In a move to quickly boost affordable housing options, the Community Redevelopment Agency Board has sanctioned a collaboration with Domain Homes to erect single-family residences in West Tampa. This venture aims to place five houses on the market under the city's affordable housing sales price cap of $450,000, as reported by the City of Tampa's official website.
The Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency’s (CRA) Housing Division has been on the hunt to significantly expand workforce homeownership within the city’s CRA Districts. Their strategy eventually led them to Spruce Street's vacant plots, which happened to be under the ownership of Domain Homes. The ensuing discussions brewed into a potential partnership under the CRA's Unit Creation and Conversion Program, which aspires to house families earning as much as 140% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
Council Member Bill Carlson heralded the initiative stating, "Homeownership is a primary indicator of economic success in communities." He observed the generational impact, asserting that homeownership "creates multi-generational wealth and reduces the cost of government in subsidizing rent." These remarks were encapsulated in the announcement on the City of Tampa's website.
The project passed with an allocation of $75,000 per abode, summing to a $375,000 investment from the West Tampa CRA. The purpose of the funds is to directly improve the West Tampa CRA community by fostering greater access to affordable homeownership, and to also encourage people to more firmly establish long-term residencies in these homes, with an affordability period extending 50 years. What comes next for the CRA is to finalize a funding agreement, after which the groundwork to actually start to build the homes will get underway.
About the Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency: It operates as a public entity under Florida’s Community Redevelopment Act, spearheading redevelopment ventures within specific Community Redevelopment Areas or districts. The members of the Tampa City Council also function as the CRA board, and together with Community Advisory Committees (CAC), they strive to enhance living standards in these designated segments of the city encompassing Central Park, Channel District, Downtown, Drew Park, East Tampa, Tampa Heights Riverfront, West Tampa, and Ybor City.
