Home rehab program helps Tampa residents afford to stay
Kellie Cowan reports
TAMPA, Fla. – With housing and rent prices skyrocketing across the Tampa Bay area, many residents are feeling squeezed out of the market. Long time homeowners in some of Tampa’s oldest neighborhoods are under pressure to sell, especially when repair and maintenance costs start to seem insurmountable.
It’s especially hard for older homeowners, on fixed incomes, to keep up with leaks, cracks, and other repairs; should disaster strike, some homeowners say they‘d have no choice but to sell.
When a tree fell on Ernest Braxton’s V.M. Ybor bungalow in 2020, it took out part of his roof and an exterior wall. It also rendered the only home he has known for the last three decades uninhabitable.
“We’ve been here since ‘88. We raised our children here,” said Braxton, who lost host wife of 50 years not long after he was forced out of his home. “I have wonderful memories there. I just hope I can get back in there again.”
But on a fixed income and after multiple health setbacks, Braxton has struggled to keep up with the needed repairs.
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“It costs thousands of dollars … and it’s just exhausted my funds,” said Braxton.
He’s not the only retiree struggling to hold onto their home in a historic neighborhood where the lure of fast cash from developers and flippers is rapidly changing the look and price points of homes around him.
“I think that’s what’s going to happen here in Ybor City: they’re going to put a lot of condos in. The property values are going up. I just want to be in my home,” said Braxton.
Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency manager Cedric McCray says without intervention, homeowners like Braxton will be forced to sell, and historic neighborhoods will be lost for good.
Hillsborough commissioners develop new affordable housing plan
Finding an affordable place to live is so challenging that Hillsborough County leaders are turning to a creative solution to help residents. Commissioners are setting up a community land trust that will allow the county to buy land, build housing, and ensure affordable prices.
“I can either take the money that I’m being offered, which may not be exactly what the property is worth, and I leave and they put up a new McMansion,” explained McCray. “Or they lose control of the property because they can’t afford …….