The housing struggle continues.
After publishing our report on unaffordable housing in Sarasota, we were flooded with stories from area residents both young and old about the struggle of finding an affordable, safe and comfortable place to live.
On our public slack channel (click here for an invite to join), readers shared their experiences and commiserated.
Some experiences were crazier than others. This one from Slack channel participant Morganadell is a doozy:
“I FINALLY found an affordable studio apartment that would allow me to keep my dog… It’s in Bradenton, 400 sq. feet, termite infested (no joke) and, for a real treat, when I run the AC (mind you, it’s only when I’m sleeping and set at 75) my electric bill runs me about $150…. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the overwhelming, unpleasant scent (which I have yet to put my finger on, or find the source of….) that consumes everything; it seems that it is masked by a mixture of constantly burning candles and Febreze.
I have lived in NYC & LA and I still have no words for the amount of money people feel that they can charge for rent here. Due to the lack of affordable, pet-friendly housing in this area, I considered buying my first home. However, each house I looked at in my price range was either falling apart, literally, or already had multiple offers above the asking price by the time I got back to the realtor’s office to start the paperwork.”
We also heard stories about landlords raising rent for no reason (this has happened to me twice) and people stuck in the rental cycle- paying too much for monthly rent to save towards buying a home.
Pets were also a complicating factor for a number of people who shared with us—it’s hard enough to find a rental at all, but with a pet, nearly impossible.
We had responses from all ages. Slack channel user Roblimo told us how mobile homes can work for younger people, as long as they can find a community that isn’t 55+ (which most are).
“Older married person (63), living in a small mobile home my wife and I own free and clear, including lot. This is housing Fat City. We’re in a middle-class park in Manatee County (Fair Lane Acres) with passable amenities, including a really nice swimming pool, paperback exchange, rec room, lots of social stuff (we don’t do), and… shuffleboard! Gotta have shuffleboard!
The problem with the cheap mobile home thing is that you can’t get mortgages on any built before 1974, which means you need between $14,000 and (say) $40,000 cash. Once you buy, even if it’s on a credit card or with family help, your only housing expense will be HOA fees (ours are $115/month including water and sewer) and crazy-low property taxes. We have a fence. We have a dog. We can paint our walls any color we like. We’ve done a lot of updating and remodeling, including insulation so heavy you can barely hear thunder, and we can play music as loud as we want (which really isn’t very) without bothering neighbors.
The 55+ thing…. yes, I remember how angry housing age discrimination used to make me. Terrible! However, it is not universal. Fair Lane Acres is a weird hybrid; some of the lots are age-limited and some are “all ages.” Nearby, both Floridana and Casa Loma are all ages. There are others around, too, but I haven’t looked for them and I’m not a real estate person or local reporter so it’s not something I’ve researched.”
More common, though, were stories like Morganadell- young people struggling to find a place they can afford on their own and feel safe and secure.
Morganadell also described learning skills she never thought they’d need, like how to keep termites off her toothbrush.
“…On a lighter note, termites only swarm in the spring (I hate that I now know that….) so they have been tolerable. When I first moved in I would spend an hour each day cleaning up hundreds of termite bodies (that’s actually a good sign…) and wings (the wings mean that they were able to find a mate and they are now on their way to start a new colony. Again, I hate that I know this!!) before I could do anything. It’s pretty bad when you are brainstorming ways to keep your toothbrush termite free… Yes, somehow, they even found their way into the medicine cabinet… My solution was a ziploc baggie, FYI.”
Where this housing debate goes we can’t be sure.
Member mattchristian said he was a meeting recently (the Realtor Assoc. of Sarasota and Manatee Commercial Investment Division 2016 Downtown Horizons) and that all development will likely slow in the next few years, and affordable housing isn’t a priority for developers.
He’s hopeful they change their minds.
“What I would like to see happen in Sarasota/Manatee is for local government to be more aggressive at working with developers to come up with a plan that addresses the attainable housing needs while creating incentives to make it more economically feasible for private developers to build moderately priced units downtown.”