Orange County Public Schools is developing a plan for an affordable housing development for its teachers and staff, but residents of the nearby Isle of Catalina neighborhood are expressing concern over the project.
The plan is to build 100 units on a property OCPS owns near Catalina Elementary School in Orlando.
The affordable housing is intended for any OCPS employee – teachers, bus drivers, custodians and other district staff.
Fourth grade teacher Tiffany McRae supports the idea. She works two jobs just to keep up with rising costs and her necessities. In the past 15 years that she’s lived in the district area, McRae said her rent has more than doubled from $900 all the way up to $1875.
“Being able to find somewhere where I don't have to work two jobs and I can focus on my main job that I went to school for, I have two degrees for it, and being able to stay focused on that, I can do more for the students that way,” McRae said.
But some current residents in the nearby neighborhood raised concerns at a public meeting Wednesday held by the district. They worry the development could disrupt homeowners, mostly because of additional traffic on already congested roads.
Isle of Catalina Neighborhood’s HOA president Ralph Bagnal said there’s already congestion on nearby roads with speedbumps, and more housing means more people on the roads.
“It is not a road that's built for another 400 trips, and on top of the 400 trips, you're also talking about FedEx deliveries, UPS deliveries, Amazon deliveries, DoorDash,” Bagnal said. “They run all through our neighborhood and they drive way too fast.”
The district has not set a date for the start of construction.
OCPS Deputy Superintendent Dr. Bridget Williams hopes this new affordable housing keeps professionals in the community, and that it will help with staff retention.
“It's about everybody in this room,” Williams said. “It's about that bus driver that drops those kids off here every day. It's about the food service worker that serves those kids breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner. It's about that teacher that's teaching your kids and your grandkids and tutor those kids on the weekend. This is about that front office staff that's driving an hour every day to get to work.”
