Neighborhood Stabilization Program Website: www.cityftmyers.com/fortmyersnsp

Mission Statement: To be the catalyst for increasing access to and availability of quality housing, to improve and maintain the City’s housing stock, to increase real estate values and ensure safe communities by optimizing resources and the collaboration of public private partnership, and to ensure the greatest public benefit is achieved through the management of City owned Real Estate and equitable distribution of support.

The City of Fort Myers considers the provision of housing as a basic human need, and therefore has assumed the responsibility to work towards increasing the availability of affordable workforce housing in the community. The Housing and Real Estate division administers the housing programs for the City of Fort Myers. These programs include the Mortgage Assistance Program and Rehabilitation Programs. The City is committed to annually funding and managing these programs to provide access to attainable  housing to the residents. As a private citizen you have access to these programs to rehabilitate and/or to buy your own housing. As a Realtor helping these citizens, you might want to consider those programs described in the following sections of this in this website.  For more information please contact us. To be eligible for each program clients must attend Homebuyers Institute.

MORTGAGE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
The Mortgage Assistance Programs can help interested households with the purchase of a home within the City of Fort Myers to become first-time homeowners. The Mortgage Assistance Programs are designed to help eligible clients with down payment assistance to reduce the amount financed.  To be eligible, clients must meet program guidelines established by the City of Fort Myers. Click here to view the  Purchase Assistance Brochure.

REHABILITATION PROGRAMS
The City of Fort Myers, Housing and Real Estate Division also administers housing Rehabilitation Loan Programs to assist owner-occupants of single-family homes to make necessary repairs to their dwellings. The programs provide no interest loans to eligible homeowners in the City of Fort Myers.

Click here to view the Rehabilitation Program Brochure.

Infill Housing Program
The Infill Housing Program is designed to revitalize residential communities through the construction of affordable homes for low and moderate-income residents of the City of Fort Myers. The Infill Housing Program offers City owned properties suitable for the development of affordable housing to qualified developers who have been selected through Request for Qualifications process. Selected developers are required to build affordable houses on the lots within 18 months and sell them to first time homebuyers with incomes up to 150% of the median income for Lee County.

Redevelopment Projects
The Housing and Real Estate Division (H&RE) also oversees development projects. These projects generally serve to meet national and local objectives to replace substandard housing or construct new housing, rejuvenating cities, and  provide greater access to affordable homeownership for low to moderate income families in Fort Myers. The division is completing the last two homes in the innovative project involving the redevelopment of Velasco Village. Future projects include Towles Gardens which is a 7.5 acre site located at Edison, Veronica Shoemaker Blvd, Henderson Avenue and Dora Street.  This project will be a Joint Venture between the City and a non-profit developer to develop a mixed-income and diverse community. Another future development project will be the Home-a-rama.   The Home-a-rama is a 16-day single-site display of fully furnished and fully landscaped custom affordable workforce homes that demonstrate the latest in home construction, design, furnishings and technological innovations.
 
City-owned Real Estate 
The Housing & Real Estate Division is responsible for the acquisition of all real property required for City purposes, lot acquisitions and urban infill programs, sale of surplus real property owned by the City, and the leasing of property required by various City departments. The Division acts as a real estate consultant to the City Manager, Mayor, City Council and Departments.  The Housing and Real Estate Division is currently the lead agency in developing a City-wide Real Estate Information Database for City-Owned Property.

Some of the City owned properties include: Hart’s Dairy Site, City Pier, Clemente Park, Natural History Museum, Harborside Event Center, City Hall, Burrough’s Home, Langford Kingston Home, Federal Post Office, Riverside Community Center, Shady Oaks, Stars, Skatium, and Southwest Florida Enterprise Center.

Under the direction of the City Manager, staff administers the leasing of all properties owned by the City of Fort Myers.  Leasing encompasses land leases, building leases, land with improvements, submerged land, user agreements and license agreements.  For more information e-mail us at hre@cityftmyers.com or call (239) 321-7970.