The City of Port St. Lucie is located on the East Coast of Florida within an area known as the Treasure Coast. A rapidly growing young community, Port St. Lucie had 331 permanent residents in 1971 and over 72,000 today. Originally developed as a retirement community the city is 80 square miles with over 80,000 platted lots. Infrastructure and housing needs are priorities to the City.
COMMUNITY PROFILE
With a population of 72,000 the city continues to have one of the fastest rates of growth in the state. The median income for the Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area is $39,300 for a family of four. The median age of the population is 35 with approximately 17 percent of the population over the age of 65 and 39 percent between the ages of 18 and 44. Approximately 27 percent of the population is considered low income or below and they are widely scattered throughout the City. The majority of the residents in Port St. Lucie are white with a 4 percent African American and 5 percent Hispanic population.
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
The largest employment segments in the county are Services and Wholesale and Retail Trade. The leading employer is the St. Lucie County School system. Unemployment has been among the highest in the state, however, it has been steadily improving over the last few years. Port St. Lucie is known as having the most affordable housing in the area and is a rapidly growing city as noted earlier. The city is only one-third built-out with over 60,000 unimproved lots remaining.
According to the 1990 census over 75% of the households in Port St. Lucie are owner occupied and 24% are renter occupied. Fifteen percent of the available homes are vacant. Funds are needed to repair and rehabilitate existing homes and provide downpayment assistance for low-income families seeking to own a home.
Port St. Lucie has 24,241 housing units; 16,146 are owned and 4,617 are rented. The vast majority of units in Port st. Lucie contain three or more bedrooms. Approximately 15 percent of all housing units are vacant. Since 1980 this vacancy rate has nearly tripled. The Housing stock in Port St. Lucie is relatively new with only 22 percent of the units built before 1980. However, the number of drainfield failures and roof replacements are increasing yearly.
All units, including those listed as substandard are suitable for rehabilitation.
Less than one-third of the platted lots in Port St. Lucie have been improved or built helping to make Port St. Lucie one of the most affordable housing markets in the area. The median housing value in Port St. Lucie was estimated at $78,900 in 1990; the average sales price of an existing single-family home in Port St. Lucie in 1995 was $77,625. Rental costs have increased by 64% since 1980 averaging $322 a month in 1980 they average $511 today. There is a shortage of affordable rental units for households in the very-low and below income categories with a surplus of rental units for incomes over 50% of median.
There is a gap of affordable housing units for households with incomes less than 50% of the median. However, there is a surplus of affordable units for households at the 51-80% of median income level.
Housing needs for the homeless are addressed on a county-wide basis with the City of Fort Pierce housing the majority of service providers. Emergency and transitional housing provides 117 beds. All State and Federal funds for the homeless are administered from the county providers in the City of Fort Pierce.
There are three Skilled Nursing Facilities in Port St. Lucie offering a total of 359 beds to provide short and long-term care and rehabilitative services for the elderly. Two intermediate care facilities are located in Port St. Lucie for persons with developmental disabilities. These facilities have a capacity for a total of 12 beds. The Public Housing Authority is operated on a county-wide basis and is located in the City of Fort Pierce.
The city undertook a survey of barriers to affordable housing in its implementation of the State Housing Initiatives Partnership program in 1993. The Affordable Housing Committee reviewed eleven separate possible barriers to affordable housing in the City and made one recommendation to expedite affordable housing projects through the planning and permitting processes if they were found to be delayed.
Fair Housing information has been distributed twice a year since 1993 and will be distributed once yearly from this point on. There is a lack of public information regarding fair housing complaints.
There are a total of 1,558 homes built before 1979 in Port St. Lucie. No cases of lead poisoning have been reported in Port St. Lucie.
The City is growing older, one of the highest percentages in pure numbers of additional population in the city between 1970 and 1990 was in the over 70 age group. A large percentage of elderly poor own their own homes; repair and rehabilitation of low-income homes will continue to be a priority in the City. Also, support for community transit systems for the elderly and other low-income are supported annually as well as services for children and disabled.
The City is sorely lacking in adequate infrastructure, over one-half of the residents are on individual well and septic systems. Drainfield failure has become a major issue in Port St. Lucie, help with water/sewer assessments and hook-up fees for very-low and low income families will be a priority.
The City coordinated with State, County and local officials as well as citizens and public service providers on the City's Consolidated Plan.
The Housing objectives and priorities are based on data obtained from the census which indicates help is needed for one-third of the population of the city to purchase a home. Also, the City has a very high incidence of very-low and low income home owners that have purchased homes and are unable to adequately repair them, priority is being given to this group as well.
The infrastructure needs of the City should be addressed to provide both the opportunity for economic development and the reduction of threats to health; including those health risks associated with well and septic. Those areas where septic tanks and drainfields are failing should be addressed. Rehabilitation funds will be made available to eligible homeowners for hook up assistance to water and sewer when that service is available. Support Services for special needs groups should be supported.
Homeownership should be encouraged and supported. The City's lending consortium should continue to leverage public monies with private resources. The City is operating a home ownership and home owner repair program using SHIP funds. Priority is given to very-low income in both repairs to homes and help with downpayment and closing costs to purchase a home.
Priorities for non-housing community development include economic development opportunities, public facilities improvements and support for public services.
The City offers assistance with credit counseling, debt management and homeownership counseling. In addition, workshops are help for very-low and low homeowners once they are in their home. The workshops cover such areas as budgeting, low-cost home maintenance and repair, low-cost landscaping and interior decorating and low-cost security. It is our hope that the credit and debt management counseling will give people the help they need for a successful application through a lender for a home mortgage. In addition, we support existing public service programs that are reaching out to the low-income disadvantaged.
The City has two major sources of public monies in addition to general revenues. These sources are the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) in the amount of $471,000 this year and the Florida State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program that is providing $392,851. The SHIP monies can only be used for housing programs and support services for housing; the CDBG funding is available for housing and community development needs. Under the SHIP program the City has leveraged over $3 million dollars in private funds over the last two years.
Development of Port St. Lucie's Plan involved interaction among private citizens, local, county and state agencies, non-profit and for-profit housing and financial institutions as well as public service providers. The City's Affordable Housing Group will monitor the progress of affordable housing in the city and will also become more involved with a comprehensive approach to providing for the needs of the low-income residents in the City.
ONE-YEAR ACTION PLAN
The City of Port St. Lucie will utilize $863,851 in Federal and State funding for Housing and Community Development needs as follows:
Only the public facilities projects will be targeted to a particular area of the City. All other projects are targeted only to the eligible applicants.
The agency that manages the housing and community development needs for the City is the Community Services and Redevelopment Division. This agency works very closely with the social service providers. Also, as a result of the agency's efforts to coordinate on the S.H.I.P. Housing program the St. Lucie Lending Consortium was formed and is made up of every major lender in the city, this group leverages private funds with the public monies for housing downpayment assistance.
The City proposes to assist 30 households with downpayment and closing costs as well as repairs to the homes they will buy. We will rehabilitate another 10 homes and help three households with emergency repairs. Approximately 50 families will be helped with homebuyer assistance and credit counseling housing support services.
MAP 1 depicts points of interest in the jurisdiction.
MAP 2 depicts points of interest and low-moderate income areas.
MAP 3 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and minority concentration levels.
MAP 4 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and unemployment levels.
Barbara A. Mills, Assistant City Manager
121 SW Port St. Lucie Blvd
Port S. Lucie, FL 34894
PH: (407) 871-5220
