CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Four new workforce housing developments are in the works for Cape Coral as one local developer aims to help the "missing middle" in Southwest Florida.
Fox 4's Bella Line shows us some of the sites they have so far:
"It's the missing middle. It's really, it's the people that are working in this community that are, you know, helping the community thrive," said Kyle Doyon, owner of Coast Life Companies.
Doyon moved to Southwest Florida with retirement plans, but changed course.
"I wasn't really planning on doing much down here, as we've got enough developments going up there," Doyon said.
He says his decision to develop workforce housing came after Florida passed the Live Local Act in 2023, which provides tax breaks and other incentives to developers who build attainable housing.
One of the planned buildings will include up to 70 workforce housing units, targeting people who earn between 60% and 120% of the area median income.
"It was meant to be the every man community and you know, obviously there's a lot of beautiful homes being built and a lot of people from all the different demographics, but I think we need to get back to being able to supply more for the missing middle," Doyon said.
Amir Neto, Director of Florida Gulf Coast University's Regional Economic Research Institute, emphasized the importance of such developments for the region's continued growth.
"If southwest Florida wants to grow, it needs to continue to attract people and to attract people, you do need to have attainable housing and I think this current market speaks to that," Neto said.
The development team currently has bids out to subcontractors and is focused on serving certain populations.
"I'm not looking for it to be that third home for someone where they get a really cheap rent," Doyon said.
The City of Cape Coral currently offers four grant programs aimed at providing affordable housing options for residents and maintains a website to help citizens find affordable housing in the area. Click here for more information.
The City also provided this list of current affordable housing developments:
Most have requirements of who is permitted to rent there.
"Realistically for us, it's passion to do it, and if we're gonna do 5,000 of these it's going to take a team," Doyon said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
