Daily News analysis: Habitat for Humanity neighborhoods not havens for crime

June 07--The neighborhood around Juana Rangel's home was quiet last week as she fed her sons pancakes on the front porch.

Two or three men rode by leisurely on bicycles. Across the street, a woman loaded her child into a minivan.

Rangel, who moved into a Habitat for Humanity home in Bonita Springs in April, used to hear bad things about her new neighborhood, Rosemary Park.

"When you hear about Rosemary, it's usually not that good," Rangel said. "Since I recall (Habitat) started building in here, it's changing in a positive way."

This fall, about a mile away from Rangel's neighborhood, construction will begin on a new 26-home Habitat development called Red Hibiscus on Red Blossom Court, near a neighborhood known as Forest Mere. There, members of the property owners association said they fear a decrease in property values and an increase in crime when low-income Habitat homeowners move in.

It's a concern law enforcement officials say and an analysis of Lee and Collier crime maps shows is unfounded by data.

The Daily News analysis looking at six months of crime reports at eight Southwest Florida Habitat communities found: one Habitat neighborhood -- Renaissance at Rosemary Park -- had no reported crimes; five neighborhoods had fewer than five reports each; and only one had more than 10 reported crimes (Beecher Village in the Dunbar community of Fort Myers, with 14).

"We've found that lower-income developments mirror the communities where they are," said Capt. Tim Guerrette, of the Collier County Sheriff's Office's patrol division.

Residents in the Forest Mere community say they worry about the lack of infrastructure in the neighborhood for children, like a playground. Having two dozen homes for low-income, multi-children families in such close proximity, they said, is bound to be trouble.

"Twenty-six homes in one small circle creates a slum environment," neighbor Don Poff said during a community meeting last month.

One woman in the crowd, who declined to give her name at the May 27 meeting, voiced concern about the ethnicity of Habitat residents. Others in the area are angered that those in power -- Habitat officials and politicians -- don't live near Habitat communities.

"She doesn't want it around her," neighbor Judy Russell said of Habitat CEO and president Kitty Green. "None of them do."Concerns about crime often aren't founded in reality, law enforcement officials say. In the Renaissance at Rosemary Park development -- which, at 24 homes, most closely mimics the upcoming Red Hibiscus project -- deputies have not responded to a single crime in the past six months, according to Lee County Sheriff's Office crime maps.

"The crime within this particular area is minimal," said Capt. Shawn Ramsey, of the Lee County Sheriff's Office. "It's often not crime that we find ourselves banging our head against the wall, but it's the fear and it's the perception."

RELATED: See a map showing all the Habitat for Humanities communities in Southwest Florida.

Ramsey said Rosemary Park used to have a seedy reputation, though that's becoming less and less of the case. He credited community policing officers with a reduction in drug sales and drug crimes.

"I would feel safer today in that Rosemary Park area and this particular (Habitat) neighborhood area we're discussing than probably in the last 20 years," he said, "because the crime, the true data, just doesn't reflect what our perception is."

Amy Garcia remembers when Renaissance at Rosemary Park was just woods across from her home on Streetsboro Lane, where her family has lived for more than 20 years. She sneered when she heard some people believe Habitat neighborhoods are havens for crime.

"I think it's the total opposite of that," she said. "I used to think people didn't live in those houses because it's so quiet."

A 28-home Habitat community on Hope Circle in Immokalee, which is similar in size to the Red Hibiscus project, also appears relatively crime-free. The single reported crime in the last six months, according to Collier County Sheriff's Office crime maps, involved two friends -- women aged 51 and 76 -- who got into a shoving match in February. Neither woman was arrested or seriously injured.

The remaining five completed Habitat developments in Collier County have had a total of 20 reported crimes in the past six months. That's 11 burglaries, five thefts, two assaults and two vandalisms for a total of 674 homes, according to Sheriff's Office crime maps. (To compare, the Forest Mere community has had two burglaries and two thefts in the same time period.)

Guerette, who has been with the Collier County Sheriff's Office more than 20 years, said the most troublesome issue he could remember about Habitat was a handful of gang members who lived with family members in Habitat homes in the Naples Manor community in the mid- to late-'90s. Guerrette said deputies spoke with the homeowners and Habitat management, as they continue to do if a problem arises.

