Northpinellas: Will officials find courage so others can find housing?

All levels of government in this country -- federal, state and local -- have adopted new programs in recent years to address the nationwide need for more affordable housing. The recent economic downturn, rents that rose faster than inflation during the '90s, and growing waiting lists for subsidized housing have led governments to respond with a virtual explosion of initiatives to encourage the construction of housing that low- to moderate-income people can afford.

Why bother?

Because it is difficult to grow a healthy economy without healthy businesses, and businesses have trouble recruiting and keeping workers if there is no affordable housing nearby.

And because new housing that this population can afford must be constructed to replace aging or dilapidated structures that need to be razed.

And because everyone, regardless of income, needs a home.

But some recent examples show that government officials who support construction of affordable housing complexes may face serious political consequences. They may not be tarred and feathered or ridden out of town on a rail, but they might very well be cast out of office by angry and well-organized opponents of such housing.

It happened last week in Hernando County, where incumbent County Commissioner Chris Kingsley, 50, was beaten in the general election by Robert Schenck, a 27-year-old teacher with no political experience.

A 176-unit affordable apartment complex -- one of several recently proposed in Hernando County -- has been planned next to the golf course community of Seven Hills. Seven Hills residents hated the idea of affordable housing being built near them. Forecasting a decline in their property values, growth in crime rates and the presence of undesirables, they organized to fight the project, and they expected their county commissioner/neighbor, Kingsley, to see that the proposal died a rapid death.

But when Kingsley's efforts fell short, some Seven Hills residents wouldn't forgive him. Their resentment fueled a determined campaign to get him out of office and to turn out the vote for Schenck, who they felt had been more supportive. It worked. Kingsley, who admittedly had some other political baggage too, became the focus of the anger of residents in Seven Hills and the other subdivisions fighting affordable housing.

"This has generated a mound of ugliness here," said Bob Mackey, president of one of the homeowners associations. "I've never seen people up in arms like this. If this were the Middle Ages, we'd all be lighting torches and marching on the castle."

A figurative march on the castle occurred last year in Oldsmar following a developer's proposal to build a 270-unit apartment complex that would offer discounted rents for low-income residents. The political consequences still are being felt there.

Residents of nearby single-family subdivisions fought the proposal with surprising energy and organization -- surprising because that part of Oldsmar, where most of the subdivisions are fairly new, had not played much of a role in city affairs or previous elections. That changed when the Westminster apartments were proposed.

When three of the candidates for Oldsmar City Council seats last year indicated they would oppose or even stop the project if elected, the neighborhoods north of Tampa Road turned out the vote for them. Mayor Jerry Beverland and council members Marcelo Caruso and Don Bohr rode into office on the shoulders of those voters. That the three ultimately were unable to stop the Westminster complex, which now is nearing completion on Pine Avenue, has done little harm to their standing in the neighborhoods of north Oldsmar.

Some residents of those neighborhoods also have made no secret of their disdain for the remaining two members of the council who they felt did not stand with them in their battle against the complex. They were especially angry at council member Brian Michaels, who lives in the affected neighborhoods and in that respect found himself in the same sort of spot that Kingsley did in Hernando County.

Given the growing anger, resentment and misinformation occurring during these battles, it will take real courage for local elected officials to support construction of affordable housing in the future. The next frontier in that regard likely is Largo, a community in great need of both redevelopment and more affordable housing. Will elected officials there do what needs to be done?

When some people hear the term "affordable housing," they think of slums. They think of undesirables. They think of trash and crime and children running around unsupervised. It is easy for such people to configure a battle that is "us vs. them" because they think of residents of affordable housing as people who aren't like them.

Often, they are wrong. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, you qualify as needing affordable housing if you now spend more than 30 percent of your income on housing.

That would include a lot of people, wouldn't it?

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