Each April, National Community Development Week spotlights the local impact that the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnership (HOME) programs have in communities across the country.
The City of Clearwater’s Housing Division sees that impact year-round. Working with community partners, the city puts that money to work providing gap funding for the development of affordable and workforce housing, down payment and closing costs assistance to help low and moderate-income working families and individuals afford a home, loans to rehab homes and sell them as affordable housing, and homebuyer education programs.
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, Clearwater’s Housing Division closed 33 affordable and workforce housing loans and four multi-family projects totaling approximately $5.175 million.
Those expenditures address the crucial community issue of attainable housing and the dramatic rise in rents and home prices over the last five years. According to national real estate firm Redfin, the median sale price for a home in Clearwater rose from $235,500 in February 2020 to $372,500 in February 2025. In the Tampa Bay region, the average household spends 41.15 percent of its income on housing costs, the 16th highest amount of 20 peer cities, according to the 2025 State of the Region report put out by the Tampa Bay Partnership, Community Foundation Tampa Bay, and United Way Suncoast.
“It is no secret that affordable housing is one of the largest issues we face, not just here in Clearwater, but throughout the state, throughout the country,” says Clearwater Interim Housing Manager Dylan Mayeux. “From 2020 to the current day, rents and property values have grown exponentially and what occurs with that is you have a certain sector of society that can no longer afford to live where they’ve been living for years. Affordable housing is one of those things that’s the foundation of a strong community. When people can afford to live in safe and stable homes they’re more likely to engage in their neighborhoods, whether that’s volunteering or attending local events or supporting local businesses.”
Funding at work in the community
Mayeux says a good example of CDBG funds at work, and one he is particularly proud of, is the city’s partnership with Pinellas County, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Clearwater Housing Authority, and affordable housing developer Sunrise Affordable Housing to acquire the 208-unit Indigo Apartments tower on Chestnut Street and convert it back into affordable housing for individuals and families making 30 to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). Tenants making less than 60 percent AMI will pay no more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Clearwater’s financial contribution to the project includes approximately $600,000 in CDBG funds and $400,000 in SHIP funds for a total subsidy of $1 million provided as a zero percent interest deferred loan.
Another example of these funds at work is Clearwater Gardens, an 81-apartment
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Rendering of Clearwater Gardensaffordable housing complex under construction on Cleveland Street. To make the project financially feasible, the City of Clearwater provided the developer Archway Gardens loans and financing from a variety of sources, including a $610,000 loan with HOME and Florida State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) funds. Clearwater Gardens will be open to individuals and families making 30 to 80 percent AMI.
The City of Clearwater also donated a parcel of land it acquired years ago with CDBG funding for Lake Belleview, a 24-unit affordable townhome community that Habitat for Humanity Tampa Gulfside and Tampa Bay Neighborhood Housing Services are developing in partnership. Those two nonprofits regularly collaborate with the City of Clearwater but this marks their first joint project together.
Making affordable housing happen
Tampa Bay Neighborhood Housing Services President and CEO Frank Cornier says the Clearwater-based nonprofit, a chartered member of the national organization NeighborWorks America, administers a slew of programs the city funds with HOME, CDBG, and state SHIP monies. They include a loan program offering up to $75,000 for down payment and closing costs and a homebuyers education workshop required for borrowers receiving assistance from that program. The city
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Programs like HOME provide subsidies that help Tampa Bay Neighborhood Housing Services build affordable and workforce housing also provides funding to help the organization build new affordable and workforce infill housing and purchase and rehab dilapidated housing to sell to low- and moderate-income homebuyers.
“Affordable housing is not affordable to build and that’s why the private industry isn’t doing it,” Cornier says. “HOME funds finance the gap that exists between total development costs and what somebody at 80 percent AMI can afford. If our organization and Habitat did not do what we do, and did not have this funding to do it, the families we serve would be left out. They would be marginalized. They would continue to rent and pay an excessive amount of their income on rent and be rent-burdened. Without these programs, without funding from HUD, without CDBG, without the HOME funding, without the State of Florida’s SHIP funding, we would not be able to adequately do the work that we do and help families become homeowners. These funding sources are what make it possible for working low- and moderate-income working people to be able to purchase a home in this area.”
While Lake Belleview is Habitat for Humanity Tampa Gulfside’s first multifamily project in Clearwater, President and CEO Mike Sutton says the organization has built in the range of 200 single-family homes in the city over the years. Subsidies funded with HOME, CDBG, and SHIP monies and infrastructure improvements paid for with CDBG funds have been vital to that work.
“If affordable housing was easy everyone would be doing it,” Sutton says. “It really does take the support of the city through their subsidies because oftentimes the building of the home exceeds the affordability of the homeowner. Without those subsidies we would be upside down on the cost of the home versus the sales amount.”
Mayeux says the reality is in today’s home buying and rental markets a lot of hard-working families and individuals need programs like HOME and CDBG to afford a place to live.
“I think that there’s a misconception that affordable housing is all low income,” he says. “But what we’ve seen is a lot of service industry people - people that work at restaurants on the beach, people that work at hotels on the beach, janitorial staff at hospitals, support staff at local schools - rely on it. These are the people who are really utilizing the affordable housing programs. Because at the end of the day, market rate is just not affordable. They would not be able to live in the areas where they work and that would put an extreme strain on our labor system. Income-restricted housing plays a vital role in stabilizing communities. It ensures that working families, seniors, and individuals living on fixed incomes are not displaced.”
For more information, go to Clearwater Affordable Housing or call 727-562-4030