{"id":239895,"date":"2026-04-21T03:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239895\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T03:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:58:20","slug":"countys-7-5-million-affordable-housing-complex-has-a-problem-nobodys-living-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239895\/","title":{"rendered":"County\u2019s $7.5 million affordable housing complex has a problem: Nobody\u2019s living there"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">KEY LARGO, Fla. \u2014 A new apartment complex <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/08\/25\/florida-keys-officials-turn-tourist-bucks-into-affordable-housing-for-industry-workers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/08\/25\/florida-keys-officials-turn-tourist-bucks-into-affordable-housing-for-industry-workers\/\">purchased for $7.5 million<\/a> by Monroe County in 2025, intended as affordable housing, remains vacant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The county purchased the Southcliff Estates housing project, located at 95295 Overseas Highway in Key Largo, using money from a $35 million pool of Tourist Development Council bed tax funds from the post-COVID tourism boom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating for all of us because we were so excited about this project,\u201d said Monroe County Mayor Michelle Lincoln. \u201cWe were like, \u2018This is going to be amazing. We\u2019re going to be able to help people right away. We\u2019re not going to have to wait until it\u2019s constructed and to go through permits.\u2019 And it\u2019s empty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Designed for workers in the Florida Keys tourism industry, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monroecounty-fl.gov\/1398\/Southcliff-Estates-Application-Process\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.monroecounty-fl.gov\/1398\/Southcliff-Estates-Application-Process\">the application process<\/a> for the 11 one-bedroom, one-bathroom units opened in August at a rate of $2,995 a month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The initial rental rate gave some residents a dose of sticker shock. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">But even after commissioners amended the rental price to nearly $1,900 a month, not a single unit has been rented.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Lincoln said the county will look to update its survey process to more accurately reflect the needs of workers in the Keys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe have now tapped the brakes, and we are now going to update the studies we did years ago for specifically what are the housing needs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A county spokesperson said marketing is being updated to include a more visible banner on the property, social media posts and ads on real estate website Zillow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KEY LARGO, Fla. \u2014 A new apartment complex purchased for $7.5 million by Monroe County in 2025, intended&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-239895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239895","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=239895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}