Affordable Teacher Housing Agreement Approved

SEBRING - Teachers seeking affordable housing have a new option with the School Board of Highlands County approving an agreement with a local developer.

The school district will help get the word out about Las Villas Phase 2, an affordable housing development on Kenilworth Boulevard, east of Sebring High School.

Project developer Caribbean Realestate Developers has qualified for a grant to provide workforce housing for personnel considered essential to the county. Teachers are considered essential personnel.

"The bottom line is you have the opportunity to provide $50,000, maybe even $70,000 off the purchase of a villa for a teacher," school district teacher recruiter Sean Rego said at a recent school board meeting. The housing agreement requires no monetary responsibility of the school district.

Mike Brown, of Caribbean Realestate Developers, said grant money from the Community Workforce Housing Innovation Pilot (CWHIP) program is offering qualified homeowners help in buying the villas at a price lower than the market value.

Rego told school board members that there was an obvious affordable housing shortage in the county.

"It gives me an essential and helpful recruitment tool," Rego said. "That's the number one thing people ask me about, 'where can I live and what is the cost of living?'"

Rego and School District Human Resources Director Vivianne Waldron took a tour recently of Las Villas Phase 2.

The gated community is nice and in a secure location, Rego said.

The 2007 Legislature allocated $50 million for the CWHIP fund, and Caribbean Realestate Developers was selected as one of 10 initial entities to participate in the affordable housing program.

Las Villas Phase 2 has 50 residence that are available through the affordable housing grant.

"We are applying for the 2007 cycle currently," Brown said, "which if we are successful in our application bid before the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, it would make the Las Villas development the first housing development for essential personnel in the state of Florida."