BRANSON, Mo. -- Seasonal workers scramble to find good places to live that are not too expensive. Many cram into weekly rental hotels.
A new apartment complex just outside town could help with the problem but the owners are turning people away on a daily basis.
Ridgecrest Estates has plenty of room. Each unit has three bedrooms. Tina Hurst would love to move from Harrison to help her son with childcare. The price is perfect -- $495 a month.
"They'd be wonderful for kids with the swimming pool and play area, everything right here; that's what I was counting on but you can't do it," said Hurst.
Hurst and her family of four make too much. They're not alone in getting rejected, even though the complex has 100 unrented apartments.
A federal program helped get this apartment complex built. It gives developers tax credits. In exchange for the credits, residents can't make too much money.
In Taney County, however, the limits are so low that a couple with two children making minimum wage is a couple that's too wealthy.
"I don't think I'm too wealthy at anything. We struggle to make ends meet," said Hurst.
"They get upset. They cry. They don't understand how they're struggling day to day to make ends meet and they can't move into affordable housing," said Doris Adams, a leading office manager for Ridgecrest Estates.
Ridgecrest is in Bull Creek, four miles outside the heart of Branson, in an area struggling to build affordable housing for seasonal workers.
"I see families that are living in substandard housing right now and these are wonderful new places with playgrounds for children and childcare on site. It makes me sad," said Branson Mayor Raeanne Presley.
Hurst isn't volunteering to cut her family income.
"You barely have money for rent anyway so you struggle. As my grandmother used to say, 'You rob Peter to pay Paul.' Unless they raise the income guidelines, we're pretty much stuck," she said.
Presley and Ridgecrest Estates are both appealing to Missouri's Congressional delegation for help in lowering the income guidelines. Meantime, the Missouri Housing Development Commission reports 77 out of Missouri's 114 counties have income limits that it considers too low for affordable housing complexes.
julienbc says ...
On Monday, Aug 31 at 9:00 PM
I just want to say thanks for all you do Ridgecrest!