City officials broke ground on Village at Lake Forest, a new affordable housing project at a closed school site, aiming to address Jacksonville’s housing shortage. <\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 City leaders, Ability Housing and the Duval County Public Schools broke ground Wednesday on a new affordable housing development planned for the former Lake Forest Elementary School site on Jacksonville\u2019s Northside.<\/p>\n
The project, called Village at Lake Forest, will bring 120 apartment units to 901 Kennard Street, a property that has sat vacant since the school closed in 2019.<\/p>\n
Mayor Donna Deegan said the project addresses what she calls one of the city\u2019s biggest challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re about 50,000 units short of what we really need,\u201d Deegan said. \u201cWe\u2019ve added about 7,000 so far since I\u2019ve been in office.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials said the development is designed for working families, educators and others who want to remain in their communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gives them an opportunity to stay in the community in which they live,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n
Most of the apartments will be available to households earning up to 60% of the Area Median Income, with a smaller number of units available to households earning up to 80%.<\/p>\n
Developers said rent will vary depending on income, but they provided a general estimate of what families can expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a standard two-bedroom unit, we\u2019re talking about anywhere\u2026 between $900 to $1,500 based on your income,\u201d said Ability Housing CEO Reggie Fullwood.<\/p>\n
Fullwood said the goal is to make housing more accessible for workers who may not qualify for low-income housing but still struggle with rising costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe standard rule is no more than one-third of your monthly income should go toward housing,\u201d Fullwood said.<\/p>\n
A key feature of the development is that 25% of the units will be reserved for Duval County Public Schools employees, including teachers and other staff.<\/p>\n
District leaders said that the added housing option could help with staffing efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just gives us one more way to recruit and retain teachers by providing them with affordable housing,\u201d said Duval County Public Schools Chief Operations Officer Jim Culbert.<\/p>\n
The project will also include an early learning center designed to serve children living in the development and the surrounding community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be like a daycare and a pre-K kind of center,\u201d Culbert said. \u201cThis will allow the students to get ready so they as they enter kindergarten.\u201d<\/p>\n
City leaders said the development could also serve as a model for future projects, especially as more school buildings close.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is a blueprint we can take from here and move forward with,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n
Construction is expected to take about 18 months. Officials estimate tenants could begin moving in after construction is complete, with leasing details expected to be released closer to opening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City officials broke ground on Village at Lake Forest, a new affordable housing project at a closed school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-233467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}