2 sessions focus on affordable housing

Two workshops on the affordable housing crisis in Key West are scheduled for this month, four months after Hurricane Irma devastated the Lower and Middle Keys.

The first one is hosted by the City Commission and set for 6 p.m. Jan. 11 at City Hall, 1300 White St., with philanthropist and former Monroe County schools superintendent John Padget on the agenda with his proposal to build 480 rentals at the waterfront property at Trumbo Point, where the School Board has its administrative offices.

Also on the agenda are reports from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a group called Save Our Affordable Rentals.

On Jan. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Blue Room, 1128 Simonton St., the Women’s March Florida-Florida Keys Chapter will host a panel discussion on affordable housing with County Commissioner Heather Carruthers, City Commissioner Sam Kaufman, Florida Keys Outreach Coalition Executive Director Stephanie Kaple and Padget. Teresa Menendez is the moderator.

While Key West was left largely unscathed by Irma’s wrath Sept. 10, neighbors to the north awoke to destruction.

Nearly 1,200 residential and commercial structures in Monroe County were destroyed by the Category 4 hurricane, according to county and municipal government staff. Some on Big Pine Key are still living in tents on their properties. The number of destroyed homes doesn’t include mobile homes.

“Before the hurricane we had a crisis and now we’re just beyond a crisis,” said Kaufman. “I think the momentum is there. Everybody is talking about this and accepts the fact we have to build additional low-[income] units. We need to add a significant number of units in the city’s housing stock.”

In March, city voters will decide whether to raise the building height limit for construction on Stock Island. At a Nov. 21 meeting, a 6-1 City Commission agreed with the height-limit change from 25 to 40 feet, so the city may build more units than land development regulations currently allow.

“I’m very excited about it. We’re going to try to finance this ourselves, which gives the city the opportunity to make the rents low,” Kaufman said. “That’s part of a goal. Typically, private developers cannot make the numbers work for a profit for them without setting the rent rates at moderate or above as opposed to median- or low-income levels.”

Natalia Duke of the Women’s March Florida state board and director of the local chapter said the goal of the Jan. 29 roundtable talk is to come up with solutions that citizens can get behind and also to provide some background.

“This has been a problem for decades but obviously since Irma everything has been exacerbated,” Duke said. “We have John Padget, who has solutions. We’ll talk about the history of the problem but then what can we do about it.”

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 9:21 AM with the headline "2 sessions focus on affordable housing."