Cape Council considers workforce housing needs
Cape Coral City Council listened Wednesday to proposals on adding workforce housing and putting rules in place for short-term rentals.
“What we brought forward were certain policies that can potentially impact the availability of affordable workforce housing here in Cape Coral and try to incentivize it for private developers to bring forth projects,” Housing coordinator Amy Yearsly said at the workshop.
Workforce housing applies to people that have moderate income. Police officers, city employees and health care employees fall into that group.
Allocating houses for the workforce could help workers find places to live that are close to their jobs and build growth in Cape Coral. It also would help keep housing costs reasonable for workers who are in that designation.
“It comes down to looking at if you want people to be able to work in your community,” Yearsly said. “It does impact your ability to bring workers into your community to provide services we are all looking for.
Council members shared different ideas about the proposal on housing but the housing proposal was greeted favorably.
“I would be really strong for helping our veterans, our first responders, our nurses and teachers, and categorize them into this program and offer it up because that’s what we use for examples…” said Councilmember John Carioscia, adding the city could then heavily promote it to attract these professionals.
The other topic discussed was maintaining short-term home rentals by rules and regulations.
“Within five years we have seen this market and this business sector grow exponentially,” Assistant City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said. “If we are going to continue to allow them here, 2,800 of them, to become part of our community, then now is the time to make sure the people that use them can use them safely and without harm.”
Some on council disagreed because of the district they represent. There are part of the city that are unaffected by short-term rentals.
“It almost felt like it was too much,” said Councilmember Marilyn Stout. “Too much of the ‘big brother’ aspect at an individual that owns a home that you put them through all this inspection. I just didn’t feel good about it.”
Most on council said they have received negative feedback by citizens on short-term rentals.
“I have had quite a few (complaints),” Mayor Marni Sawicki said. “Especially southwest Cape, that are, because that’s where some nice houses are and they hold so many people, so when they come in and out, typically a complaint on a German family or whatever. I can think of several examples when people contacted me.
For the most part, the council favored both but added some of their own tweaks into the details and decided further thought should go into both ideas.