NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – A Nassau County resident received the keys to a brand new home constructed through the county’s State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP), which provides down payment and rehabilitation assistance for individuals in need.
Janice Albertie got her keys through the program in September. She showed News4JAX the three-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
Albertie talked about how different this home is from her last house.
“We had problems with the roof mostly, and we didn’t have any air conditioning in there,” she said. “It needed a lot of work.”
Then she applied for the SHIP program and was approved.
“It had to be God, all God, to even get approved,” Albertie said. “Oh my gosh, it’s unexplainable. I was so happy.”
Established by the passage of the 1992 William E. Sadowski Affordable Housing Act, the SHIP program provides affordable housing assistance to very-low, low, and moderate-income families who meet all the requirements outlined in Florida Statute, Section 420.907, Administrative Code 67-37, and Nassau County’s Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP).
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SHIP funds are awarded annually based on allocation of funding by the State of Florida.
SHIP is administered by Margie Drawdy, Financial Management & Budget Coordinator for the Office of Management & Budget. She talked about the process that led to Albertie’s new home.
“We sent an inspector out to her [old] home and he determined after we saw how much it was going to cost to rehabilitate her home, it wasn’t financially appropriate,” Drawdy said.
She added that since she had two people living in her home, she got a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
Holly Coyle, the Economic Resources Manager of Nassau County said the cost of housing and living has gotten more expensive.
“So 44% of the county’s workforce actually lives outside of Nassau County and that could be attributed to the high cost of housing. Not always, but it’s a pretty good indicator...this program is a very small part of what we can do to try to remediate that problem,” Coyle said.
Albertie said the new home has taken a weight off her shoulders.
“It has changed me. I look at things a whole lot differently now,” Albertie said. “It’s all God, it’s all God, all Him but I’m so grateful.”
The county said they are currently working with three other people who applied for the program and were approved.
Click here to learn more about eligibility and future opportunities.