New database launching in Collier County to help residents find affordable housing

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. —

Housing in Collier County is becoming increasingly difficult for working families to find as rent, insurance and home prices continue to climb.

Housing advocates say the rising costs are pushing many longtime residents out of the communities where they work and raise their families.

“Pricing on rentals and homeownership really became a struggle for our average working household,” said Michael Puchalla, CEO of The Housing Alliance.

Puchalla pointed to recent data showing just how expensive the area has become.

“We’ve become one of only 18 communities in the entire nation where it takes about a $200,000 level of income to afford a median price home,” he said.

Residents say they have seen housing costs rise sharply over the past several years.

“It has skyrocketed since we first moved here,” said Martha Eyles, an East Naples resident who has lived here for the past decade.

Local housing advocates say the challenge is not only the high cost of housing, but also finding available affordable units before they fill up.

To help address that problem, The Housing Alliance is developing a new online database called Housing Compass. The tool is designed to connect residents with income-restricted housing, show available vacancies, and track housing needs across Collier County.

“We want to be able to get that into a centralized database so a consumer that’s facing housing insecurity can connect to housing resources,” Puchalla said.

He added the data collected will also help leaders better understand where housing demand is growing.

“It connects individuals to housing resources, but it also provides data that we can use to create better policy and better programs,” he said.

The organization unveiled a demonstration of the Housing Compass database during its second annual Housing Matters Luncheon, focused on finding solutions to Collier County’s affordability crisis.

Residents say affordable housing is critical to keeping the community strong.

“I think affordable housing is necessary here so people don’t have to travel so far to work and can live where their children go to school,” Eyles said.

The Housing Alliance expects the Housing Compass database to fully launch by the end of the year.

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