News & Views: CHR in the News

CHR reviews a successes, looks ahead

By EMILIE ALFINO, ealfino@breezenewspapers.com

The new nonprofit Coast & Islands Community Land Trust and its parent organization, Community Housing & Resources, held their annual meetings Saturday, April 14. Both reported significant, even groundbreaking, accomplishments as well as big plans for the future.

President Phillip Marks introduced the new Community Land Trust, a private nonprofit organized formed in 2006 that will give Community Housing & Resources a vehicle for joining forces with county and federal governments, faith-based organizations, and maybe even developers to provide housing for workers on Sanibel.

“We're trying to focus on preserving Sanibel's diverse year-round community by creating affordable housing that can bridge the gap between what a home really costs on this island and what a working individual or family can really afford,” Marks explained.

Here's how the housing trust will work. It supplies a one-time subsidy to each home it builds—a subsidy that stays with the home in perpetuity. The land on which the home sits is owned by the Community Land Trust. The owners don't have to pay for the land and can live in the home as long as they want. When they want to sell, they sell it back to the Community Land Trust, and the subsidy goes with the house.

The homeowner gets the advantage of tax-deductible mortgage interest, as well as a guaranteed 3 to 5 percent appreciation on the home's value. The appreciation is based on the sale price of the home when it is sold, not on the amount the original buyer put down. The appreciate rate will be capped by the land trust.

By venturing into home ownership, the Community Land Trust hopes to provide housing for essential workers such as police officers, fire fighters, Island Water Association workers, employees of the Department of Public Works, teachers, health workers, librarians, and people who work at nonprofits such as the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, BIG ARTS and the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife.

“Because we're an island, we need to be self-sufficient,” Marks added. “It's very difficult to recruit and retain good working people, and one of the reasons is this long and expensive drive to work every day. There are many people who work on this island and have great talent and energy but at the end of the working day they go home somewhere off-island. These are the people we could have to invest themselves in the community, and after hours they could be volunteers, they could be coaches, they certainly could vote on issues that concern our city, and I think they get that empowerment of being a homeowner.”

Marks expressed the hope that young families would be able to move to Sanibel to raise their children. “We have a nationally recognized school and will have one of the most state-of-the-art recreation centers in Florida in the near future,” he remarked.

The Community Land Trust will be selecting a Director of Development and Advancement in the next six months. That person will be in charge of fund-raising and will oversee a capital campaign. The trust will be opening the application process soon for those who are interested in owning a home. Assistance will be available to help applicants through the process.


CHR reports successful year, new ventures

Mike Cuscaden, president of Community Housing & Resources, opened the second annual meeting of the day holding up a copy of a Lee County study of affordable housing. “It was presented in January of this year,” he explained, “and it's very interesting that on the cover are four pictures of affordable housing in Lee County. And all four pictures are from CHR [on Sanibel].”

CHR's mission is to function as a nonprofit organization to promote and encourage affordable shelter and other necessities of life for the primary benefit of low- and moderate-income members and workers of the community. “We're proud of this effort, and I'm particularly proud of our board of directors,” Cuscaden noted. “I want to assure you our board members are all involved in a variety of responsibilities and allow us to provide outstanding service for our community.

“We couldn't function, however, without a great staff to support and guide us—first of all our Executive Director Scott Marcelais. Scott continues to have so many accomplishments for us, if we read them all, we'd be here until two o'clock and by that time, the food would be ruined,” Cuscaden laughed. “Scott has taken us into uncharted waters, and very successfully. We're delighted to have him.” Cuscaden also acknowledged Administrative Secretary Patti Bohm and Administrative Assistant Cyndie Hoggat.

A brief recap of 2006 revealed a very busy year full of achievements for CHR, including implementing and equitable rent distribution, obtaining numerous grants, and an increase in membership from 66 to 197. Late last year, CHR conducted an survey of 317 businesses on Sanibel and Captiva. A 94 percent response rate indicated the need for a sustained workforce of approximately 4,200 employees.

Bringing Cuscaden to a particularly exciting achievement in 2006—the agreement signed between Shell Point and CHR.

“I want you to know that we initiated this,” Cuscaden stressed. A team from CHR met with senior Shell Point executives in May last year to discuss the idea of a partnership to provide affordable housing for Shell Point employees as well as for employees working on Sanibel. Shell Point has a high employee turnover, particularly with their lower to middle-income workers, and commuting is one of the major causes, with many employees live in northern Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres and near-downtown Fort Myers area.

CHR proposed a partnership. “Shell Point is the expert in retired living but they aren't eligible, as we are, for state and federal funds,” Cuscaden explained, “so we could be the financing vehicle, we could be the developer, and then we would manage the development once it was completed.”

CHR negotiated a percentage of those units for employees who work on Sanibel to help alleviate the similar problem suffered by the city and island businesses—attracting and retaining employees.

While the agreement between Shell Point and CHR is non-binding for two years, at which time if no progress has been made, the parties can terminate, “We are both anxious to make this work,” Cuscaden stressed. “We're presently looking at various locations on the mainland as close as possible to Shell Point. We're going to need an awful lot of help, particularly from the county.”

The next step is to meeting with the Lee County Planning Department to identify lands not being used that might be suitable for the project.


CHR launches equity-ownership program

Meanwhile, Community Housing & Resources is embarking on its first project that includes equity-ownership units. CHR owns a piece of property referred to as Court Street/Center Street, but sometimes identified simply as “Behind Billy's,” Cuscaden said, “because everybody knows where Billy's is, right?”

CHR plans to work with the city of Sanibel to provide 14 additional below-market-rate housing units. The city currently has 64 BMRH units towards its goal of 120. The 14 wouldn't just bring the city closer to its goal, but 8 of them are going to be equity-owned by their residents; the other six will be traditional rental units.

Another difference is the construction: these will be “systems built” homes—not to be confused with what was formerly known as manufactured homes, according to Cuscaden.

“Systems production is entirely different,” Cuscaden said. He and Marks visited the company in Plant City because they couldn't believe the manufacturing was as good as the reports they were getting. “It was very impressive,” he said. “It's so interesting. They start with a team, and that team takes that unit from scratch all the way until it's out in the parking lot. They test the plumbing and the electricity and everything else. This is a very sophisticated system, and it's guaranteed for five years.”

CHR doesn't mind a delay while they get the appropriate approvals, according to Cuscaden, because by that time the causeway should be completed, eliminating the extra cost imposed by the current weight restrictions.

“So when the new bridge is complete, hopefully at that point we'll have agreement from the Planning Department and from the city council to move forward with this,” Cuscaden said. “It's an inch-by-inch process but we're really excited. It's our first venture in equity ownership, but it's also a whole new idea in construction.”

The houses, which are built on pilings, cost about 70 percent of what a traditional building would cost, and they go up a lot faster. “Once the city gives us the go-ahead and they start building them, they can build one of these in about 10 days and it's out the door,” Cuscaden exclaimed. He joked that some people might get upset when they houses coming over the causeway to Sanibel. “We're going to cover them some way to make it look like a carnival or a circus,” he laughed.

Copied with permission from the Island Reporter, a division of the Breeze Corporation.

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