Low-income residents lose ground to luxury
Upscale push makes vouchers unwelcome
In Central Florida’s booming rental market, Patsy Parris, a 65-year-old disabled woman raising two grandkids, is being pushed out of her home by the region’s hottest housing trend: Luxury.
“This place is going to be pretty nice, eventually,” she said of the Winter Garden apartment complex where she has lived for 20 years, faithfully paying her rent. “But it won’t do us any good. My time’s running out, and I can’t find any place to go.”
Her story isn’t unique. Across Central Florida and the nation’s other fast-growing cities, low-income housing stock has shriveled even as the number of low-income renters grows. Since 1990, more than 2.5 million apartments that rented for less than $800 a month have been demolished, converted to office space or upgraded to condos or “luxury” rentals.
“It’s crazy. Nobody is getting any wage increases, but they keep building luxury housing,” said Scott Billue, founder and CEO of Matthew’s Hope, a West Orange homeless ministry that serves those left behind by the boom. “If Central Florida doesn’t think that’s going to create problems, they’re going to be rudely surprised.”
Locally, the housing shortage has become so acute that even people who have qualified for scarce government housing vouchers — sometimes after years on waiting lists — often cannot find a landlord willing to accept them.
Parris’ current home, a 1979 complex of 106 oneand two-bedroom units formerly called Osprey Landings, is a block off the popular West Orange Trail and a short walk from trendy downtown Winter Garden.
In April, it sold to Massachusetts-based Aspen Square Management for $7.1 million and was renamed Slate Luxury Apartments. “Welcome to Winter Garden’s newest and most desirable address,” its website advertises.
The private company has replaced roofs, added siding, replanted landscaping and is upgrading interiors. Rents now start at $1,050 for a one-bedroom, one-bath — roughly a $200-a-month increase but still less than the $1,070 median for the region.
Neither the leasing office nor the company headquarters responded to a request for comment, but residents say the elderly and disabled tenants who relied on housing vouchers were warned their leases may not be renewed. Some already have left as their rents have climbed.
Those residents largely relied on a voucher program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which used loans to encourage the construction of housing in the nation’s rural communities — which Winter Garden once was. Now that the loan is paid off and the property sold, the new management is under no obligation to accept the USDA vouchers, though the tenants can still use the government payment at any property where the landlord is willing to accept it. Which is the problem. Even if they can pay the difference between the voucher amount — typically about $800 a month — and the actual rent, residents say their vouchers aren’t welcome.
“We’ve had landlords tell us, when they advertise a unit, within one hour they’ll get 15 to 20 applications from people offering to pay a deposit without even seeing the place,” said Martha Are, executive director of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida. “They can rent these things so fast, so why should they bother with a voucher that requires them to wait and go through an inspection?”
Are’s agency, which is working to move homeless people into rental housing, has about 275 people — veterans, parents with young children, former foster youth and individuals with disabilities — who have met all the qualifications for housing but are still waiting for a place to live.
“If it’s a decent unit and a place where people feel safe, it’s super competitive,” Are said.
The problem may be worse for those on Section 8 housing vouchers issued by HUD, the federal department of Housing and Urban Development. Last week, as two new studies reported that most landlords won’t accept the vouchers, HUD Secretary Ben Carson announced he was launching a task force to make the program more “user-friendly.”
“In order for a voucher to be used, you have to have a willing landlord and there has to be an inspection prior to moving in and an annual inspection of the property,” said Vivian Bryant, president and CEO of the Orlando Housing Authority. “That doesn’t cost the landlord anything, but if there’s something wrong, the landlord has to pay to fix it.”
In a market such as Central Florida — where rents have risen nearly 6 percent in a single year — Bryant said she is increasingly seeing voucher-holders seeking extensions from her office while they try to find a place to live.
In Orange County and Orlando, about 3,500 people have HUD vouchers issued through the Orlando Housing Authority. Another 11,000 people are on a waiting list, which has not accepted new applicants since 2015.
“We are leased up and vouchered up,” Bryant said. “If you think it’s a problem, it’s important to vote for someone who will address the issue. There’s just so much need, and supply is not there.”
Meanwhile, Parris — who has a heart condition and bone disease and uses an oxygen tank — has until Sept. 30 to find herself and her grandchildren, ages 10 and 12, somewhere else to live. The kids have just started a new school year.
“I hate to uproot them, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to us,” she said. “I’ve lived in Winter Garden my whole life, and I’ve got a network of friends and family trying to help me find something, but everyone is coming up empty.”