WFSU Public Radio tells MHProNews that meanwhile, as the lawmakers in the Capitol shift through the minutia of documentary stamp taxes and Amendment 1, a retired school bus driver sits a few miles away in his new manufactured home. Fifty one-year-old Theodore Anderson is a Quincy native and 10-year veteran of the National Guard. He drove a truck for 19 years for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and after that, a public school bus. A tumble on the basketball court broke his femur and forced him into early retirement.
His bad luck didn’t end there. Three years ago, the manufactured home he shared with his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter, started to crumble. “The roof started leaking. I guess the pine trees got in the roof or whatever and the siding, well, you know, the siding was kind of eaten up on the outside. But from the rain coming inside, we had mold, and it was rough trying to get it out,” he explained.
That’s when a neighbor told Anderson about the availability of affordable housing assistance. Two years after he filled out the first form, Anderson had a new manufactured home. He said, “My first thought was ‘There’s a God out there.’ ”
Now, however, other disadvantaged Floridians may not be so lucky if funding for affordable housing is reduced. The sale of homes through affordable housing programs is an important source of income for Florida homebuilders and Realtors and they are very concerned about what decision the Florida Legislature may make. ##
(Photo Credit: dreamstime)
