Homeless no more

Daniel Mullins has to pinch himself every now and then to make sure he isn't dreaming.

Nope. It's true. His new, one-bedroom, one-bath apartment, with state-of-the-art appliances, is real. He and his wife, Cynthia VanBibber, are not homeless anymore.

The couple are one of the first tenants to move into Ekos Allegro, a development for fixed-income seniors 62 and over, built by McDowell Housing Partners.

The fact that they and other seniors will be able to move in instead of waiting several more months is due to a $1.3 million loan from the Collier Housing Impact Investment Fund.

The loan "provided us with a bridge while we wait for an impact fee loan to be funded from the county," said Christopher Shear, chief operating officer for McDowell. That en- abled McDowell to cover impact fees that needed to be met before they could open.

The fund was created about one and a half years ago by the nonprofit Collier Community Foundation. The $1.3 million loan is the first loan the fund, which is meant to incentivize the development of more affordable housing units, has made since its creation.

This will be the first of what they hope will be many to meet the dire need for affordable housing for seniors and a workforce that can't pay for skyrocketing rents on the salary or benefits they earn.

"It is a huge deal," said Lindsey Touchette, vice president of community engagement for the Collier Community Foundation. "We're very excited about the opportunity to be a part of such an impactful housing project here in town."

The Collier Housing Impact Investment Fund makes short-term, low-interest loans to nonprofit and for-profit developers committed to building affordable housing units who typically need gap funding during the early stages of development. But in this case, McDowell needed gap or bridge funding as the last piece to make the development happen, Touchette said.

The $1.3 million loan was facilitated through another new, stand-alone entity created and funded by the Collier Community Foundation: The Housing Alliance, Inc.

The Housing Alliance has three partners: the foundation, the Housing Development Corporation of Southwest Florida (HELP), which is a HUD-approved nonprofit helping people with financial counseling and finding affordable housing and the Collier County Community Land Trust, which seeks to acquire land suitable for future affordable housing development.

The Housing Alliance is "designed to be a go-to resource for the workforce, lower income and senior housing. It is a one-stop hub for aspiring homeowners, renters, property developers, local government, funders and donors," according to a foundation press release.

Michael Puchalla is the executive director of the Housing Alliance, HELP and the land trust.

"The Housing Alliance is the entity that is going to vet potential deals," Puchalla said. So if somebody wants to apply for funding through the impact fund, typically I will have a conversation with them and we'll assist with getting an online application in."

That's what they did for McDowell Housing Partners, he said. McDowell is a for-profit entity, but affordable housing is all they develop, Puchalla said. "They're the ones who came in and saw the site, had the vision and put this all together. But when there was a potential issue with funding at the end, we had a conversation and we were able to assist with the application process."

Not many nonprofit entities could build such a large-scale development, he said. The entire project is two five-story buildings with a total of 320 units on Rattlesnake Hammock Road in Naples. The first building, Ekos Allegro, is completed and cost about $50 million, Shear said. The second building, Ekos Cadenza, also cost $50 million and is trending toward completion by the end of the year, he said. The complex also has a pool, fitness center, computer lab, pickleball courts and other amenities.

Rents range from $477 to $1,280 per month, according to income criteria.

"We're really excited that this first development, I think, is going to give people an opportunity to see what we're talking about," Puchalla said.

"We can partner with the Naples Senior Center, the Baker Senior Center," he said. "The county government has a senior and veteran services department. They're bringing the feeding program right onsite at Allegro." They're going to provide a hot lunch Monday through Friday for the seniors, he said. "Every one of the seniors that are going to be residing in these two phases will be income qualified for the meal program."

Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida has a room at Allegro as well to provide some basic healthcare services on site, Puchalla said.

Shear said he would "absolutely" recommend developers of affordable housing explore a loan through The Housing Alliance. The short-term bridge financing was "really critical" to take the project to completion in the face of a challenging period in construction and significant delays due to subcontractors, he said.

Housing was the number one issue in a needs assessment for Collier County done by the Collier foundation in partnership with the Schulze Family Foundation in 2017, Touchette said. Housing was also number one in an updated assessment done in 2023, but "it had drastically increased in importance to those who responded," she said.

Touchette cited several stats from the assessment:

In Collier County:

• Just shy of 50,000 households spend more than 30% of their income on housing.

• 35% of the jobs in Collier County pay less than $35,000 per year.

• 58% of jobs pay less than $45,000 a year.

• Rent has increased by 50% in the last two years.

• Collier has a shortage of approximately 10,000 rental units.

So someone earning a salary of $45,000 should be able to afford a housing payment of $1,125 a month, Touchette said. "But if you look at our median monthly rent, it's almost double that. It's typically somewhere around or a little bit more than $2,000 a month."

"We see countless stories of people struggling to find a place to live here in the community, especially seniors when they maybe are living on one fixed income and having to choose between housing or medication or, you know, fill in the blank," Touchette said.

Mullins is a Vietnam veteran who served in special forces in military intelligence from 1969-1972.

Now nearly 75 years old, he and his wife had to sell their trailer to make ends meet. The couple spent about 30 days staying with a friend, then several months in two different homeless shelters

In the meantime, Mullins feels that mounting stress may be the reason he came down with COVID-19 and then pneumonia.

After that, while still living in a homeless shelter, he discovered he had to have an operation to replace an aortic valve in his heart. He was also diagnosed with COPD. After 10 days in the hospital, he went back to living in the homeless shelter.

He credits the National Alliance on Mental Illness and The Housing Alliance for enabling the couple to make a connection that resulted in their new apartment. Now, Mullins pays $1,064 a month in rent.

"It's been a real trying time," he said. "But now I feel pretty dang good."

Mullins said he's been healthy all his life. "When you get that age, all this stuff hits you at one time." If not for the help he's received from various people and various resources, "I probably would not be here," he said.

"The Collier Community Foundation is proud to lead the way in providing housing affordability solutions," Eileen Connolly-Keesler, the president and CEO of Collier Community Foundation, said in a prepared statement. "Our seniors and veterans need our support to ensure they have the basic human right of somewhere permanent to sleep at night and call home."

"Philanthropy is vital to making these impact loans available to spur affordable developments, Touchette said. "We've been grateful for the generosity of the community this far and have commitments of about $5 million, but to truly be impactful and invest in similar projects, our goal is to have approximately $10 million in the fund."

"This opportunity, we truly believe, is going to lead to an increase in the dollars that we are able to raise for that impact fund," Puchalla said. "I think that if people come out and see the quality of the development, get to know some of these residents and their stories, it's just... it's awesome."

Mullins agrees, but he uses different superlatives. "I'm just flabbergasted," he said. "I'm very fortunate to be here."

"You ought to see this place. It's fabulous," he said. "We went from going to homeless shelters to living in a penthouse. I swear that's the way it feels."

Puchalla has helped with a couple of the resident move-ins, including Mullins, he said. "I still think people don't quite believe that it's real. They still – it's almost like you can see the wheels spinning that this is really going to be my place. Like I get to live here. So it's really exciting to see."

Mullins keeps asking himself, "Did I win the Lotto?" he said.

"I'm still pinching myself." ¦