Pensacola Habitat wins quiet struggle to help keep Santa Rosa housing affordable

Pensacola Habitat for Humanity successfully appealed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to reclassify much of Milton and Pace as non-rural, ensuring that homebuyers in the area are still able to qualify for USDA loans under their housing programs.

Pensacola Habitat President and CEO Sam Young said USDA's decision to listen to the voices of the community and maintain the rural designation is a huge win in the effort to ensure there is enough affordable housing for the local workforce.

“It allows us to serve more deserving families who should get homeownership,” he said. “For us that program has become increasingly impactful and important as it allows our homebuyers to get a zero down mortgage, and USDA adjusts payments to assure affordability for the home buyer.”

To qualify, applicants must meet the low-income requirements for their area, live in an eligible rural area and demonstrate a willingness and ability to repay the debt.

Those who've used the program say it's been a life-changer.

"I can't really afford the current market and Habitat is a great program that helped get me my home," said Lindy Ducker, a new homeowner thanks to the assistance of Habitat. "It all turned out really well and I love my house."

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Ducker, a single mother who works and attends school fulltime at the University of West Florida, first became aware of Habitat years ago through word of mouth and checked out some of the homes they had under construction. Years later, the organization's efforts still stuck with her.

Her hard work navigating the homeownership process, along with the assistance of Habitat, helped land her a new home in the East Milton area by reducing the cost by tens of thousands of dollars.

"I was in tears when I signed the paperwork. I know it's because of Habitat, but I didn't know how that could happen to me. It's unbelievable," she said. "It's the first time in my life that I feel like my hard work has paid off, it's a tough world."

In an effort to help families like Ducker's, Pensacola Habitat recently established the first Community Land Trust to be funded by the Florida legislature and is partnering with Escambia County to build homes on four county-owned lots for their Infill Affordable Housing Project, which aims to provide affordable workforce housing.

According to Pensacola Habitat, they closed their first several USDA homes in Fiscal Year 2023 and 16% of lots in their current land inventory are USDA-eligible.

Young, discussing the benefits of the USDA program, said, “What it does for Pensacola Habitat is it allows us to receive all of the costs that we’ve incurred with the bill to use at the closing table, so we can turn those funds for another house. This decision (to reclassify Pace and Milton as non-rural) would have restricted our ability to use the liquidity and capital to help more homebuyers.”

The USDA's Rural Development Office reviewed the eligibility areas earlier this year as they are required to do every three to five years or after the 10-year Census, and determined much of Milton and Pace did not meet the rural guidelines. Habitat appealed the decision and the USDA reversed its reclassification decision.

“Clearly the Pace area has been growing dramatically, the Milton area less so, but when the official notification came out, all of those places were going to be ruled out from the rural eligibility criteria,” Young said. “Stakeholders put together a fact-based letter that was sent to the USDA supporting our position that these areas should not be lost to the rural designation.

“I think (the USDA) made the right decision because they probably went by population size rather than looking at how our counties are extremely pointed down the middle between rural and urban, said Sen. Doug Broxson, who recently held a stakeholders meeting to discuss affordable housing throughout the region. "I am very encouraged that the federal component has been understanding of how complex our housing market is and this decision will be important for the future.

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“The legislature continued to add resources to the Live Local Act and put in components which may make it more interesting for private investment. This (affordable housing effort) is a marathon,” he said. "This (USDA reversal) hopefully will mean an impact for our folks that work hard and want to live the American Dream. This helps that come true.”

That's certainly been the case for Ducker and her family.

"I'm a hard worker and go to school full-time; it's a little frustrating that the market is so outrageous that it would have not been possible without the help of Habitat, which is sad," Ducker said. "Times have changed now and it's difficult, you can be a hard worker, put in the time and try to get your education but (homeownership) is still unattainable."

Despite Ducker's deep pool of gratitude for Habitat's assistance with owning her first home, the process has meant even more to her children.

"It's been a lot for my children to have a nice home where they can have friends over and relax. We didn't have a yard before, it's opening a whole different world for them that I feel like is important for a child to have," Ducker said. "My kids tell me all the time that they love their room. The very first week my 15-year-old wanted to paint the walls and decorate because she was so excited. They know it's their own and they're not going anywhere."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Habitat help reverse USDA rural designation for Pace, Milton