Dear affordable housing opposers:
What you fail to realize is that we aren’t talking Section 8 when it comes to this article or housing for people that are not employed. We aren’t talking about affordable housing right in the middle of The Villages, just in Sumter County so we aren’t having to commute from Ocala and surrounding counties through already congested roads. Gas costs money and driving time takes away from family.
Let me break it down for you: The average worker in some of these lower paid jobs makes maybe $1,400 a month after taxes. Having two jobs/incomes in the household they maybe make $2,800 if they are lucky, because many make less!
Working two jobs and having an income of $2,800 a month doesn’t mean you can just rent any place you want. It has to be many times at 30 percent of your income which in this case would be $840. Even having three jobs in a home at this pay scale would only allow for a max rent of $1,260 a month
The average non-age restricted rental in Sumter County is now priced at $1,300 to $1,600 a month if there is any home for rent at all at this point. This makes a rental in Sumter County for many of these families unobtainable even having several jobs in a household and living within their means. It is becoming the same issue in surrounding counties as well due to not enough housing being built for the additional workers needed to run these businesses. According to websites like Truila here are only four rentals in Lake County for under $1,000, and one in Sumter for under $1,000 that are not age-restricted.
(But according to opposers “we have plenty.”)
And yes, some of us could get better jobs, but it still doesn’t change the fact someone has to work these jobs and they need housing.
Wake up. If you don’t have housing you don’t have workers. Just remember that as you are waiting an hour in a restaurant wondering why they are so short staffed. Remember this when you complain about people needing to be on assistance or when you oppose housing or raising the minimum wage.
Rachel Beverlin of Wildwood identifies herself as part of “your underpaid under-appreciated workforce.”
