A 192-unit affordable housing community called Southwick Commons has opened on Brighton Avenue in Apopka, offering one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with rents starting around $1,103 a month. The project arrives after years of legal and political resistance from Apopka's own city hall, which once tried to keep the site reserved for market-rate development instead.
The apartments include island kitchens, dishwashers, ranges, microwaves, Energy Star-certified appliances, and full-size washers and dryers, according to WFTV. Two-bedroom units start at roughly $1,440 a month, and three-bedroom units start at about $1,647. The community, built by VCC and designed by Slocum Platts Architects, includes a swimming pool, playground, community garden, business center, activity room, picnic pavilion and outdoor grills. Wendover Management will operate the property going forward, and applications from prospective residents are now being accepted.
A Fight That Started With a Lawsuit
Southwick Commons rarely got built at all. Developer Wendover Housing Partners sued the City of Apopka in 2022 after municipal leaders blocked the project in an apparent effort to force market-rate luxury housing onto the downtown parcel instead, according to research cited by the law firm Lowndes. That December, an Orange County Circuit Court judge ruled against Apopka, finding that banning subsidized affordable housing on the site violated a 2000 provision of the Florida Fair Housing Act that prohibits land-use discrimination based on how a project is financed.
The ruling didn't end the city's resistance. In May 2023, Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson petitioned the Florida Housing Finance Corporation to withhold funding from the project, even as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development opened an inquiry into how the city had handled the development, per reporting from the Apopka Voice. The 12-acre property itself had a tangled history: the city sold it in November 2021 for $1.92 million as part of the Apopka City Center redevelopment plan, only for it to be resold days later to Wendover for $3.25 million, the outlet reported.
Public Money Filled the Gap
Even after the legal fight ended in Wendover's favor, getting Southwick Commons built required substantial public support. The Orange County Board of County Commissioners approved $3 million in gap financing in March 2024 — $2 million from the county's Housing Trust Fund and $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money — to help cover construction costs that had climbed higher than expected, according to Orange County Government. The county's Housing-For-All initiative, launched in 2020, aims to produce or preserve at least 11,000 certified affordable and attainable housing units by 2030.
A year later, in April 2025, the Apopka City Council unanimously approved a four-party developer agreement granting a $1,296,192 school impact fee exemption for the project, following prior sign-off from Orange County Public Schools, the Apopka Chief reported. That exemption cleared one of the last financial hurdles standing between Southwick Commons and its opening.
Part of a Broader Push in Apopka
Southwick Commons is not the only major affordable housing effort underway in the city. Wendover Housing Partners, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Altamonte Springs, also broke ground in November 2023 on Catchlight Crossings, a $350 million, 1,000-unit workforce housing community near Universal Studios in Orange County, according to the company's own materials. And in May 2025, Minnesota-based developer Dominium broke ground on a separate $150 million initiative adding 480 affordable units across two Apopka developments, backed by $11 million in Orange County subsidies, per a post from the Apopka Voice.
Ryan Von Weller, chief operating officer of Wendover Housing Partners, said access to stable and dignified housing at an affordable price remains a challenge for too many families across Central Florida, per WFTV. Housing advocates cited by the outlet say the Orlando metro area faces a severe shortage of affordable rentals, and the National Low Income Housing Coalition's 2026 Gap Report found only 13 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households in the region. A recent Hoodline report on hunger relief efforts noted that metro Orlando ranked fourth nationwide for its shortage of affordable housing in 2024, underscoring how deep that gap runs even as new units like Southwick Commons come online.
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