Coming to You, or There Already

[Sonny Lykos]

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/...145022,00.html

Apparently, Collier County will also have to increase their salary schedules:

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/...145021,00.html


http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/...143462,00.html

[Joe Wood]

Sonny, all three of those links require me to Log In ..

[Sonny Lykos]

Businesses reeling as workers sell homes, leave
By DENISE ZOLDAN, dczoldan@naplesnews.com
October 9, 2005

A growing river of teachers, law enforcement officers, health-care workers and service personnel are quitting their jobs, cashing out on historic home profits and trickling out of Collier County to less-expensive, less traffic-congested turf.

And their exodus is leaving businesses in a bind, officials say.

"We have seen more people in the last 12 months who have relocated out of the area because they could make a nice profit (selling their home)," said Brian Settle, human resources director for NCH Healthcare System. "They are physical therapists, nurses, clerical support and administrative staff."

On top of that, their would-be replacements are increasingly turning down job offers because they cannot afford to buy homes in Collier County.

Those jobs pay $40,000 to $60,000 — so typical federal and state home-purchasing assistance programs don’t apply, creating the mid-level housing gap.

Some businesses, such as NCH Healthcare System and WCI Communities Inc. are offering home loan incentives to get potential employees to take jobs. And developers are beginning to agree to contribute to a nonprofit county land trust fund that could be used for affordable housing, or they are agreeing to include affordable housing in their projects to win rezoning approval.

Government officials are looking at the possibility of building affordable housing on property owned by a school distict or county government.

"I am looking at county-owned land right now that can be used to build affordable housing," County Manager Jim Mudd said.

Collier schools Superintendent Ray Baker is looking into whether the district can build housing for teachers on district-owned land.

Key Collier County leaders have been meeting for weeks in an attempt to come up with solutions to the crisis.

But solutions won’t be easy.

Bankers say developers won’t build affordable housing because it isn’t profitable enough. Developers say government officials won’t relax regulations to make affordable housing profitable enough. And government officials say banks won’t take risks on 40- or 50-year mortgages that would make home ownership possible now.

The full circle of finger-pointing ends with all fingers pointing at Collier County’s residents, who historically defeat proposals for affordable housing projects because they don’t want them near their luxury home communities.

So the problem has landed in the employers’ laps.

The labor shortage crosses all industries.

Collier County government has 200 openings. The Collier Sheriff’s Office has 100 openings. Within the next two years, the School District will need 700 new teachers to staff new schools.

The affordable housing shortage today is estimated at 31,000 units, said Cormac Giblin, housing and grants manager for Collier County government.

To date, 16 new teachers who signed contracts to work for Collier County this school year rescinded after realizing they couldn’t find a place to live, school officials said.

Private industry employers report the same findings, said Michael Reagen, president of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.

Employers are scrambling to figure out what to do as some companies fight over the limited pool of qualified professionals, unashamedly raiding a competitor’s staff in a desperate attempt to fill positions. The competition is steep for mid-level office workers in the $25,000 to $45,000 range.

Morgan expects to recruit new hires from the Estero and Bonita Springs areas next, and he plans to offer them $5,000 more than their current wages to get them to quit their Lee County jobs and commute to Naples.

Reagen hears about similar concerns constantly.

"We are being beseeched with concerns about the ability on the one hand to retain key employees and on the other hand to recruit key employees," he said. "Our companies are on the edge of crisis."

As a result, the battle for workers is fueling a surge in wages, business owners say.

"I am paying 15 to 30 percent more than two years ago for the same workers," said Joe Ballarino, owner of Amerivest Realty.

John Steinwald, of Naples Realty Services, said he no longer can rely simply on classified ads to produce qualified candidates. He turned to an employment agency recently to find a telephone receptionist — he is paying the person $17 per hour.

"When I run an ad, I either don’t get qualified people or I don’t get any response," he said.

The average wage in Collier County was $17.13 hourly during the second quarter of 2004, which was $1 more than average workers earned in Lee County, according to the most recent statistics released by the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

As the demand for employees increases, the unemployment rate declines, dropping to 3.8 percent in August, down from 5 percent in August 2004.

Moving would mean the single mother could save more money for her 7-year-old son, Jacob’s, college education.

