ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside is building a 40-townhouse affordable housing development in St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
The development, called Pelican Place, is intended for residents who qualify for affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity said residents will not pay more than 30% of their income, meeting their standard for affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Jermaine Manning, a St. Petersburg resident who has worked for the city for seven years taking care of fields at Woodlawn Park, is among the first future homeowners at Pelican Place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market is just so outrageous right now,\u201d Manning said.<\/p>\n
Manning said he did not think he could afford to buy a townhome until he applied for affordable housing through Habitat for Humanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I never thought I would be here, but here we are,\u201d Manning said.<\/p>\n
Xavier Oliver, vice president of development with Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside, said the Tampa Bay region has a shortage of 80,000 housing units. He said the organization helps residents remain in the region by making homeownership more affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no down payment, no private mortgage insurance, and families that complete our program purchase a home from Habitat with a zero-interest mortgage, which guarantees the long-term affordability of the home,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Oliver said Habitat for Humanity builds 80 to 90 affordable housing units each year.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie Dufresne with the Pinellas County Housing Authority said Pinellas County would need 1,000 affordable housing units each year for a decade to meet demand. She said the authority plans to open seven properties totaling 800 units over the next 18 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to keep the individuals that are serving Pinellas County living in Pinellas County,\u201d Dufresne said. \u201cCurrently, the rate which housing is increasing in cost is just not being matched by the way that income is increasing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dufresne said affordable housing can serve many types of residents, including first-time homebuyers and retirees. She said many people who need affordable housing may not fit common assumptions about who qualifies.<\/p>\n
Manning said he is grateful for the opportunity and is already planning how to make his future townhome his own when he moves in at the start of next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a start by putting my Gator flag out front, let everyone know, start repping that,\u201d Manning said. \u201cJust make it my own.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside is building a 40-townhouse affordable housing development in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1571,21948,27812,1644,4628,115,202,204,203,199,201,200,135],"class_list":["post-402087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-affordable-housing","tag-app-affordable-housing","tag-app-latest-housing-stories","tag-housing","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402087","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=402087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}