In Pinellas, affordable housing compact produces results

With local rents reaching historic highs in 2022, a coalition of local governments in Pinellas County forged an agreement to support the development of attainable and affordable housing close to transportation, jobs, schools, workforce development opportunities and other services.

Over the next decade, the Advantage Pinellas Housing Compact will help develop thousands of affordable apartments. In an interview this summer, Pinellas County Affordable Housing Development Manager Stephanie Rayman says there are nine properties either leasing or under construction at that time.

Producing results 

The housing compact has produced results in cities and unincorporated communities around Pinellas. Here are some examples.

In St. Petersburg’s Innovation District, Innovare, which nonprofit Volunteers of America Florida developed with funding help from local governments, provides stable housing for people transitioning out of homelessness. One of them is Walter Sloan, who lost his job and home after a workplace injury and lived in a shelter for several months. In April 2024, Sloan was the first resident to move into Innovare.

“A lot of homeless people aren’t drug addicts or alcoholics,” Sloan says. “Some of us have gone through some traumatic event that literally changed our life.” 

At 3800 34th St. S. in St. Petersburg, housing developer Blue Sky Communities has started construction on SkyWay Lofts II, 66 affordable apartments next to the first phase of SkyWay Lofts, which opened in 2022. On the 4200 block of Sixth Street South, developer Gravel Road Partners is building Bayou Court Apartments, 60 apartments intended primarily for government and school employees. There’s Founders Point, a 15-unit complex under development on the 2900 block of 31st Street South. At the corner of Burlington Avenue North and 33rd Street North in St. Pete, Burlington Post II will have 75 affordable apartments for seniors.

Valor Preserve, 64 affordable apartments for veterans, is under construction in Seminole. In the Lealman area, Lealman Heights will be a complex of 86 affordable apartments. In Largo, Heritage Oaks will have 80 affordable apartments for seniors, replacing 48 older units in the Rainbow Village public housing community. Working in partnership with Pinellas County and the City of Largo, Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties is developing Longlake Preserve, a 54-unit affordable townhome development in Largo.

This summer, the City of Clearwater and housing developer Archway Partners marked the start of construction on Clearwater Gardens, an 81-unit affordable housing apartment complex on a site along the 1200 block of Cleveland Street where two dilapidated motels, including an Economy Inn plagued by crime, once stood.

Clearwater Gardens will offer residents amenities like a multi-purpose community room, library, fitness center, children’s game room, coworking space, tech lab and a resident community garden adjacent to an existing community garden on the northeast corner of the property.

In August, the Pinellas County Commission approved nearly $8 million in funding for two complexes totaling 164 apartments- Cypress Grove in Largo and Flats on 4th in the Gateway area of St. Petersburg- that Archway Partners is developing. 

The City of St. Petersburg and the St. Peterburg Housing Authority have partnered on the "Edward White Campus," a project transforming the former Edward White Hospital in North Kenwood into 71 affordable apartments for seniors.

Penny for Pinellas sales tax revenues have helped fund land acquisition or construction on many of these projects. The latest Penny for Pinellas referendum, approved with 82 percent voter support in 2017, committed money to land acquisition and development of affordable housing. Since then, Penny for Pinellas has become a valuable funding tool.

Forward Pinellas, the local planning agency, works with county government and the municipalities on affordable housing planning. The agency conducts studies that help local governments decide the appropriate location for affordable housing developments.

Forward Pinellas Executive Planner Linda Fisher says the agency develops a housing regulatory toolkit that helps cities “move in the same direction on how they incentivize affordable housing projects.” It’s a model that local government can take and adopt, she says. Fisher says Forward Pinellas has also launched an educational campaign, “Local Homes for Local People,” to address perceptions and misconceptions. 

“Our goal is attempting to destigmatize affordable housing,” she says.

Subsidized affordable housing is based on the income of the renter. There are typically three different income brackets: 30 to 60 percent area median income (AMI); 60 to 80 percent AMI; and 80 to 120 percent AMI. In addition to the initial certification of their income level, affordable housing tenants must provide an annual certification every year that they are still in the income bracket.

For more information, go to Advantage Pinellas