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Affordable housing development planned near Mercy Drive
New homes are planned for near Fairlawn Village is a proposed 116-unit apartment complex for families with low incomes.
ORLANDO, Fla. - A groundbreaking event was held for a new low-income housing community in Orlando.
“It does take a village to build an affordable housing community,” Blue Sky Communities President Shawn Wilson said.
The community will be called Fairlawn Village. It will be located on Mercy Drive.
“Some of the individuals and families that will live here will have experienced homelessness, domestic violence, people with disabilities or youth aging out of foster care,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said.
Fairlawn Village will have 116 units for families with incomes between $18,000 and $44,000 a year.
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Twenty of those units will be reserved for people with special needs.
“These residents will have casework support services to help them succeed in their new home and help improve their quality of life,” Dyer said.
The project is a part of a larger community housing initiative in Orlando.
“Over the course of the last five years, we’ve invested 40 million dollars to create or preserve housing options and that includes over 1,600 units that we’ve constructed or rehabilitated,” Dyer said.
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Orlando city leaders and the developer, Blue Sky Communities, spoke with people who live in the Mercy Drive area to find out what they wanted in a housing development.
“They wanted just what all of us want,” Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill said. “Just a place to call home that they could be proud of.”
The developer hopes to open Fairlawn Village in 2022.