This year, the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers is marking 65 years of service in the Southwest Florida community. This milestone is not only a celebration, but a reflection of decades of growth, transformation and commitment.
Since its establishment in 1960, our team and long-standing board of directors have worked diligently to provide safe, affordable housing options for Southwest Florida residents. What simply began as an effort to provide the basic necessity of a roof over one’s head has transformed into providing wrap-around services and building a strong foundation for community development.
Over the past six decades, Southwest Florida has changed drastically. Our population has rapidly grown, our neighborhoods have evolved and our housing demands have become more complex. Our area remains a popular destination for travel, while also earning a name as a great place to live or retire. With people continuing to move to Southwest Florida, housing options dwindle and affordable housing is hard to come by.
What many of us previously knew as “affordable housing” or “public housing” has changed significantly as we moved away from the stigma often associated with Section 8. Instead, we’ve focused on creating communities that residents are proud to call home. We build places that are well-maintained, thoughtfully designed and safe for families, seniors and individuals alike. Having a safe place to call home is a basic human need that most of us overlook.
Currently, the Housing Authority owns and manages over 1,400 housing units throughout Southwest Florida, in addition to providing over 2,500 housing vouchers. We also have several new properties in the works, all with the goal of providing more people with desperately needed housing.
One new property we recently broke ground on, Strayhorn Place, will offer modern amenities to help residents ages 62 and older age in place, including an on-site gym, a small health clinic, business center, movie theater, cafe and more. It will also include unique safety features such as a designated hurricane shelter built to host residents and an additional 40 senior care adults in the event of future storms.
The mission of the Housing Authority has always been to provide attainable housing, but we’ve also grown beyond that over the years. If an individual or family does not have a stable place to live, they are likely struggling in other areas too, such as food security, health care, education and employment. We actively work to connect our residents with community resources and organizations to support them in all areas of life.
For instance, our partner Urban Strategies connects residents with services including quality out of school programming to supplement class instruction, employee readiness, job placement, health and wellness programs, comprehensive family support services and more. We also have partnerships with Harry Chapin Food Bank and Community Cooperative to help our residents combat food insecurity. If there is something our residents find themselves needing, our Housing Authority team and partners are ready to jump into action and find a resource or solution for them. Through these organizations, residents are encouraged to invest in their futures.
Our nonprofit development arm, the Southwest Florida Housing Foundation, helps us offer additional affordable housing units for communities in need. With affordable housing becoming an increasingly urgent need nationwide, we continue to explore innovative housing solutions to meet the growing demand in our community.
The 65th anniversary of the Housing Authority is a time to honor the past, celebrate the present and look confidently toward the future. Through every challenge and success, the Housing Authority has remained focused on providing attainable housing to residents not only of Fort Myers, but Southwest Florida as a whole.
As the city continues to grow, our team will be here – building communities, supporting families and leading the way in affordable housing solutions for the next generation.
Marcia Davis is the executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers with more than 22 years of experience in affordable housing development, community revitalization and serving residents in public housing. To learn more about the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers, visit HACFM.org.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: How the Housing Authority has transformed Southwest Florida | Opinion
Reporting by Marcia Davis / Fort Myers News-Press
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