Confessions of an undesirable

By C.T. BOWEN

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2001

New to Florida 14 years ago, I took up residence in an apartment complex off Rowan Road in west Pasco. Neighbors included other journalists, teachers, a planning consultant working for the county, a deputy, librarian, construction workers, a waitress, drywall hangers, retirees, and people working in the banking and medical fields.

We thought of ourselves as recent transplants, single parents or families saving for a down payment on a house.

Boy, were we mistaken. Turns out other people have a different opinion. Today, we would be undesirable.

You see, we all had to meet income guidelines to live there, as do the current residents of 16 multifamily housing complexes in Pasco County built with government-endorsed mortgage revenue bonds or tax credits.

Somehow "dweller of affordable housing" now equates to low class. It's the label quickly affixed to anyone who might live in an income-controlled apartment. It's a stereotype bandied about regularly over the past few weeks as a quartet of proposed complexes made their way through the government planning process.

According to letters that have appeared on this page, apartment residents are a drain on government services, pose a threat to senior citizens, deal drugs, crowd schools, jam local roads with their cars, and generally destroy Pasco's quality of life.

One of the complexes pointed to as an illustration is the Park Richey apartments between Embassy Boulevard and San Miguel Drive. There is no denying high-density housing in compact spaces can bring problems. One person forwarded copies of the scores of emergency police calls from the Park Richey vicinity.

But, it would seem the tenants have just as much right to lament the neighborhood as vice versa. The southern-most apartments are across the street from the former county landfill.

The big-box appearance of the three-story buildings doesn't help matters. In a county about to consider creating an aesthetics committee, this place sure could use additional landscaping and green space.

Yet, the logic coming from the County Commission chambers on this issue is problematic. Commissioners unanimously turned down one project last week and will consider two more today. County staffers are recommending the commission support the financing application for only one -- the proposed 160-unit Lake Lisa on Regency Park Boulevard. It sits among moderately priced homes that were the staple of west Pasco's housing boom in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The proposed Jordan Lakes complex at Little Road and Ross Lane is tied up in a dispute over the land rezoning. The other, the Forest Trace project at Lake Bernadette near Zephyrhills, didn't receive staff backing because of its distance from other services. Palatable reasons for not getting preliminary approval until you consider the owners of high-end homes at the Lake Bernadette development fussed about deteriorating property values, and the neighbors opposed to Jordan Lakes hired lawyer Clyde Hobby to bolster their fight.

Therein lies the paradox. Three of the five current commissioners approved a land rezoning and blessed the financing application for the Pasco Woods project in Wesley Chapel in late 1998. The commission accepted the promise of affordable housing for people in need even though their cars dumped onto Oakley Boulevard at State Road 54, one of the most dangerous intersections in the county. And, don't forget the nearest government and social services are 10 miles in either direction with no regularly scheduled mass transit available in Wesley Chapel.

Didn't matter. But back in 1998, the landowners seeking the rezoning had sharp legal representation -- Hobby's firm.

At Lake Lisa, 85 percent of the apartments will be reserved for people making 60 percent of the median family income. For a family of four, that's 60 percent of $47,500, or an income of $28,500 -- more than the starting salary for a teacher in the Pasco County School District. (As a disclaimer, the complex where I lived in 1987-88 had a different maximum income level.)

These are people frequently categorized as working poor. They are abundant in Pasco where, according to economist Bill Fruth, annual earnings per worker was $23,122 in 1998.

There is a need. The two newest complexes, Pasco Woods and Park Richey, report the lowest occupancy rates of the 16 built with government assistance. All but one of the rest are at least 90 percent full.

Opponents offer their rebuttals. The apartments are attracting tenants from outside the county. The building costs are too high and developers are making too much money. Few such arguments surfaced in the Pasco Woods debate.

So here are the questions confronting commissioners. Do they pass on government assistance available for Pasco County and decline to support the financing application for any of the pending affordable housing projects?

Do they have the gumption to do this just seven days after a commission majority gave preliminary approval to a huge waiver in the proposed school impact fee ordinance by increasing the income levels at which it becomes effective?

Why did they monkey around with the impact fee, anyway?

Supposedly, because they are concerned about better housing opportunities for poor people.

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