TAMPA, Fla. — The Price of Paradise is increasing by the day. We’ve all seen and felt the effects of rising housing costs over the past few years, making affordable homes out of reach for many Tampa Bay area working families.
“Welcome to my new home. Come on in,” said Aisha Binghman.
Bingham is ecstatic to show us her new place in the recently built Uptown Sky apartment building in the University Area of Tampa.
“I have five kids. So, we’re just starting out. Don’t have that much furniture, but we are going to get everything that we need," she said.
With the rising rate of rent in Tampa Bay, Bingham is incredibly lucky to find an affordable place to call home. That’s because her family was one out of 3,000 applicants chosen to live in one of the 61 income-adjusted rental units.
“I feel like this is the space I was meant to be in,” said Bingham. She told us she grew up in a typical middle-class family right here in Florida. But she ran into financial roadblocks when she had her children, and the lack of affordable housing added insult to injury.
“So, after going in and out of homelessness, I kept on saying, 'This is not who I am. I don’t know how to break out of this,'” said Bingham.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a person working an $11 minimum wage job would have to work 92 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom rental in the Tampa Bay area.
Blue Sky Communities constructed the new building Bingham’s living in. They’re a real estate developer that specializes in affordable housing right here in Florida.
“So, what that means is that we combine private equity funds with bank dollars and some government funding and, in exchange, we provide an apartment complex that is affordable to the working class,” said Shawn Wilson with Blue Sky Communities.
So far, they’ve constructed 12 apartment complexes throughout Tampa Bay, with four more on the way in Hillsborough County. Though no doubt it’s a good thing, that's just a drop in a bucket to feed the demand for affordable housing.
“We’re getting a lot of people signing up at our new communities ever since this current affordable housing crisis started a few years ago,” said Wilson.
The University Area Community Development Corporation teamed up with Blue Sky Communities to build Uptown Sky. They plan to offer wellness programs for residents, everything from swimming lessons to yoga to financial literacy classes.
As for Bingham, she’s just happy to now have an affordable place to live that she can take pride in.
“The pool is a great incentive—a reward—for good behavior. So, I do less talking and yelling because all I got to say is, 'You’re not going to go to the pool,'” said Bingham.