VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. —
A group of New Smyrna Beach residents is fighting a proposed low-income housing development near their neighborhood.
A Winter Park developer is planning to build Causeway Landings, an apartment complex along the North Causeway, next to the upscale Venesia neighborhood.
WFTV’s Steve Barrett talked to residents about why they’re against the project.
Delores Burkhard is one of the residents organizing the opposition to Causeway Landings. The proposed 239-unit complex would be for families making $20,000 to $40,000 a year.
“We don’t want that many rentals here. I don’t think there are that many renters in New Smyrna Beach. So units will sit empty, and it just isn’t what we were looking for as the gateway to New Smyrna,” said Burkhard.
Read more at New Smyrna group fighting proposed low-income housing… | www.wftv.com.
Fair Housing For Developers 
Seeing all these lawsuits, the agenda is pretty obvious: Apparently, some don’t like working families.
The reasoning is also interesting. It goes something like this: “We don’t have housng options for working people (typically working female head of households with children) so we don’t have renters.”
Kind of begs the question and leads to an inevitable conclusion. These upscale areas are not worth investing in longterm and will lose jobs and business. In the future, many of these interesting areas are going to end up isolated, lacking services and lose market value.
These misinformed upscale residents are sealing their own fate re the future for their own residential areas. These upscale owners are also uneducated and that will come back to them later.
The future belongs to areas which are diverse, have small and large business opportunities, jobs, creatives, and which offer needed services and a vibrant community life for working people who actually pay the bulk of local taxes.
Remaining uninformed about affordable housing brings a cost to communities and their own viability. Appearing hostile to working Americans of average means is the wrong message to send. Upscale communities need income to maintain quality of life and shoving that away is not in any community’s longterm interest.
These lawsuits are penny and pound foolish and it seems to be a trend. Let’s hope more court time is not wasted on these bogus arguments.