ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – St. Johns County chamber of commerce highlights essential workers priced out of homes
The St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce says something has to change after a report revealed that essential workers are being priced out of homes in the area.
Cary Sparrow, a longtime school bus driver in St. Johns County, just bought a home through the Habitat for Humanity .
“If it weren’t for Habitat, I probably wouldn’t be in a house,” Sparrow said.
The chamber’s report highlights how expensive it is to live and work in St. Johns County, especially for essential workers.
“It’s like my new life started when I walked in this front door,” Sparrow said.
The report was recently presented in a meeting with county commissioners and leaders.
“At the median price of over $550,000, none of our essential workers can afford a home,” said Aliyah Meyer, Economic Development Coordinator with the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce.
The report states that no two essential workers combined can afford a median-priced home in the county.
Meyer shared examples after she said the commerce did interviews with essential workers.
“One mother was talking about finding mold spores on her children’s clothes and having to deal with ongoing mold issues. Another girl was talking about rats and the rat feces falling out of her ceiling,” she said.
Sparrow’s home is priced between $260,000 and $275,000, qualifying it as workforce housing. However, the chamber found only 125 available homes under $260,000 out of nearly 4,000 single-family homes and townhomes on the market.
The report also reveals that about 45,000 people who work in St. Johns County live outside the county.
Of the 140,000 households in the county, nearly 23% are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing expenses.
“What we can start today, and what can we see in the next 10 years to alleviate this issue? Developing private-public partnerships is a really strong initiative that the Chamber has been taking.”
The goal is to get people like Sparrow not only into a new home but truly at home in St. Johns County.
“The Bible says don’t despise small beginnings, right? And that was a small beginning for me,” Sparrow said.
The new comprehensive plan in St. john’s county includes allowing developers to build 3 more homes or units per acres than in years prior, with bonus units if they offer workforce housing,
The chamber of commerce says that it was a big step forward.
