Like many areas of Collier county, residential development is slowly picking up in Immokalee, where developers are building new homes for low-income renters and for buyers willing to pay $179,900 or more. Read the article Immokalee’s Home Stretch
The new housing complex, developed by the Everglades Community Association (ECA), a nonprofit agency that maintains both the Royal Colonial and the Andrew Center, is being paid for with $41.2 million in grants and loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service; additionally, the We Will Rebuild Foundation, a private nonprofit group founded…
“Everglades Village is a much larger planned community than you would find in a typical tax-credit project or USDA-funded project,” says Steve Kirk, ECA’s executive Director, “Our Planning process was to build more of a self-contained community. Read the article Planning Magazine: Migrant Not Homeless
An effort by Naranja Lakes residents to block construction of farmworker housing near their hurricane-ravaged neighborhood failed Tuesday when Metro commissioners overwhelmingly approved the project. Rejecting worries about more crime and poverty encroaching on the area, the commissioners voted 11-1 to go ahead with a plan for temporary housing for 300 migrant families on 42…
The residents of Naranja Lakes and environs — living in a square mile of South Dade in not much better shape than the day after Hurricane Andrew — often feel like the storm’s forgotten victims. Their self-interests — some legitimate — now threaten careful plans to house temporarily other oft-ignored residents: migrant farmworker families. Read…
The Handmade in Immokalee sewing class was the topic of a recent article by Naples Daily News reporter, Maria Perez. The sewing class started in November 2015 and is led by fashion designer, Gwendolyn Gleason. Each week, she works with students who are interested in learning to sew, whether for their own family, or to…
When Carmen Rivera gets to work every morning, she checks her office for messages and then starts walking. She’s a social worker who goes door-to-door at the Everglades farmworker camp, which houses about 400 families, visiting residents and identifying needs. She rarely has time to sit down in her sparsely furnished office. But when the…