Shamira Burton’s dream home has a mustard exterior and a purple bedroom. In late April, the mother of two was only a few steps away from achieving that dream: her house was under construction after she bought it with the help of Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas County in St. Pete's Jordan Park neighborhood.
This year, the nonprofit is investing $1.5 million in south St. Petersburg, making this investment, according to the organization, “the largest home construction boost the area has seen in over ten years.”
That kind of support is much needed in a community plagued with poverty and all that comes with it. Jordan Park, which is just west of the intersection of 22nd Street and Ninth Avenue South, is a public housing project built between 1939 and 1942. It languished but was rebuilt in 2002 — but currently it is infested with abandoned properties, which themselves are reportedly infested with vermin.
On a Monday in late April, officials led a tour though existing and future Habitat Pinellas construction in the Community Redevelopment Area (CRA), a portion of the city where increases in property tax dollars are slated to directly benefit the immediate area, rather than go into a countywide pot of money. With Habitat’s critical home repair program through the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI), community leaders are able to see, first-hand, some of the program's results.
Habitat CEO Mike Sutton said that by transitioning these families to the status of homeowner, they raise their standard of living and no longer need assistance for costly services from local and state agencies — so it's a win-win.
“We plan to continue investing in the CRA of St. Pete after eight years of Habitat activity in south St. Pete,” Mike Sutton said. “After 2009, when the economy crashed, Habitat was unable to build homes in south St. Petersburg due to the rising cost of construction and rapidly declining value of property.”
According to Habitat Pinellas Home Repair Services Supervisor Antwaun Wells, the area has a considerable amount of vacant parcels and homes that are older than 50 years that need repairs such as painting, roofing, and plumbing.
Most of the vacant lots are currently in private hands.
“The city is in the process of foreclosing four or five hundred [properties] that were effectively abandoned,” City Councilman Karl Nurse said.
About 20 of those houses are going into foreclosure every month. Nurse mentioned that the city tries to put most of those structures in the hands of non-profits.
The way it works
Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas County, with support from the City, local businesses and the faith community, builds homes with people in the town and sells the houses at no profit and no interest to households who otherwise could not afford to own their place.
To apply for a home, the applicants must have a housing need, have lived or work in Pinellas for at least one year, have one year of steady, reliable income and have a reasonably good credit.
The program provides to homeowners a zero-percent annual interest loan to cover the cost of materials used in the repairs.
The south
Habitat Pinellas has built 105 new homes in south St. Petersburg since its inception in 1985 and performed 37 critical home repairs since the NRI began in 2014. The majority of Habitat new home construction took place between 1988 and the early 2000s.
The St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Agency, the apple of discord among Midtown community leaders, has established four CRAs, adopted redevelopment plans and approved redevelopment trust funds for Intown (1982), Bayboro Harbor (1986), Intown West (1990), and South St. Petersburg (2015).
“We still have not seen the value of south St. Petersburg property bounce back to [the] pre-recession crisis, but we are still committed to serving in an area that desperately needs affordable safe and sustainable housing,” CEO Mike Sutton said.
Hopefully, other south St. Pete residents can achieve their dream, and right, of owning a house or living in better conditions. They deserve it. Just like Shamira Burton did.
This article appears in May 4-11, 2017.