dream came true for them both.
"To him the most important thing is that for the first time he was going to be able to show his children he as dad could take care of them," Dr. Buntzman said.
A weight lifted off their shoulders. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen of their own. It also now allows them to start saving money.
"It means happiness I mean goals and means a lot and means a lot like we can't even to put it into words"
In the town called my home, The Paiz Family finally has one of their own.
IFHA plans to break ground on the next building in September with the third building starting later in the fall.