"Everybody’s talking about moving to the Carolinas," Pulver said, adding it isn’t the older, retired residents who are having the conversations.

"It’s the working people," she said.

A home worth $150,000 three years ago can easily pull down $350,000 today, Realtors say.

The labor shortage is directly tied to Collier County’s skyrocketing housing prices, officials say. The median price of a home in Collier County hit an all-time statewide high of $500,800 in August.

By comparison, two mid-level wage earners bringing in $90,000 a year together would qualify for a $270,000 home.

Try finding homes under $300,000 in Collier County.

There are few.

"There’s nothing below the $300,000 level," lawmaker Davis said.


Additionally, Collier County has leapfrogged from the fifth most-expensive place to live in Florida on the Florida Price Level Index in 2003 to the No. 1 spot for the past two years. The index ranks Florida’s 67 counties from most to least expensive. Lee County has held 10th position for four years.

"This is not a future crisis. This is a crisis now," Collier superintendent Baker said.

Baker, Mudd, Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter and NCH Heath Care Systems CEO Edward Morton, who is chairman of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, and their representatives have been meeting weekly for two months to find solutions to the problem.

More and more of their employees are living outside of Collier County and commuting to work, they say.

"Sixteen percent of our (3,200) teachers live outside of Collier County," Baker said. "That’s a huge number."

Morton said he has never before seen the level of commuting that he sees today. Between 15 percent and 17 percent of NCH’s 3,500 employees live in Lee County, officials said.

About 15 percent of the Sheriff’s Office employees also live outside Collier County, as does a similar percentage of the 1,800 Collier County government employees.

Chamber president Reagen mentioned that he recently wanted to compliment the Sheriff’s Office for promoting higher education after noticing so many partrol cars parked at the International College campus off Immokalee Road near Interstate 75.

Then he learned it is a deputy dropoff spot. Those who live outside the county leave their civilian vehicles on campus while they work and leave their patrol cars there when they commute home.

"They can’t take the patrol cars out of the county," Reagen said, adding: "This is a very serious problem. It cuts across all ranks."

Morton said the level of commuting is unprecedented: "In my opinion, this is the largest percentage I am aware of in my 33 years working in Collier County and the percentage continues to grow."

Tammie Nemecek, president of Collier’s Economic Development Council, predicts the labor shortage and housing prices will fuel price increases all across Collier County.

"We are going to feel it before anybody collects the data," she predicts.

Hopes for solving the problem run the gamut from little hope to optimism.

Collier County Commissioner Jim Coletta has been fighting to require developers to provide affordable housing, and to change the county’s rules and land codes so it can be done.

On Thursday, the Collier County Planning Commission got promises from two major developers, WCI and Lutgert Properties, to contribute nearly $2 million to a county land trust for affordable housing. The nonprofit independent entity could be used to buy land on which private houses could be built.

The housing prices could have controls in place so that speculative investors couldn’t buy them and drive prices up to market value.

Coletta said he was encouraged by what occurred at Thursday’s planning commission meeting. Five of six developers either agreed to provide affordable housing as a condition of rezoning approval or to donate to the land trust fund.

Meanwhile, Bill Varian, president of the Collier Building Industry Assocation, returned Friday from a Florida Building Industry Association meeting on the topic in Orlando.

Varian said that group agrees that extracting fees from developers for affordable housing is not the answer. The real answer, according to builders, is to increase the land-use densities and lower the level of service requirements on the roads so that building affordable housing is profitable.

"Allow us to build the product, and we will," Varian said.

Mudd said one of Collier County’s greatest problems is that the existing residents don’t want affordable housing near their homes.

"I will tell you," he said, "everybody thinks it’s a good idea until I ask, ‘Can I build it next to your house?’

[Sonny Lykos]

Here's the 2nd important one:

Housing prices driving prospective county employees away

By LARRY HANNAN, ljhannan@naplesnews.com
October 9, 2005

It’s an irony that doesn’t amuse Collier County government officials.

The division of county government that is responsible for managing growth within Collier County is having problems hiring new employees because the growth that’s occurring is making the price of homes too expensive for them to live here.

As of this past week, the Collier County Community Development and Environmental Services department had 25 vacancies.

