By Katie Santich | Orlando Sentinel
Twelve-year-old Skyy Civil’s brand new apartment doesn’t have any furniture in it yet. But with a bedroom that he doesn’t have to share with his mom and two sisters — and a “real” home that’s not a shelter — he couldn’t stop smiling Friday afternoon.
“I love it,” he said minutes after a grand-opening ceremony of the 166-unit Village on Mercy. “It just has really good vibes.”
Skyy and his mom, Fayte Civil, 32, are among the 83 once-homeless families who now have a place of their own in the affordable housing development, a $28 million project of cheery aqua-blue exteriors, a community center, playground, fitness trail and recreation space along Lake Lawne.
The property — on Mercy Drive midway between West Colonial and Silver Star Road — was bought by the city of Orlando in 2015 for $2.5 million as part of a package of blighted apartment complexes whose owners promised renovation but could never secure financing. The apartments, including the Peppertree, Bordeaux and Lakeside Village, had run up $4.8 million in code-enforcement fines for leaky plumbing, broken windows, electrical problems, mold and crumbling, unsafe stairways. At that point, officials said, it would have cost more to rehabilitate the units than it did to tear them down.
“Every day, somebody was leaving here with nowhere to go and becoming homeless,” said Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill, whose district includes the site. “Well, today they’re coming back because Mayor [Buddy] Dyer and the [city] council saw a vision to purchase all those properties… Today we are turning the tide of generational poverty.”
Rents start at $448 a month for a studio and go as high as $999 for a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment — well below the city’s $1,295 average for a two-bedroom. Some of the rents are subsidized, at least initially, by federal programs for the homeless.
The project, about 19 months in the making, was led by the nonprofit Ability Housing, which purchased the property from the city. Funding came from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Enterprise Housing Credit Investments and the Corporation for Supportive Housing.
“Today we celebrate the fulfillment of a promise to the citizens of Orlando,” said Shannon Nazworth, Ability Housing’s president and CEO. “[This] is a place where families can live in security, with dignity and hope.”
Already, Jessica Morris had put out a welcome mat declaring “Beyond Blessed.” After 10 days in her new studio, the 43-year-old was still trying to process the idea that she no longer lived in a shelter.
“That first night, I didn’t even have a bed, but I didn’t care,” said Morris, who has chronic health problems that left her frequently hospitalized and without housing for three years. “I just piled all the blankets I had on the floor and slept on that. To look around and think, ‘This is my space,’ I don’t even have words. It’s just pretty cool.”
Article last accessed on January 6, 2020 here. A print-ready version is available here.