Media Kit

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The Florida Keys Community Land Trust is a non-profit 501C3 established in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma to preserve and enhance the way of life for the workforce of Monroe County, Florida. Through the community land trust model, we will construct energy efficient and resilient Keys Cottages, designed by Marianne Cusato of the world renowned Katrina Cottages, that will be offered as rentals to households earning less than 80 percent of the area median income of Monroe County. The Florida Keys Community Land Trust, working closely with the Florida Housing Coalition, is committed to bringing workforce housing to The Keys into perpetuity.

On September 10, 2017, Hurricane Irma tore through the Lower Keys, the heart of working-class housing in the Florida Keys. Thousands of homes were gone with the wind. For decades, even prior to Hurricane Irma, there was a scarcity of affordable housing in The Keys due very simply to limited supply and high demand. That situation was intensified by the storm.
 
Over 7% of the housing stock was destroyed.
More than 1,800 homes destroyed with nearly 3,000 sustaining major damage.
Existing rental homes will have to be re-built, but at much higher costs, hurling already unsustainable rents upward.

The hardest hit areas were those in the very neighborhoods where service and hourly workers could afford to live. The majority of those displaced are teachers, police officers, servers, cashiers, firefighters, ambulance drivers, hourly workers and the like – the very people who make the Keys what it is. They have lost their friends, their jobs, their homes and their dreams. Some have found alternative housing arrangements by doubling up with others, or in hotels or with FEMA assistance, but the costs of rebuilding are so astronomical, many are doing what they can just to hold on until the end of the season and then, if necessary, relocate.

In Monroe County, where the Florida Keys Community Land Trust will begin its work, only 1,970 more building permits are available between 2018 and 2023 Something like 700 will be designated for affordable housing and the remaining 1,270 will be market rate.