ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County leaders celebrated the grand opening of The Enclave at Canopy Park on Thursday as they continue working to address the growing need for affordable housing.
The new development includes 104 one- and two-bedroom apartment homes for households earning between 22% and 80% of the area median income. Rents start as low as $400 a month for qualifying households, with average rents just more than $1,200 per month.
Orange County invested $3 million from its Affordable Housing Trust Fund to support the project. The Enclave at Canopy Park is the fourth affordable housing community supported by the trust fund to open this year, following Whispering Oaks, Barnett Villas and Residences at Emerald Villas.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said the development comes at a critical time, as many families struggle to find housing they can afford.
“We’re in a housing affordability crisis in the state of Florida,” Demings said. “So this is really, really big. This is important to be able to provide affordable units so that people can better take care of their families.”
Brett Green, president of Archway Partners, said the location was chosen because it gives residents easy access to shopping and transit while helping encourage more investment in the surrounding neighborhood.
“This location is one that when we were looking for developments, it scored extremely high on the mobility impact analysis that the Affordable Housing Trust Fund put out to prioritize developments that are well-located, close to transit, close to shopping,” Green said. “And one of the things that we found super interesting was there hadn’t been a whole lot of private investment in this neighborhood in many years. And we were hopeful that by bringing this development to this neighborhood, that we would be able to spur additional investment in the surrounding community.”
The community partners with local nonprofit organizations to provide supportive services for young adults aging out of foster care and individuals and families transitioning out of homelessness. Archway Partners also permanently set aside one apartment home at no cost for a local law enforcement officer supporting neighborhood safety.
Green said demand for the apartments has already exceeded the number of available units.
“We’re seeing unlimited depth in demand for the units that we’ve brought online here,” Green said. “I mean, we’re taking as many applications as we possibly can. Our staff is working nights and weekends just to process the people that want to live here. We opened a couple of weeks ago. We already have many more applications than we could provide units for. And so it’s about getting people qualified, getting all the paperwork completed in just a matter of moving people in at this point.”
The Enclave at Canopy Park also features a community center, fitness center, technology lab and gathering spaces. County leaders said The Enclave at Canopy Park is now leasing to income-qualified households.