On a scale where a person should be spending no more than 30 percent of their income on housing, someone making $15 per hour would be spending $780 a month on rent or housing.
“I don’t know anywhere where that’s available, safe, clean and stable,” City Deputy City Manager Matthews said at an update meeting last week sponsored by The Osceola Chamber.
Matthews, who heads up the city’s programs that address homelessness and affordable housing — the lack of it. She provided and update on The Haven, a city-owned project to turn an out-of-purpose Super 8 hotel on Vine Street between John Young Parkway and Thacker Avenue and turn it into — well, the start of a new life for some people.
The city closed on the purchase in June, and is turning the hotel rooms and older apartments on the property into studio apartments that will include full kitchens and bathrooms and a “well-planned living spaces.”
Haven will include training and employment resources on site.
“Haven was created for that respite to change people’s lives,” Matthews said.
The intent is for tenants to lease these spaces based on their income, in order to build up a positive rental history.
“The goal is to access those resources, not to be a forever home, and help move them rent a market-rate apartment on their own,” Matthews said. “We all have a part in helping them move that needle. The longterm, sustainable solution to homelessness, is housing. It’s the only thing.”
The goal is to have 40 units to studio apartments completed by the end of the year. A second phase of emergency housing is still awaiting funding.
On another note, the city is also looking to serve those who are moving into downtown. Attendees heard from Rick Lewellyan of Downtown Gather & Grow. The city is working with the group on the concept for a downtown grocery co-op, in the area of Emmett Street and Ruby Avenue.
The concept features open spaces that the grocery will anchor as an economic engine. The concept for the one proposed in downtown Kissimmee would feature full-working demonstration kitchens for up-and-coming chefs to produce and sell their ideas; these are the restaurateurs of the future.
“Everybody wants a grocery store. One of the best I’ve found is a co-op,” Lewellyan said. “For a community to be successful, you need to have jobs, a place to go to share ideas. I’ve met with a lot of people in Kissimmee who love their downtown, but they want a full-service grocery here.”
With the city looking to bring residents to downtown in the Mosaic and Allen properties, services like groceries need to follow as well. Currently, if you live in downtown, your closest full supermarkets are north of U.S. 192, or on John Young approaching the congested Pleasant Hill area.
“If those residents have to leave downtown for grocery and other services, it defeats the purpose of trying to eliminate traffic. They’ll need a car again to go shopping,” City Manager Mike Steigerwald said.