"They tightened right up," he said.

Habitat officials in Collier County said they run a criminal-background check on everyone who applies for a Habitat home and any relatives who would be living in that home. The organization also establishes homeowners associations to maintain a sense of structure.

Nick Kouloheras, executive vice president, said Habitat of Collier is in the middle of a study to see what effect, if any, Habitat neighborhoods have on the surrounding areas. He said he was not aware of any development that had lowered the value of nearby properties.

"When the market was going crazy, we had Habitat for Humanity homes appraising over $300,000," he said of houses in Naples Manor. "The argument that you're bringing down property values, in my opinion having been here 12 years, isn't true."

On a national level, Habitat for Humanity points to 11 studies from researchers about the effect of affordable housing on property values.

"Except for one, all of the studies, utilizing many methodologies, determined that property values are not affected by these housing facilities," the authors wrote. "The only study examined which suggested that facilities might have a negative effect on neighboring property values could not conclusively determine whether the affordable housing in question was responsible for lower property values, or whether it was caused by other neighborhood concerns."

Red Hibiscus will be the fourth Habitat neighborhood in Lee County, following Beecher Village in the Dunbar area of Fort Myers, Renaissance at Rosemary Park in Bonita Springs, and Majorca Palms, which is under construction near Ortiz Avenue and Luckett Road in Fort Myers.

Beecher Village, a neighborhood of 73 homes, many of which are painted in shades of hot pink and turquoise, was the first Habitat development of its size in Lee County when it was completed in 2000. Green, the president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Lee and Hendry Counties, has acknowledged problems in the neighborhood and said the organization has learned from them.

The issues -- "partially crime, partially just neighborhood issues" -- were compounded by the fact that the neighborhood was not designed with a homeowners association in place, she said. While some homeowners take pride in keeping their yards landscaped and manicured, others come home to yards filled with weeds and driveways that have seldom seen a pressure washer.

Still, crime maps show the neighborhood is comparable or less problematic than surrounding areas in Dunbar. In the past six months, Fort Myers police have been called there for five reports of domestic violence, four trespassing calls, three assaults, one criminal mischief and one theft.

"You get the violence calls, unfortunately, but it's not like a bad, bad neighborhood," Lt. Jay Rodriguez said in an interview with the Daily News last year. "It's really like a lot of other communities we have in Fort Myers. There's a mixture of people that live there, some good, hardworking and unfortunately some that aren't like that." Green said it's hard to say who is causing the Beecher Village crime problems: residents point the finger at outsiders, and more than 20 of the homes have since been sold to families or owners unaffiliated with Habitat, including some investors who now rent the homes out.

Green said the board passed a policy in March to run background checks on all potential homeowners and their families, meaning those in the Red Hibiscus development will be screened before they move in. There also will be a homeowners association she said would be just as restrictive, if not more so, than the one in Forest Mere.

Pat Rayburn, who lives in the Lake Park neighborhood in Naples, admits she had fears when letters went out to her neighborhood announcing the renovation of a foreclosed home into a Habitat house last year. She considered an uptick in crime and a drop in property values.

"I thought about that too," she said. "But it's baloney."

Rayburn said since meeting her neighbors and doing her research, she's changed her opinion of the program. She encouraged Bonita Springs residents to meet their new neighbors before forming opinions about them.

"I'm really sorry I wasn't informed better," she said, "and I think that's what the public needs to know."

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How people qualify for a Habitat for Humanity home:

Habitat for Humanity looks for three main qualities in a potential owner: He or she must show a need, have the ability to pay a monthly mortgage and show a willingness to partner with the organization.

Homeowners must fall within certain income guidelines; in Lee County, a family of four can qualify if its annual income is between $16,494 and $46,400. Homeowners must have lived in the county where they are applying for at least a year.

Habitat also requires that its homeowners perform "sweat equity" -- time spent building other Habitat homes. In Collier County, homeowners must put in 500 hours, and in Lee, 300. Each job site has a supervisor to assist and oversee the work.

In Collier, homeowners must make a $1,000 down payment and a $500 insurance deposit, and in Lee County, homeowners are responsible for $1,700 in closing costs.

Staff writer Kristine Gill contributed to this report.

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