"Quite frankly, I’m having a difficult time trying to get people on board," said Joe Schmitt, administrator of community development,when asked about open positions in his department.

Job candidates "come down here, and all of the sudden it’s shell-shock when they look at the cost of housing," he said.

Prospective county employees who want to buy homes are learning that middle-class housing for people making less than $50,000 a year is becoming a myth in Collier.

While many have complained to county leaders about the lack of workforce housing, county government is finding that it, too, is affected.

Schmitt said he recently tried to hire for a position within the county’s geographic information systems department.

"I had a super candidate a few weeks ago," he said. "She came down here with her husband and when she saw the high cost of housing she turned it down."

Community development spokeswoman Lisa Koehler said the 25 vacancies include four zoning planners, three environmental specialists, two electrical building inspectors, two structural building inspectors, a principal planner and a supervisor in code enforcement.

The pay scale for 24 of the jobs is $27,000 to $42,000. The exception is the director of comprehensive planning, who makes almost $70,000.

William Hammond, director of review and permitting for the department, said hiring employees for technical positions that require previous experience is a challenge. He has eight vacancies in his department.

"When I’m looking to hire, there are some intrinsic qualifications these people need to have," Hammond said. "I can’t just hire someone at an apprentice level."

You need about five years of trade-level experience to be hired, he said.

"A lot of times we’re not even getting the calls," Hammond said. "I’ve had no bites at all on the electrical (planning reviewer) position."

The cost of living is high, and the county’s salaries aren’t competitive with developers and builders in the area, he said.

Denny Baker, director of financial administration and housing for community development, said he made two offers to potential employees recently that were rejected because of the high cost of living here.

"For technical positions, it’s a real problem getting people," he said.

Baker is amused when asked how many of his job candidates are from Southwest Florida.

"We don’t have people locally applying for these jobs," he said.

The selling points to working for the county are the weather, the quality of life, and growth within the community, Baker said.

"For people coming from the Rust Belt, the growth in this area is attractive," he said. "But the housing prices are a real problem for us."

The vacancies are also overworking the existing staff. Schmitt said he’s been approving large amounts of overtime to make up for the jobs that aren’t being filled.

Commissioner Jim Coletta said the county needs to look at raising employee salaries.

"When you have this many vacancies, something is wrong," Coletta said. "We need to get qualified employees, even if it means changing the pay scale."

Sympathy for Collier County’s plight is low among builders because they believe Collier County government helped create the problem.

"The chickens have come home to roost and they have no place to roost," quipped Scott Coulombe, executive director of the Collier Building Industry Association. "We are chuckling at the irony of it all. But the problem is real and it’s hurting the entire county."

The county’s problem hurts the building industry because when community development has vacancies it takes longer for a developer to get a building permit or other services, Coulombe said.

Collier’s impact fees are the highest in the state. Members of the building industry say that increases the cost of homes by up to $20,000.

Impact fees — onetime assessments on new construction — are intended to make growth pay for growth. They are assessed for each new home and business built in Collier County and paid by developers, who typically pass them on to consumers in higher prices.

"There are a lot of builders that would like to build $175,000 homes," Coulombe said. "But the county’s regulations make it almost impossible to do that. The average cost of a home in the county is now $500,000."

The county’s density rules also make it difficult to build a large number of houses that middle-class people can buy, Coulombe said.

Al Zichella, general communities director for Elias Brothers, said there are many reasons for the lack of middle-class housing but impact fees are one that can be controlled and changed.

"My opinion is that impact fees have been abused in this county," Zichella said. "Now the county is feeling the negative results of their own policies."

A person who can buy a million-dollar home won’t be put off by the impact fees. But a would-be $200,000 home buyer might not be able to afford impact fees that make the cost $220,000, he said.

"If anyone really thinks impact fees aren’t a factor, they’re deluding themselves," Zichella said. "Land prices are also a factor. But the county has shown a real lack of imagination when it comes to affordable housing."

Schmitt rejects the assertion that impact fees are causing the problems. He points to the high cost of land as the culprit.

Coletta agrees with Schmitt.

"All the builders want to blame everything on impact fees," Coletta said. "But impact fees aren’t responsible for the prices of land doubling in some places."

With incredible growth in the area, impact fees are needed to pay for improvements to public services, he said.