by SC Reporter Reese Holiday
The average price of a home on Sanibel last year was approximately $1 million, according to the islands’ affordable housing organization Community Housing and Resources’ website.
Given this steep price tag, Sanibel’s Vice Mayor Richard Johnson said there are many people who do not live there but bring their skills to the island to work and make the long trek across the bridge every day to do so.
With this problem, Johnson and CHR have presented solutions. One of these is a two-and-a-half-acre donation of land from the Johnson family to CHR’s Affordable Housing Program to be used for housing for those that work, but do not live, on Sanibel.
“The family has a very long history with Community Housing and Resources,” Johnson said. “That is probably one of the most important not-for-profit organizations on the island because it provides affordable workforce housing for the people that work on Sanibel.”
The land being donated is a large area of green space adjacent to the Bailey’s Shopping Center property. Johnson said there are already some units on the donated parcel that can be used for affordable housing, but some are outdated, and the expectation is for CHR to take those down and replace them with newer homes.
This donation adds onto the list of efforts CHR has made towards affordable housing on Sanibel, something it has done since its inception in 1979.
According to its website, the CHR currently houses an average of 150 full-time Sanibel workers, or senior citizens and disabled individuals, per year in 74 rental properties at various locations across Sanibel.
The sizes of these units range from studio to three bedrooms, two bathrooms with rent costing 30 percent of the gross household income. In 2015, the average rent was $690.
But even with these substantial efforts, Johnson, who was on CHR’s Board of Directors in the past, explained that it isn’t easy for CHR to find property for affordable housing, especially a parcel that is two-and-a-half-acres big.
“Looking from the inside of the organization, finding a piece of property, two and a half acres, on Sanibel is next to impossible,” Johnson said. “Finding a two-and-a-half-acre parcel of property on Sanibel that CHR could afford to buy to build workforce housing is absolutely impossible. To purchase the property is one thing, but then you have to build the units. It’s cost prohibitive.”
Now, CHR has that elusive property and can continue to expand its goal for affordable housing on Sanibel. Johnson also believes this donation can help solve another widespread issue on the island, specifically regarding the traffic that often stretches down Periwinkle Way at peak hours of the day.
“It’s very expensive to live on Sanibel, and we feel very strongly that this is great way that we can give back to the community, not only from the stand point of affordable housing for the workforce on Sanibel, but also one of our challenges as a small island is traffic,” Johnson said. “What better way to address traffic concerns then to put affordable, workforce housing in downtown Sanibel.”
However, steps need to be taken before any affordable housing or traffic issues are solved.
Here, Planning Commissioners moved to have the planning staff prepare a draft ordinance for the combined plan of Bailey’s renovations and the donation of land to CHR, which was then presented at the Planning Commission meeting on June 22.
But the process that the renovations must go through is different than that of the donation. City Planner Craig Chandler explained via email that the donation of land, and the subsequent projects, will have to go through deliberation on Planning Commission, who will then provide a recommendation to Sanibel City Council on whether to approve of the donation and its projects or not.
If approved, CHR and the Johnson family would bridge the gap between Sanibel and its workers in an affordable manner on an expensive island.