An affordable housing community for seniors is being built in the backyard of a Riverview church.
During a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, the Rev. Karen Jackson Sims said the idea for the development came out of the growing need for housing she was witnessing in her community.
"We had a group of senior citizens from Hillsborough County that would come up here to the church to meet with me and ask me if they could sleep here on the ground...because they could no longer afford a place to live," she said.
The 75-unit affordable housing development will offer affordable rents for very low-income and low-income residents, or those earning between 30% and 70% of the area's median income, according to guidelines from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Distribution of proposed affordable units:
- 30% AMI - 12 units
- 50% AMI - 3 units
- 60% AMI - 34 units
- 70% AMI - 26 units
Project leaders also announced that several units would be reserved for unhoused seniors.
The new development, located at 5920 Robert Tolle Dr. in Riverview, will offer one-bedroom apartments with 650 square feet, in-unit washers and dryers and other on-site amenities. Around 60 Section 8 housing vouchers will also be allocated to the property, according to a Tampa Housing Authority spokesperson.
The $33.5 million project is a product of community partnerships with local developers, state and federal housing partners, the Tampa Housing Authority and Hillsborough County, according to a press release.
Sims said that Hillsborough County's local housing funds, called HOPE funds, were critical to making the proposed development possible.
"We received $6.8 million from the county, which, without that money, we could not have made this project happen. Out of that $6.8 million, $2 million of it came from the HOPE fund."
The affordable housing funds are named after a grassroots coalition of churches, called the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality, that advocated for the local housing dollars in 2019.
Read more: Hillsborough County considers draining $10M in local affordable housing funds
Despite those efforts, commissioners voted in September to slash the local housing funds for the upcoming fiscal year from $10 million to $2 million. Commissioners Pat Kemp, Harry Cohen and Gwen Myers voted against the motion.
"The Mount Zion Project stands as a powerful example of how HOPE’s affordable housing fund is directly addressing the critical housing crisis in Hillsborough County. However, the need remains far greater than current efforts can meet," HOPE member, pastor Justin LaRosa said.
Commissioner Myers, who attended the groundbreaking for Zion Village, said that there's still limited funds available for similar affordable housing projects.
"Well, the HOPE funds have $2 million in this year's fiscal year budget that will help us with more projects as well. So we'll still be able to do some HOPE projects, just as we were able to do in fiscal year 2024," she said.
Gabriella Paul covers the stories of people living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region for WUSF. She's also a Report for America corps member. Here’s how you can share your story with her.
