Most Wildwood city employees cannot afford to live in the city due to a severe shortage of affordable housing.
An estimated 72 percent of people who work in Sumter County live outside the county, clogging U.S. 301 and other roads with traffic at quitting time.
Those statistics were among those presented Wednesday by Melanie Peavy, development services director, to commissioners at a workshop meeting.
While Wildwood is expanding at a rate of several hundred homes a month, nearly all of those homes, like those in the Village of Southern Oaks, are out of reach of the average working person in the Sumter County.
Affordable housing is defined as costing no more than 30 percent of a worker’s salary. The average salary annual salary for Wildwood city employees is $44,000 a year with 64 percent earning less than that.
Peavy said that means the maximum housing payment they can afford at the 30 percent level is about $1,100 a month, which is the cost of a one-bedroom apartment.
“It’s big when we consider what’s affordable for our employees,” she said.
The city’s annual median income for everyone is $38,945, which means a maximum affordable housing cost of $973 a month.
“You can’t at that rate basically afford a one-bedroom apartment in Wildwood,” Peavy said.
She said increasing the supply of affordable housing has benefits beyond providing places for workers to live.
It reduces taxpayer expenses and homelessness, decreases traffic, is less expensive than institutional care and improves the health and education of low-income families. It also boosts the economy because workers spend money locally.
Peppertree Apartments along US. 301 is the only market-rate apartment complex in the city. Subsidized apartments, where government grants lower the cost, are available at Wildwood Commons, which has a waiting list, and Club Wildwood. Lakeside Landings has reasonably priced townhomes.
Simple Life, a community of tiny homes priced at about $100,000, is developing north of County Road 466 in Oxford. Pepper Tree Village and Woodland Meadows offer single-family homes starting at $200,000.
Peavy said solutions include a partnership with Sumter County Housing, a proposed ordinance to increase the maximum density to 24 units per acre and modified standards for density bonuses that remove a requirement that projects be located along a rapid transit line, which Wildwood does not have.
Sumter County provides a $10,000 match for apartment developers who receive assistance through the Florida Housing Finance Corp., although the grant program is very competitive. Habitat for Humanity helps to make affordable homes available through its homeownership and repair programs.
The State Housing Initiative Partnership offers down payment and emergency repair assistance for home buyers and owners.
Mayor Ed Wolf asked if the city has requirements for recreational areas in apartment complexes so children of working parents have activities after school.
“Every development does require a number of on-site amenities,” Peavy said, adding that Peppertree Apartments has an indoor basketball court, swimming pool and other amenities.
