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Highlands Today

Las Villas Is Moving Forward On Affordable Housing

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: June 27, 2008

SEBRING — New houses are beginning to spring up in Sebring's newest housing subdivision not far from Sebring High School, providing needed jobs and a quality home for average folks needing a house.

Part of the subdivision will be solely for workforce affordable housing with state financing assistance, for those who qualify.

One hundred and 50 homes will be built over the next 18 months in this gated community, with 50 available only to people who qualify for the state's Community Workforce Innovative Pilot Program.
Better known as "CWHIP," the program gives working people in vital jobs, with income limits, at least $50,000 and, in some cases, $60,000 off the price of these new homes.

John Zervas, president and manger of Carribbean Real Estate Developers, said this community is the first CWHIP project under way in Florida.

"Twenty-two other projects are planned, but they all are way behind this one," Zervas said in his home at Las Villas.

Zervas said the driving force behind this project for working-class people is his partner, Hector Pages, who lives in Puerto Rico.

Pages, 80, has built more than 10,000 "social interest" homes for working people in Puerto Rico, where Zervas has lived and worked.

Pages developed the plan to build high-quality, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and stylish homes for working people in Florida after he saw the destruction from Hurricane Katrina, Zervas said.

"He saw Florida, which gets hit by hurricanes, having people live in all those mobile homes," Zervas said as he met with officials of Bank of America's Sebring office, which is financing the development along with a state agency, the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.

The Deal
Here is the deal offered to people who qualify for CWHIP at Las Villas, according to Zervas and Susie Whitlock Teeple, who is processing applications for CWHIP and bank financing as manager of the mortgage divisions of Bank of America's Sebring Office.

* Each home costs $149,839, including major appliances.

* For the first 50 Las Villas home buyers who qualify for CWHIP financing, each gets a $50,000 state CWHIP grant, which knocks the price of their new home down to just under $100,000.

* In total, Florida Housing Finance Corporation is providing $2.5 million in housing-assistance grants to Las Villas VWHIP buyers, with each of the 50 getting a $50,000 loan which they might not have to pay back at all.

* Interest on the $50,000 CWHIP loan is 1 percent per year. At the end of every year, if the homeowners have paid all of their mortgage payments and taxes, the 1 percent interest is wiped out.

* If the CWHIP homeowner at Las Villas continues to pay their mortgage payments and taxes on time for 30 years, then the entire $50,000 CWHIP loan is "forgiven" by the state.

As of Wednesday, 20 people have applied for CWHIP loans to buy a Las Villas home, which comes with a community cabana/swimming pool and other amenities.

Zervas and Whitlock said CWHIP applicants are told within five days if they qualify for the CWHIP deal.
The key to qualifying is income, and CWHIP has generous maximum income levels. For example, a single person qualifies with an annual income of $45,220 or under, while a couple qualifies if their joint annual household income is $51,660 or less.

For a family of four, the income limit is $64,540.

Las Villas is also qualified for SHIP state housing loans, and if people also qualify for SHIP they get another $10,000 from the state." Teeple explained that SHIP loans give the Las Villas home buyer another $10,000 on top of the $50,000 special-deal they have through CWHIP.

"The SHIP loan has zero interest and it's paid back over 30 years," Whitlock said.

Zervas said Carribbean originally partnered with Highlands County government in the Las Villas project.

Earlier this year, when the county couldn't continue to partner on this project, officials of the city of Sebring helped Carribbean close the special CWHIP deal for $2.5 million in housing assistance from Florida Housing Finance Corporation.

Statewide, 23 communities are trying to set up similar housing projects for working people, but the Las Villas in Sebring is the only one under construction.

Completely finished and furnished are two homes connected side by side. Zervas lives in one of the homes and, right next door, the other home serves as the Las Villas sales office.

"Ten homes are under construction now, and we'll have all 150 built by the end of 2009," said Keith Carter, owner of Carter Construction Company and the general contractor for the 150 Las Villas homes.

Carter said the Las Villas work will employ at least 250 workers in all of the home-building trades, and he might have to hire as many as 350.

"That means jobs and that's good for this community," Zervas said.

Carter said many of the construction workers he's hired for the 10 Las Villas homes being built now were happy to get full-time work after seeing their incomes dwindle during the past year's recession, which hit the home building industry in Highlands County especially hard.

Zervas lives in Boca Raton some of the time, when he's not living in his Las Villas model home.
Bud Whitlock, Teeple's brother and the president of Sebring City Council, said Las Villas is good for the city and Highlands County in many ways.

Beyond providing working people with a quality house at a low price, he said, Las Villas also will pump up both the local economy and the city's and the county's treasuries.

"It's an excellent project for both the city (of Sebring) and for the county," Whitlock said. "Both are going to realize more taxes from this project.

"And," the council president added, "before they started building here, this whole site was a burned-out, non-producing citrus grove. Half of the citrus trees were dead and the other half were dying."

Zervas said he had hoped to start building and selling the CWHIP homes earlier this year.

But, he said, he's glad that all of the bureaucratic details of financing through the CWHIP program have been settled and he is building now.

To reach Jim Konkoly, call 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

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