Attainable Housing Subcommittee Hosts former Commissioner Penny Taylor
Susan Golden | Published on 4/23/2025
The Attainable Housing Subcommittee had a Zoom call with former County Commissioner Penny Taylor on April 10th. Ms. Taylor has been involved in managing a Disaster Housing Recovery program on behalf of the Community Foundation (CF) since 2022.
In response to Hurricane Ian, disaster housing recovery efforts focused on Moorehead Manor, a mobile home park on Bayshore Drive, and Everglades City. Approximately 1.5 million was spent on replacing and elevating mobile homes in Moorehead Manor and Everglades City to withstand future storm flooding.
Given the success of the Community Foundation’s Disaster Housing Recovery program, the State of Florida has provided the Community Foundation with a 4.9 million CEDR grant (Community Emergency Disaster Relief) to replace and elevate housing in Collier County. Ms. Taylor’s current focus is on replacing and elevating four (4) manufactured homes in Enchanting Shores on Manatee Road and one single family home in River Park.
Ms. Taylor stated that the disaster housing recovery program has been working with a manufactured home company based in Lee County. The State of Florida referred a Houston, Texas, based company to the Community Foundation to coordinate the elevating of single-family homes. Ms. Taylor stated that it can cost between $190,000 to $250,000 to replace and elevate one mobile home. She also stated that in Moorehead Manor it took approximately 8 months from approval to move in to a new, elevated manufactured home. She reported that the Houston based firm says it will take 5 days to elevate the River Park home which will be elevated 11 feet.
Ms Taylor also indicated that the State’s Department of Emergency Management (DEM) is encouraging homeowners to consider elevating their properties to avert future flooding. The new Elevate Florida program is not income based and these funds will be used to elevate and repair the River Park home.
Ms. Taylor suggested that the LWVCC might want to consider producing a housing study to be presented to the Board of County Commissioners focusing on a variety of alternative housing solutions ranging from Accessory Dwelling Units, Tiny Homes, fire-proof, domed structures and other options to broaden the community’s knowledge and understanding of attainable housing options.