Project offers secrets to affordable workforce housing communities

Workforce housing can be quite basic, but when Marshall Gobuty of Pearl Homes built 86 homes at Hunters Point that delivered LEED Zero certified homes and also showcased homes that could operate off the grid for days, he created a new standard.

While the homes were more expensive to build, the efficiency of the homes reduced operating costs enough to provide significant savings over time, along with the opportunity to receive hefty tax breaks. In addition, the homes can generate more power than they consume, so excess energy in each home is stored in a battery that can be tapped during emergencies, even for days.

Gobuty is on a mission to share this resilient and sustainable home template to improve the places we live on a larger scale. He recently worked with Jeff Burton, the executive director of the Community Redevelopment Agency and Economic Development for the City of Bradentona city just south of Tampa with about 60,000 residents.

The aim of the new project is to deliver all the sustainability and resilience features of Hunters Point, along with affordability.

Staff housing suitable for Florida

“We want to follow the same kind of homebuilding philosophy, but bring the homes to where someone with an AMI of 80 to 120% can afford them, which changes the dynamics of construction,” Burton said.

In its new community, based in Bradenton, it is starting with a smaller home design to reduce costs. The team is currently making two prototypes, one of 450 square meters and another of 750 square meters.

“The design is aimed at younger people, but the way it’s designed it could be retirees as well,” he said. “We are building out the project to collect all the details and then have others copy it. We want young people to be able to afford to buy it, live in it and later even upgrade it. If we can produce something that is scalable, then we can offer homes that young people can afford in more places.”

By offering entry-level housing, communities can build a younger workforce to support city services, education and tourism.

But creating a community with all these factors in mind takes a very deliberate approach, coordinating from start to finish between the developer, architect and builders to achieve the right costs.

Jon Moore is president of Moore 2 design and was selected as the architect for the project. His designs apply the pocket neighborhood principles introduced by Ross Chapin to the community to create a vibrant neighborhood with approximately 130 reasonably sized homes.

“We look at projects holistically and what impact they will have by projecting into the future and asking what it will be and how we are going to get there and what has worked,” Moore said. “The Bradenton project is not the house, it’s the community within the community and how it functions as a community. It’s about how the houses relate to each other and how they relate to the environment.”

Moore focuses on the four basic elements of earth, water, wind, and fire in the context of Florida, where wind resistance standards are critical and flooding is a major risk.

These considerations influence the choice of materials, and Moore chooses concrete for its resilience to flooding and water damage and for its cost implications.

“Wooden frames are popular, but cheap is not sustainable, and we can’t balance sustainability and most cost-effective, so we had to choose one,” he said. “In this case, we have the option to pay a little more so that the house lasts fifty years. That’s why we use metal studs instead of wood, because they won’t rot, won’t absorb water and won’t be affected by pests.”

The houses also have metal roofs to protect against the inevitable storms, plus impact windows. These resilience functions are part of the STRENGTHENED programa voluntary program designed to strengthen homes against the severe weather conditions affecting that part of the country.

Winning staff housing

Burton has created a number of complex formulas that include public and private financing to make new home construction feasible and benefit the homeowner.

There are currently four proposed prototype sources of housing financing, including the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP), and the homeowner through mortgage. The CRA will contribute $38,570 per home, CDBG will contribute $19,500, SHIP will invest $70,000 and the homeowner will borrow $112,270.

As an entitled community, Bradenton receives federal grants to fund local development projects, but federal requirements make it difficult to allocate new, affordable housing. So instead, Burton wants to capitalize on CDBG’s strength in public improvement projects. The CDBG residential partnership includes public parking, lighting, stormwater management and sidewalks.

The costs of the project are divided between the land, the house and other items. The land costs about $69,000, the house costs about $160,000 to build, and the other category comes out to about $10,000. The total cost of the house, land and permanent improvements is estimated at $238,439.

The prototype 400-square-foot home, or the Sustainable 400 Home, has a 200-square-foot porch in addition to the living space, and the estimated monthly homeowner payment is $1,118 on a 30-year, 3.5% loan. Construction costs for the house are estimated at $300 per square foot for the living space and $100 per square foot for the porch.

Burton is working with private builders to build the homes, so permits have already been pulled and impact fees have already been paid. The builders receive the purchased land.

The smallest home would cost an owner about $1,100 per month and put them on the path to ownership, building personal wealth and creating generational wealth. The program makes the house affordable for the homeowner when purchasing and selling. The homeowner receives back the equity he has built up in the house, with a multiplier for each year he lives there. They cannot sell the home at market price, so that the home remains affordable for the next owner.

Additionally, the home design delivers significant, ongoing cost savings.

Each home will have a solar energy installation that would eliminate or minimize utility costs, saving approximately $150 per month, or $1,800 per year. Additionally, FORTIFIED certification offers insurance deductible savings of up to 55%.

“Our early pro forma estimates insurance at $1,824 per year; with FORTIFIED certification, that estimate could drop to $820,” Burton said. “These two cost savings can save the new homeowner up to $2,800 per year.”

Other less tangible cost savings include the free car-sharing service offered by the Bradenton Community Redevelopment Agency. A fleet of three cars will be available for residents to get back and forth to school and work, allowing them to save even more on costs by not having to own a car or pay for car insurance.

Share for the future

Gobuty’s passion and enthusiasm overflowed when he introduced me to this project that he is not even involved in. His true mission is simply to share and build better, aligning well with Burton and his team.

“There are 211 redevelopment agencies in the state that manage other areas and we’re trying to create something that can be copy and pasted so that others can use the template, the same plans and the same ingredients of the recipe in other parts of the state. So there is an opportunity for a lot of people to own a home,” Burton said. “So when a storm comes, they can shelter in place, and when it’s time for teachers, nurses and firefighters to go back to work, they can have power. These are the people we want to be able to get back to work. They don’t have to worry about the roof being ripped off their house.”

The workforce housing project is expected to be completed in the summer of next year, at which time estimated actual costs will be available to share.