to improve our
community
Monroe County, except to note that many of the earlier attempts (including the "Growth Management
Ordinance" which had set aside Truman Annex's "Shipyard" as wage-earners' type housing) were little
more than farcical. Here are a few recent letters, which we hope may stimulate thoughts and comments, and
perhaps make us wonder what, if any, steps our elected friends are contemplating to protect us from the
imbalances which are now becoming apparent in our housing stock and our continued viability as a real and
historic American community.
Housing crisis serves to benefit developers
"Helping 1,000 Families in 1,000 Days —
Affordable/Workforce Housing in the Keys."
I went to this meeting Aug. 8, and noticed something
was wrong with this picture. The meeting was headed
by John Dolan-Heitlinger, president and CEO of
Keys Federal Credit Union. Also present at this
meeting were Realtors, president [of the] Chamber of
Commerce, Navy captain, schools superintendent,
county commissioner, press, and a few concerned
citizens. Why weren't the people who truly need
affordable housing present at this meeting? You
know, like servers, house cleaners, hotel workers,
retail store workers, laborers, school aids, etc.
Instead, the impression I got was that most of these
people did not worry about money, and would be more
interested to sell homes, offer mortgages and
approve building permits to developers rather than to
find real solutions to this affordable housing crisis.
During this meeting, I asked how the number of 1,000
homes came up. John explained it was an arbitrary
number.
I asked why is there no list of persons/families
needing affordable housing, from which we would then
know how and what to build or rent?
Because there was never a study done to establish
this. (How long have we been doing this affordable
housing crisis thing?)
We are giving developers huge breaks on building
fees, land use, [housing allocations], density, etc., in
order to build affordable; there must be a list to work
from.
I suggested we go to each business, get names of
workers seeking work-force housing, find out if they
would like to rent or own, what their wages are —
start getting facts instead of ideas for marketing
slogans or mantras.
Another problem for housing shortage was second
homes.
I suggested we proportion the number of second
homes we allow to be sold in the Keys, since buyers
would not be full-time residents and contribute to our
work-force/community. Other countries do this to
safeguard housing for their workers. ... Realtor
Donna Windle ... explained you cannot deny anyone
the right to buy a home in America. I don't wonder
why she said this, because now we're cutting into her
livelihood. This is the problem with these task forces.
They are filled with the wrong people.
Imagine the response the chamber had when I
suggested workers get paid affordable wages. ...
I have wondered about the affordable/work-force
phenomenon since its inception. When the pro-
development group created the mantra "affordable
housing crisis," they started to control just how this
crisis would be fought.
Workshops, task forces, planning commission boards
are packed with persons who serve the developers.
It is so bad and so sad.
What these islands become is decided by a group of
developers, while the rest of us would just like to live
our lives with some quality.
Diane Beruldsen, Key West
Having temporarily moved north to take care of
my ailing mother, I received some most
unwelcome news in the mail recently from my
former Key West hometown in the form of the
tax assessment notice sent by the Monroe
County property appraiser. Supposedly, even in
the aftermath of the damage wrought by Wilma
and in the midst of the local real estate market
depression, my tiny 956-foot one-bedroom condo
unit increased in value in the year 2006 by
$190,000 (a 57-percent increase) and is now
worth over $524,000.
As explained by the Property Appraiser's Office,
there were very few sales in 2006 of comparable
properties, and the few that did close in the early
part of 2006 were at abnormally high prices, still
reflecting the crazed euphoria of contracts
entered into before the bursting of the 2005 real
estate bubble. The Appraiser's Office concedes
this, and also concedes that the few 2007 sales
that have now occurred show prices crashing to
$385,000 for a similar property. Unfortunately,
they explain, this will have no effect on current
assessments and valuation relief is over a year
away.
This travesty will, however, only be true if
property owners allow the commissioners of
Monroe County and Key West the delusion of
ignoring these unjust, inflated property
assessments in their upcoming votes setting local
millage rates. With assessed values as
artificially high as they are, if our county and city
commissioners fail to make substantial
corresponding reductions this year in their
millage rates, local government will reap a
revenue windfall and property owners will reap a
real estate tax bloodbath.
