The Affordable Housing Crisis
Stuart Raynor, 10, leans back in his chair while keeping an eye on a computer during an after school program at Spring Creek Elementary School last month. Though Raynor lives comfortably with his family in a two-story home in Estero, the issue of affordable housing still affected Raynor as he failed the third-grade while attending San Carlos Park Elementary one year ago. Due largely to the area's high cost of living, San Carlos Park Elementary could not find a full-time instructor to replace Raynor's teacher who resigned at the start of the school year.
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Austin Poole, 11, helps friend Stuart Raynor, 10, take down the flag at Spring Creek Elementary School. Stuart, who moved with his family to Estero from Connecticut two years ago, is enrolled at the school after failing third grade a year ago. During his year at San Carlos Park Elementary, Stuart endured a string of substitute teachers after his original instructor resigned just two weeks into the school year.
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Gregg and Aida Deason, and their 6-year-old daughter, Lauren, stand outside their Clermont home. Gregg, an insurance agent who had lived in Naples all his life, never wanted to leave Collier County. But the cost of living in Naples compared to Clermont resulted in the family selling their North Naples home.
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An aerial of U.S. 41 looking north at Bonita Beach Road. A significant percentage of workers at Collier businesses live in Lee County.
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In this file photo, traffic along Interstate 75 gets backed up near the Lee/Collier county line. As home prices continue to increase, more and more people are moving to where housing is more affordable and having to commute longer distances along the main arteries to get to their workplace, causing traffic jams in both directions.
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John Morrill looks over paperwork while his wife, Cynthia, works on their laptop computer inside their boat in Fort Myers. The couple believes they have found a creative solution to the affordable housing crisis in Lee County, paying $800 a month in boat mortgage and $300 a month in slip fees to live in their boat.
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John Morrill sits next to his wife, Cynthia, in their boat in the Fort Myers Municipal Yacht Basin. One of the couple’s favorite things about having a boat as a home is being able to travel and view the sunsets that Florida has to offer.
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Marina forklift driver George Cervantes’ landlord failed to fix the roof damage Hurricane Wilma delivered to the mobile home where he and his wife have lived with their two boys, Daniel and Alex, for eight years.
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Scott Hopkins, general manager at Cedar Bay Marina on Marco Island, gathers a few bills together at his rental condo in Heritage Greens in Naples. Hopkins and his wife, Dolores, who is four months along in her
pregnancy, are looking to buy a home but are having trouble finding anything affordable.
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Myles Bowman, owner of The Melting Pot, cleans tables in his restaurant. Bowman has been so short-staffed many nights that he and his wife must fill in washing dishes, hosting or serving, rather than running the restaurant. He says it has been difficult to stay fully staffed because employees are moving out of the Naples area — they are unable to find affordable housing or have been lured away by other restaurants in the area.
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Scott Hopkins, in doorway, general manager of Cedar Bay Marina in Marco Island, talks on the phone in the boat storage yard. Hopkins said he has a difficult time staffing the marina because the high
cost of living has deterred many qualified marine technicians from other parts of the country from relocating here.
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