“We as a regional entity have to attack this together,” Seminole County Commissioner, Mr. Lee Constantine said. “We aren’t going to solve Osceola County, without solving Orange County, without solving Seminole County so we have to do this together.”
Housing Crisis in Kissimmee
While researching more on the topic, I found out that Osceola County is among the fastest-growing counties in the entire US. There are more than 500 families on the Section 8 Housing waiting list. It seems that many more are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of the household income solely on rent or mortgage.
That is outrageous!
Rents have gone through the roof. Working closely with homecare agencies in the county made me realize that such situation is especially difficult for senior citizens who live alone. As the owner of the NovaCare Health Services from Kissimmee, FL says most of them need to purchase medicines every month and have a caregiver by their side while struggling to pay rent and survive.
This is not the American dream they have been fighting for all their lives.
Osceola County Solutions
The Counties have developed similar, but yet different strategies for combating the housing crisis. The plan Osceola County developed looks reasonable.
I mean, it is next to impossible to dictate market prices and there is no magic wand that could drive the prices down in the short period.
However, the plan is pretty crafty. Osceola County Commission bought 82-acre land for $8.9 million. This means that the commission controls what is built on this land. And the plan is to build affordable housing. As they say, there are plans for acquiring more land in the following months.
Building enough affordable houses in Kissimmee and the surrounding area will increase the offer and may drive other prices down in the long period.
The future in Osceola County looks promising.