FORT MYERS, Fla. — The City of Fort Myers will see an affordable housing complex be constructed over the next year. The construction is happening on Michigan Avenue, slightly north of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The Diocese of Venice, city leaders and stakeholders broke ground on Tuesday morning for the 136-unit complex.
"Housing is a major, should I say we have a crisis," said Bishop Frank Dewane with the Diocese of Venice.
The Saint Peter Claver Place apartments will be up and running by next year, with seven years in the making. Over that time, the housing market has become more complex.
"We’re probably in need of about 20,000 affordable housing units in Lee County in general," said Rick Miller, president of National Development, the developer of the complex.
Rent will range from $600 to $1,300, but could change once the apartments are built as the housing market is constantly changing.
The units are two bedrooms and two bathrooms, or three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The Diocese of Venice owns the land, and the developer will run the complex.
"We’re not here because someone is Catholic. We are Catholic and that’s our call," Dewane said. "To reach out to others to help them."
There are specific qualifications if you want to live at the complex, specifically income.
You will need to make 60% less than the Area Median Income, which is also known as AMI.
Based on numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the AMI for 2022 is $83,200.
In this case, you would need to make $49,920 or less to qualify. In the Martin Luther King Jr. area, the Census Bureau reports an average household income of $44,905 as of 2021.
"We do try to contribute to this redevelopment, right in this particular area," Dewane said.
An area that could use housing, is southwest Florida as a whole.
"It's costly to develop affordable housing," said Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson. "We voted to contribute $700,000 when the cost of materials went up to help offset that."
They hope the help will entice developers to come to southwest Florida and get people into a place they can call home.
"These are the things we’re getting bombarded with on a daily basis, of people that are here, but they cannot find a place to live," said Teresa Watkins Brown, a Fort Myers council member.
There is a second phase to this, which will add another 78 units. The land and zoning are there, but Miller said they need to find the financing.
It's not clear when that will come.
