Fed-backed complexes charge extra
Residents: Parking is blocked, pet fees, more
A longtime affordable-housing developer is drawing criticism for monthly fees it charges on top of rent at complexes for low-income residents.
Atlantic Housing Partners charges residents monthly for pet rent, parking spaces, washer/dryer hookups, cable TV and other optional add-ons at dozens of affordable housing complexes in Central Florida.
The state does not track add-on fees for apartments that are built with federal tax credits, but other leading developers that receive the credits to build affordable housing in Central Florida forgo such fees or limit them. Atlantic Housing says its fees are necessary to make its below-market housing economically viable.
“We can’t afford to say, ‘Hey, everybody park where you want for free,’ ” said Scott Culp, principal with Atlantic Housing Partners. “We’re here to provide affordable housing and we have to do it well and be economically sustaining. We can’t lose money and still provide affordable housing.”
Frustration boiled over last summer at Village Park Senior Living in Winter Park, where property managers had blocked off two floors of the parking garage with a chain-link fence so that residents wouldn’t try to park for free, leaving only about 10 spaces for guest parking; 84 residents of the 108unit complex signed a petition ask-
ing the city to intervene.
“Every single day, it’s an issue,” resident Pamela Read told the city’s Planning & Zoning Board in a Feb. 7 hearing. “The majority of the residents have caregivers that come in. There’s no place for them to park.”
Meanwhile, some incomerestricted residents of Atlantic Housing’s Uptown Maitland complex have complained the added monthly charges leave them little left over from their Social Security checks.
“I want to go to Mass on Sunday. I don’t have $10 to put in the [collection] plate,” said a resident of the Maitland complex, who asked not to be named for fear of losing his housing. “They think nothing of adding this fee or that.”
The recent complaints come as Atlantic Housing, which has developed more than 150 affordable-housing sites totaling 25,000-plus units in eight states, is about to launch tax-backed apartments at downtown Orlando’s premier project — the Creative Village, anchored by a joint University of Central Florida/Valencia College campus.
Robert Ansley, board member for the Florida Housing Coalition, a leading nonprofit that links housing advocates and resources, said developers must be fair in their approach to fees but not burden residents living near the edge financially.
“We look to the financial health of the tenant and try not to load them up with extra fees,” said Ansley, president of Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation, which developed 11 affordable-housing communities in Central Florida. Residents at those properties who want cable subscribe with providers. For pets, there’s a one-time $300 pet fee. But there are no parking charges or monthly pet rent.
“We’re just judicious about how we charge fees because we know people in affordable housing need to save their money for important things, like food and health,” he said.
Washers and dryers at Atlantic Housing’s properties cost as much as $60 per month. The developer also charges monthly for pet rent and extra storage space. A parking space at Village Park costs $75 a month, though two- and three-bedroom units get one space for free.
Atlantic also charges tenants $65 for cable, rather than allowing residents to shop for the service.
David Kannapel, who lived at Atlantic’s Lexington Court complex in downtown Orlando last year, said property managers discouraged alternatives. “They went so far as to tell me that I couldn’t have a digital TV antenna in my home,” he said.
Rents at Village Park run $724 for a two-bedroom, more than $500 below the midpoint for similar-sized units in the region. At a nearby luxury apartment community, parking is included in monthly rents that start at $1,800.
Altamonte Springs-based Wendover Housing Partners, which has built affordable apartments in Longwood, Apopka and elsewhere, charges little or nothing for seniors to park, store belongings and use their washers and dryers. Wendover charges a pet deposit, but no pet rent. Air-conditioned storage costs $10 to $20 monthly, below the starting monthly rate of $35 residents cite at Uptown Maitland.
“Our philosophy is that we really want to keep senior affordable housing affordable,” said Terry Cummins, a spokeswoman for Wendover Housing Partners.
Culp of Atlantic Housing said the firm’s apartments often feature granite counters and stainless appliances. Rents have held steady or edged down in recent years. Residents pay half the going market-rental rates. Extra fees, he said, are optional. Culp argued flat rent for pet owners and free parking would be unfair to residents with no pets or vehicles.
The parking garage at Village Park was not financed with tax credits, he added, so someone has to pay for it. To prevent tenants from parking for free, Atlantic Housing blocked garage parking above the first floor. Residents say property managers had directed them to have guests park across a four-lane road at Winter Park Village, even though that lot is posted with trespass notices, before management was told to stop that practice.
Pet rent, which gets charged on top of pet deposits, is needed to offset added costs of “turning over” the units where animals lived, Culp said. He added that Atlantic Housing charges extra for washers and dryers because water use for laundry wasn’t included in residents’ flat-fee monthly water and sewer bills.
Additional storage also costs more, but Atlantic Housing subtracts construction costs for that space from the federal funding, he said.
Orlando resident Dahlia Amoit, 62, moved from Uptown Maitland about three years ago. The building is near Publix and SunRail with some views of the Winter Park chain of lakes. But she said paying $50 monthly rent for her Pomeranian Layla before its death was difficult on her income of $735 a month.
Atlantic Housing, Wendover and others compete at the state level for a limited pool of federal tax credits. If their projects win support from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, they are awarded credits that they then sell to banks and companies, using the money from the sales to build affordable housing.
Though Florida developers can charge add-on fees, several states don’t allow them. In Georgia, “Charges for non-optional services such as a washer and/or dryer hookup fee and built in/on storage sheds or lockers … excess utility charges, etc. must always be included within gross rent,” its rules read.
“Many states do not allow pet rent to be charged at an affordable housing property due to the fact that it appears to be an expense imposed on a low-income family or individual that is not reasonable or justified,” said Jennifer Marchand, a technical advisor for Oregon Housing and Community Services, who administers that state’s rules.