Alliance to build houses for poor

The nonprofit group, which is working to revive rural areas in the region, plans to build 26 single-family homes for low-income earners near the Seminole Indian Casino in Immokalee. The first home should be under construction in January.

"It's tough to build housing for these people because land and construction costs are so expensive and many of these people have poor credit," said Barbara Cacchione, enterprise community coordinator for the Empowerment Alliance.

The alliance is looking to help people who earn less than $32,000 year.

With the help of federal and state grants, the alliance expects to offer mortgages of about $65,000.

In September, the alliance received a grant of nearly $150,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to hire a director to help people qualify for those mortgages and get them into the homes.

The HUD grant will cover the housing director's salary for two years and pay for a study and business plan to determine the best use of commercial property that the nonprofit organization recently acquired across from the Seminole Indian Casino.

The alliance is looking at the commercial land, which is about 3 acres, as a source of income.

Eventually, the federal money that supports the group, is expected to dry up.

The alliance formed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture named Immokalee and parts of Hendry County a Rural Federal Enterprise Community in 1999.

Enterprise Communities receive $250,000 a year for 10 years as seed money from the USDA.

"We realize as a nonprofit we have to consider how we will sustain ourselves," Cacchione said. "We are looking for an income stream so we can continue our work."

The goal of the residential project is to help individuals and families advance from low incomes to middle incomes.

The alliance's first homes will be built on the west side of Fahrney Street and the north side of Rose Street. They will be made of concrete block. Three- and four- bedroom designs, both with two bathrooms, are available.

Cormac Giblin, Collier County's housing development manager, said although the residential project might be small, it will make a difference. Countywide, there is a need for 24,000 affordable housing units, and much of that need is in Immokalee.

"In Immokalee every little bit helps," Giblin said.

Over the past two years, developers and nonprofit groups have shown more interest in building lower-priced housing in Immokalee, and it's starting to make an impact.

"There are a few developments that are just opening or they are in the planning stages or getting ready to lift off," Giblin said.

"That makes it a very exciting time to be involved in affordable housing in Immokalee."

Some of the affordable housing projects built in Immokalee recently include Jubilation, a 40-acre, master-planned community off Lake Trafford Road that is nearly sold out, and Main Street Village, a 78-unit apartment complex that just opened on Main Street.

Habitat for Humanity of Collier County is also building subdivisions in Immokalee and they are "going very strong," Giblin said.

Habitat uses volunteer labor and local donations to build modest but high-quality homes on quarter-acre lots.

The alliance's homes will be slightly more expensive than those offered by Habitat, but less costly than those at Jubilation, where homes started at $69,500.

The alliance has tapped Loretta Blanco, who works for the city of Homestead, for the housing director job.

Blanco, who has been involved with the Community Redevelopment Agency in Homestead, will do everything from helping people clear up their credit to helping them pick out the carpets and cabinets for their homes. She'll also make sure the alliance stays on top of its grant requirements.

"We've gotten a number of grants to kind of get these homes in an affordable range," said Cacchione. "With all these grants, there is a lot of paperwork and that is a lot of what Loretta will be doing."

Through a federal program known as HOME, the alliance received $900,000 to cover second mortgages, which won't have to be paid until the houses are resold. Those HOME funds are what "turned the key" for the project," Cacchione said.

Collier County also received a $300,000 grant from the state's Department of Community Affairs to pay for the land and cover the cost of permitting and zoning the project. A Community Development Block Grant is covering other costs, including water and sewer lines, lighting and sidewalks.

Giblin's department, which provided some of the grants for the project, will offer down-payment assistance to individuals who qualify to buy homes in the alliance's project. Relief from impact fees is also available.

"They pay the impact fees when they sell the houses," Giblin said.