Kissimmee’s motel conversion to set a new standard, mayor says

On the corner of Vine Street and North Hollywood Street in Kissimmee sits a 123-unit motel that Joseph Key, 66, has called home for the past year.

He lives in a roughly 300-square-foot efficiency that the former Super 8 motel renovated before the property was bought by the city of Kissimmee in June for $12 million.

Key said he moved into the Super 8 a year ago just before Christmas when he left his mother’s house. He put in an application for housing in an affordable senior community and has been stuck on the waitlist ever since.

“The plan is this,” said Key of the bridge housing the conversion will provide. “This is just temporary; thank God I’m not on the streets.”

Key, a retired construction worker, said he has nowhere else to go that he can afford. He currently pays $900 a month to the city of Kissimmee.

“I find it expensive…I’m on a fixed income,” Key said. “But this is going to be affordable housing, you know, the city’s working on that.”

Key and the 35 other families who live in the former motel are waiting for Kissimmee to renovate the motel into affordable housing — set to fully open in 2025.

Osceola County Commissioners Monday approved $3 million in funding to partner with Kissimmee for the purchase and rehab of the motel with plans to convert 40 units into emergency or bridge housing and 80 units into apartments.

There is a dire need for affordable housing, especially in the county.

Homelessness has risen over the last five years by 75% in Osceola County and over 30% since last year, according to Rev. Mary Lee Downey, CEO of the Kissimmee nonprofit Hope Partnership, which directly helps the homeless.

Kissimmee Mayor Olga Gonzalez said the city is helping those who still live at the motel find new housing or stay through the transition.

Gonzalez said her hope is that this motel conversion, called the Haven Project, will become a prototype and expand across the county and state to help those stuck in between waiting lists, or make too much money to qualify for low-income housing or the numerous homeless in Osceola County.

Gonzalez said the city is looking for a nonprofit to run the project but the ownership will stay in the hands of Kissimmee to ensure it stays affordable.

Renderings of the final project will be available to the City Commission for approval at the Oct. 17 meeting, city spokesperson Stephanie Bechara said in an email.

The county’s approach is different than many other motel conversions across Central Florida where developers or nonprofits have bought the rundown motels and renovated the units for affordable housing.

On Thursday, Hope Partnership announced the conversion of the former Crown Motel in Kissimmee into Thrive Studios, a project to renovate 30 units into affordable housing to be run by the nonprofit.

Developers and nonprofits say they have to pay large impact fees and meet stringent building requirements, which have led to developers abandoning projects or suing.

In Osceola County, an affordable housing developer must pay $9,355.97 per unit in impact fees not including school impact fees, which are some of the highest in the state. School board impact fees for motel conversions in Osceola County can cost upwards of $12,000 per unit.

Affordable housing advocates, including Downey, say an ordinance passed in 2021 that requires motel conversions to have upgrades brought up building costs and limited the number of units that would be available to tenants.

The ordinance arose after the county rescued people who were living and paying motel rates were left without running water or power after the owners abandoned the building.

Downey said Thrive Studios is different because it’s inside the city of Kissimmee and doesn’t have to abide by those Osceola County regulations and the nonprofit is stepping into the role of the developer itself. She said while the regulations made the conversions better to live in she thinks it’s important to have both affordability and dignified living, a factor her motel conversion will incorporate.

“I think we are part of the solution but I don’t think obviously that it will be enough because it’s a bigger systemic problem than we can address as a nonprofit or that even the city can address with their units,” Downey said. “But there are other things that can be done: The city can think about things that they’re doing maybe from an impact fee and zoning laws … things like rent control.”

But in March, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 102 or the Live Local Act into law, which diminished the authority of local municipalities to enact rent control. The law provides $711 million for the Florida Housing Finance Corp. to fund or assist in affordable housing projects.

State Rep. Kristen Arrington, whose district includes Kissimmee, said not allowing rent control was the one bad section of the bill. Arrington said she voted for amending that section but hopes to support new legislation to help fight rent increases in the future.

“I had an amendment to try to do a study on some of these rental places to see how these increases are affecting [and] how many people are moving out, and they didn’t want to do a study, so it is challenging,” Arrington said.

State Sen. Victor Torres, whose district also includes Kissimmee, said he wants some of the $711 million to go toward affordable housing in Osceola County.

“We have seen housing shortage for seniors, veterans and working families for years and the price of housing has become too expensive,” Torres said. “Projects like these show that by working together — the federal and state and county with a good nonprofit, we can help reduce the demand for our residents.”