Southwest Florida Home Coalition

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is November 17-23. It highlights a growing crisis in Southwest Florida: ??72% of Floridians report struggling to feed their families, with many cutting back on essential items like proteins and fresh produce due to rising food costs ??Florida ranks third nationally in homelessness, with nearly 31,000 people unhoused in 2023. Alarmingly, senior citizens are the fastest-growing group experiencing homelessness, with housing and healthcare costs pushing many into instability This crisis is closer than you think—it affects families, children, and seniors: our neighbors. Together, we can make a difference! Let’s create a Southwest Florida where everyone has a place to call home and enough to eat. Contribute to the Southwest Florida Home Coalition and Southwest Florida Health & Wellness Coalition in their efforts to dissolve housing and food insecurity in Southwest Florida: https://bit.ly/4hOoNmS. #HungerAndHomelessnessWeek #SWFLImpact #CommunitySupport

A heartfelt thank you to all the members of the Lee County Continuum of Care, Lee County Human and Veteran Services and the Southwest Florida Coalition to End Homelessness who joined us for an incredibly productive workshop. With John Burnett and Dakota Pawlicki from CivicLab we explored the Stakeholder Engagement Process, diving deep into a collective impact framework that will foster strong collaboration. The energy, insights, experience, and commitment everyone brought were truly inspiring! We’re excited to take the ideas we incubated during the workshop and move them into meaningful action for our community. This is just the beginning. With our shared dedication, we will drive real change for people across the Housing Stability Spectrum in Lee County. #SWFLHome #CollectiveImpact #LeeCountyHousing #StakeholderEngagement #HousingSolutions

Last week's REIS 2024 Real Estate Symposium focused on one of SWFL's biggest issues: the housing crisis The conversation made it clear that simply building more housing isn't the only answer. A fantastic lineup of experts from SWFL and beyond shared insights on key barriers like financing, permitting processes, zoning regulations, and other requirements tied to housing initiatives. Shout out to partners Michael Allen with ReVital Development Group and Joe Bonora with Catalyst Community Capital, and local builder and Florida Housing Finance Corporation Board Chair, Ryan Benson. What an inspiring morning filled with good ideas and practical strategies for addressing these challenges! A big thank you to REIS for hosting such an excellent event and to FGCU for hosting! #SWFLHome #AttainableHousing #FGCU #REIS

Thank you to Michael Overway, Executive Director of Southwest Florida Coalition to End Homelessness for organizing a panel discussion on issues related to affordable housing at the Lee Continuum of Care General Membership Meeting on Thursday, June 20, 2024. We are so grateful for partners, including Lois Healy, Chief Executive Officer of Affordable Homeownership Foundation, Carolyn Johnson, Chief Mission and Development Officer from Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, Julie Boudreaux, Director of Lee County Human & Veteran Services, PJ Brooks, Chief Operations Officer of Community Assisted & Supported Living, Inc., and Geoff Harlan Vice President of Acquisitions with Blue Sky Communities who shared their expertise and for Jessica Turner, Partnership Manager at Collaboratory for facilitating the discussion. Together, we can help more individuals and families get into and stay in stable and attainable homes.

Hendry County School District Superintendent, Mike Swindle, has plans to build housing that his teachers can afford. In this Fox 4 News story, he explains that he wants to use surplus Hendry County County Schools land to build apartments in Clewiston and LaBelle. Swindle is proposing to trade other plots of land with developers on which they could build homes to sell at market rate. This would make up for the cost of building the new teacher housing. In the news story, a Hendry County Principal, Tina Kelley, explains that she has difficulty attracting new teachers to Hendry County because after the candidates research housing in the area, they say they can’t find any nearby affordable options. We are looking forward to seeing how this outside-the-box problem solving makes a difference in Hendry County. https://ow.ly/mbEM50RO7uJ

The Collaboratory team took advantage of time with innovators and inventors at the Edison Awards Expo on April 17 by asking them what they see as the biggest challenges in our region and their thoughts on solutions. Education & Workforce Development; Health and Behavioral Health; Housing, Transportation, and Infrastructure were the clear priorities among attendees, confirming what the community has told us in past! These are complex problems that must be tackled to ensure SWFL’s resilience. We are so proud of the 100s of partners that are leading the work in the Southwest Florida Health & Wellness Coalition, Southwest Florida Home Coalition and FutureMakers Coalition (Education and Workforce) and can’t wait to take these ideas back to them!

“Small businesses are important to our economy and employ most of the people in our communities. When people who work for small businesses have trouble finding a good place to live, it causes big problems.” Learn more from Diana Willis, co-owner of Jason’s Deli SWFL https://ow.ly/tkSb50RfKR0

The Southwest Florida Home Coalition launched in May 2023 to answer the community call to dissolve barriers to attainable housing. Modeled after FutureMakers Coalition, the Home Coalition is taking a regional approach to fill the gap that exists between the current housing market and the needs of families and the workforce in Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee Counties. Cross-sector partners are piloting projects to increase the availability of housing choices across our region.

Join the team supporting the partners in SWFL who are working to make housing more attainable for all!

??Congratulations to the Catholic Dioses of Venice, Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency and National Development of America, Inc. on the opening of the St. Peter Claver Place Apartments! ??8 years of hard work ??136 units added to the supply of workforce and low-income homes ??Plans to add 78 more units in phase 2 ??1500 applications waitlisted The need is so much more! What do you think the biggest barriers are to building homes that people in Southwest Florida can afford? Land cost and availability? Lack of financing? The SWFL Home Coalition wants to know your thoughts. #WorkforceHousing #AttainableHousing #SWFL https://ow.ly/Schc50QNyuQ