What started out as a $1 million purchase and a dream nearly three years ago is finally becoming reality for a retired Kentucky judge who plans to build an affordable housing complex that will help homeless veterans in Vero Beach.
Site of 20-unit affordable housing project on Royal Palm Blvd
“We’re ready to go,” Judge Sandra McLaughlin said last week after the Vero Beach City Council approved a needed zoning variance, clearing the way for the project to move forward. All McLaughlin needs now are building permits from the county, which she has applied for, and a signed agreement with the City of Vero Beach that will enforce the number of units reserved for affordable housing.
If there are no delays with the building permits, groundbreaking will come in January or February and construction of the 20-unit James Arthur Court could be complete before the end of 2020.
“I’m anxious to do it,” McLaughlin said of getting the long-anticipated project started.
She and her husband bought the 1.5-acre Courtyard Villas and Apartments of Indian River in February 2017 for $1 million. The property, which years ago was a motor court-type motel catering to tourists headed north and south on U.S. 1, is located at 1055 Royal Palm Blvd. a block east of the highway at the open end of the horseshoe formed by Ponce De Leon Circle.
Built in 1950, the aging buildings where weary post-war travelers spent the night when the population of Florida was about a tenth of what it is now and McKee Gardens was one of the state’s most popular tourist attractions, now are barely fit for human habitation, according to McLaughlin.
The motor court units vary in size, but most are a single 10-foot by 10-foot room with a toilet – no kitchen or other amenities. McLaughlin said the rooms “look like jail cells.”
In order to get approval for 20 new, larger units, McLaughlin worked with the city to develop an ordinance that gives developers the ability to request more density than zoning would normally allow if they offer a certain number of units as affordable housing.
Affordable housing refers to a federal program that provides low-income residents with vouchers to help offset the cost of housing.
Five of the units McLaughlin is building are reserved for such residents, but all 20 will be open to affordable housing voucher recipients.
“It’s a good project,” Vero Beach Planning Director Jason Jeffries said, adding that the demolition of the motor court and the construction of a new housing development will improve the area.
“It’s a well-designed project,” he said.
Plans call for one 2-story building that stretches along the southern boundary of the property. The current entrance on Royal Palm Boulevard will be closed and two new entrances will be installed on either end of the property on Ponce De Leon Circle.
According to specifications provided by McLaughlin, the 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartments will have 918 square feet of interior living space with another 280-364 square feet of covered outdoor space. Upper units will have a balcony, while ground floor units will have a porch.
Plans prepared by Atelier d’Architecture show a bright white colonial-style building with stucco walls, a bronze-colored metal roof, and sky blue shutters.
Once construction begins, some of the tenants will be displaced, McLaughlin said. They have already been given notice and have been encouraged to return once construction is complete.
Tenants will continue to live in the old motor court rooms closest to Royal Palm Boulevard while the new building is erected along the backside of the parcel on the site of the demolished units. The front units will be removed later, after the new building is complete.
McLaughlin said residents in the front buildings who will remain during construction have offered to take in those displaced.
“They’re great tenants,” she said of the current residents.
McLaughlin was inspired to build affordable housing for veterans because many of those living in the motor court when she bought it were veterans who would be homeless if not for the property – dilapidated as it is.
In Kentucky, she and her husband built and managed a number of affordable housing projects for the general public.
“We’ve taken a lot of pride” in those projects, she said.
Since buying the Vero Beach property, McLaughlin has gotten to know the tenants and has seen first-hand the shortage of housing available.
Jim Romanek, executive director for the Veterans Council of Indian River, said he supports the idea of McLaughlin’s project.
“There’s a big need” for inexpensive housing for veterans, he said.
Three thousand of the approximately 15,000 veterans residing in Indian River County live below the poverty line, and there are at least 127 homeless veterans here, Romanek said, explaining that not all homeless vets live in the woods. Many couch-surf, staying for a day or two with someone before moving on.
“They don’t have a permanent place to live,” he said.
Romanek said both the city and county could create more housing opportunities for veterans by permitting higher density zoning for affordable housing projects.
“There are a few around the county,” Romanek said. “There’s just not enough of them.”
Also, the federal government could issue more housing vouchers. As it is, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issues only about 45 vouchers for Indian River County annually.
“We wish there were more,” Romanek said of the vouchers.
Jeffries noted that the affordable housing unit bonus now on the books in the city that was crafted to enable McLaughlin’s project could provide an incentive for other developers to tackle redevelopment projects that provide affordable housing.
“This is one potential avenue,” to get more affordable units built in the city, Jeffries said.
McLaughlin, who said she gets at least one phone call daily from someone interested in living at James Arthur Court, expects the project to be at capacity before construction is complete.
McLaughlin said she hopes to provide furnished units for the tenants since many of them will arrive with little more than the clothes on their back. To assist in that effort, McLaughlin has set up the James Arthur Court Foundation to accept donations of funds and furniture.
The project and foundation are named in honor of McLaughlin’s father and father-in-law, both of whom served in the U.S. military. Her father, Capt. James Hassett Patrick O’Shea, was a decorated fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, while her father-in-law, Arthur Joseph McLaughlin, was a member of the United States Navy.
The McLaughlins, who still live in Kentucky, plan to move permanently to Vero Beach after the first of the year ahead of construction getting started.
The couple has had a house in Vero for the last decade, where they stay four weeks out of the year. They are now building a new house on the barrier island as their permanent residence.
Anyone interested in donating to the James Arthur Court Foundation or learning more about the housing project is encouraged to email Sandra McLaughlin at sandymclaughlin58@gmail.com.