While the state this year is forcing token
millage-rate reductions, the state-mandated
reductions are not sufficient in areas like ours,
where property assessments have
disproportionately increased so much in a
depressed market. Property owners must
demand from both county and city commissioners
a millage-rate reduction on the order of 20
percent or more this year to offset this year's
bloated property assessments. Adequate tax
revenues will nonetheless continue to flow in
based on this year's inflated assessments, and
commissioners can always raise millage rates
again in 2008 once our assessed values have
returned to reality levels.
If our commissioners fail to act, the cascading
crushing effect of this year's assessments,
coupled with runaway property insurance and the
still lingering costs of Wilma, will render the
Keys a real estate graveyard full of owners who
cannot either hold onto their properties or sell
them in a dead market, and tenants who simply
cannot pay the rising rents.
Since having to temporarily relocate, I have been
fortunate to have a good long-term tenant
employed in a local business. I fear that I can no
longer afford to hold onto my property, and my
tenant will no longer be able to afford the
required rents. Any local commissioners care to
accept a deed to a small condo in exchange for
the city or county paying me its $524,000
assessed value? I doubt it. ...
Doris M. Miller, Terra Alta, W.Va.
Key West
Neighborhood Associations
www.kwna.org
Headlines Page
Click here
Four Stages
Click here
the workforce housing crisis. Because of creeping "transient rentals" almost a third of our living spaces are
now, in effect, hotel rooms. For more on this, see "The 'Last Word' on Transient Rentals" CLICK HERE.
Another problem seems to be the constant litany of "property rights." Somewhere along the line some of us
seem to have forgotten about the importance of ZONING, a concept which was designed to protect adjacent
properties and the whole community. And we have also forgotten, along with most communities in South
Florida, the idea of "concurrency" and the concept of trying to follow, at least in spirit, our various
Comprehensive Plans.
And sometimes we forget that we live in Monroe County, a county located in a unique ecological
environment, 99% of which is water.
Housing crisis serves to benefit developers
"Helping 1,000 Families in 1,000 Days — Affordable/Workforce Housing in the Keys."
I went to this meeting Aug. 8, and noticed something was wrong with this picture. The meeting was headed
by John Dolan-Heitlinger, president and CEO of Keys Federal Credit Union. Also present at this meeting
were Realtors, president [of the] Chamber of Commerce, Navy captain, schools superintendent, county
commissioner, press, and a few concerned citizens. Why weren't the people who truly need affordable
housing present at this meeting? You know, like servers, house cleaners, hotel workers, retail store
workers, laborers, school aids, etc. Instead, the impression I got was that most of these people did not worry
about money, and would be more interested to sell homes, offer mortgages and approve building permits to
developers rather than to find real solutions to this affordable housing crisis.
During this meeting, I asked how the number of 1,000 homes came up. John explained it was an arbitrary
number.
I asked why is there no list of persons/families needing affordable housing, from which we would then know
how and what to build or rent?
Because there was never a study done to establish this. (How long have we been doing this affordable
housing crisis thing?)
We are giving developers huge breaks on building fees, land use, [housing allocations], density, etc., in
order to build affordable; there must be a list to work from.
I suggested we go to each business, get names of workers seeking work-force housing, find out if they would
like to rent or own, what their wages are — start getting facts instead of ideas for marketing slogans or
mantras.
Another problem for housing shortage was second homes.
I suggested we proportion the number of second homes we allow to be sold in the Keys, since buyers would
not be full-time residents and contribute to our work-force/community. Other countries do this to safeguard
housing for their workers. ... Realtor Donna Windle ... explained you cannot deny anyone the right to buy a
home in America. I don't wonder why she said this, because now we're cutting into her livelihood. This is the
problem with these task forces. They are filled with the wrong people.
Imagine the response the chamber had when I suggested workers get paid affordable wages. ...
I have wondered about the affordable/work-force phenomenon since its inception. When the pro-
development group created the mantra "affordable housing crisis," they started to control just how this
crisis would be fought.
Workshops, task forces, planning commission boards are packed with persons who serve the developers.
It is so bad and so sad.
What these islands become is decided by a group of developers, while the rest of us would just like to live
our lives with some quality.
Diane Beruldsen, Key West
