BY TERRY SCHMIDA, KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
During a City Commission workshop last month dominated by a discussion on new affordable housing projects, the mere mention of a major source of low income quarters drew knowing nods and whistles from the commissioners.
Stadium Apartments and Mobile Home Park has provided stable, if unglamorous, rentals to generations of Key Westers since opening during the post-war baby boom. It expanded in 1958, and is currently home to some 200 units, located in the area bounded by Duck Avenue, Northside Drive, and Glynn R Archer Jr. Drive. Another park, Poinciana, borders Stadium to the east.
For decades, residents speculated about the future of their homes as rising rents and home prices accelerated upwards, beginning in the early 1980s.
Now, with trailer parks and low income housing in general in retreat all over the Keys, time may be running out for the park’s many occupants.
“There is a development plan being undertaken,” confirmed District 2 Commissioner Sam Kaufman, known as an advocate for affordable housing in Key West. “I walk through there at least once a week, so I’m fairly familiar with the dilapidated condition of some of the units, and the fact that each trailer represents a market unit that’s potentially for sale at some point. It’s an incredible value for developers looking at it, so if the coming proposal falls through, another one will take its place. That’s going to mean a huge transition for the residents and the neighborhood itself.”
So far, no formal plans have been unveiled or permits sought. For that reason Kaufman said that he’s not at liberty to name the developer in question, but longtime residents have been aware for some time the precarious living situation they find themselves in.
Ironically, “mobile” homes usually aren’t – and their owners will still need land to put them on.
An exact number of residents is hard to nail down, but Kaufman estimates that close to 1,200 people call Stadium Park home, in the trailers and small apartments there. Many are undocumented, and understandably cautious about making waves.
“No comment,” was a familiar refrain during this reporter’s recent walk through the area, but at least one former resident sees the writing on the wall.
“It’s coming,” said Bertha Cubria Mira, who owned a trailer at Stadium from 1996 to 2005. “When you look at what’s happening on Stock Island, and everywhere else in the Keys, you know it’s just a matter of time.”
Mira recalled a conversation she had with owner Ken Harding around that time when, amidst earlier rumors of a sale, she mentioned the many older residents who would be put out the most by any changes.
“Not long after that, they told me that they’d changed their minds, and weren’t considering selling for the time being,” she recalled.
But several hurricanes later, the financial pressures that existed back then have only grown, and even Harding, by all accounts an attentive and concerned landlord, may decide call it a day at Stadium.
“He’s a wonderful human being,” Kaufman said. “He could have easily sold this property to the highest bidder ages ago, but he didn’t. I think he genuinely cares about the residents there, but what more can he do? He’s a businessman, and low income housing isn’t something that’s profitable for developers. We had a representative of one of the companies down here tell us just that at the workshop. That’s why I believe the city has to step forward to build low and very low income housing. That’s the category the private sector won’t do themselves.”
At press time, Ken Harding hadn’t returned a call requesting comment, but Commissioner Kaufman said on Feb. 3 that the developers had asked for a meeting with him.
Stay tuned.
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