Housing America: Mission Accomplished

Former Gourmet editor and James Beard award-winner Barry Estabrook traces the supermarket tomato from Immokalee, FL and presents a who’s who cast of characters in the tomato industry. This New York Times best-seller includes The Builder, a chapter highlighting Rural Neighborhood’s role in improving agricultural housing.

Marisol Avenir has spent the past four months living in a place she calls paradise. It’s a stone’s throw from the Dade County prison on a road that leads to farmland once devoured by Hurricane Andrew. “In Homestead,” she says, “I’ve lived in three different places. I’m super happy here.” Read the article East Coast…

“They’re beautiful homes. There are places for kids to play,” said Carmen Roqueta, director of Tenant Services for Everglades Community Association, which manages farm worker housing properties throughout Florida. “No one can ever believe that’s housing for farm workers.” Read the article Better Place

One of South Dade’s Farmworker communities is on the move. After months of delays, the Everglades Community Association has begun relocating trailers to a temporary site in Leisure City. Once the move is complete, construction of permanent housing will begin at the ECA site outside Florida City. “The funds have been allocated and thinks are…

As Collier County officials are trying to encourage development of more modest housing for families of nurses, police officers and teachers, they have shifted more of the burden of paying for new roads, schools and other necessities to the very homes those working families can afford, an analysis by the Naples Daily News shows. Read…

After Hurricane Wilma hit last fall, Marlene Brody repaired her storm-damaged seawall and returned to life as a snowbird, shuttling between her upstate New York horse farm and winter home in North Bay Village. But then Brody heard a radio news report that made her realize recovery had not been as easy for everyone. Read…