Habitat for Humanity of the Upper Keys is announcing the planned development of nine new affordable housing units on Gardenia Street in Islamorada. The village of Islamorada granted the land to Habitat at its Nov. 18 meeting.
The local Habitat affiliate is extremely grateful for the land grant, said Lindsay Fast, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of the Upper Keys.
“We are excited to get this project going. It will be our second largest project to date — second of course to the 16-unit project that was completed in January 2021 on Windley Key,” she said. “We are thrilled to help nine new families achieve the American dream of homeownership in 2023.”
This grant followed the village’s Achievable Housing Citizens Advisory Committee’s recommendation for the multi-unit development after it completed an RFQ process in July 2021 for the two properties on Gardenia Street. In August, the village council unanimously approved Habitat for development of nine units and granted the land to them.
The preliminary schedule is to begin construction in early 2022, with anticipated completion of the nine-unit project by the spring of 2023. Seven of the nine units are single-family homes, and the remaining two are duplex style. Each of the nine will be a three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit with roughly 1,100 square feet of living space.
“We are always accepting applications, even though all of our existing homes are filled at this time. We will begin accepting applications for this particular project in mid- to late 2022,” Fast said.
More information is at habitatupperkeys.org/what-we-do/in-progress-projects.
