Affordable housing a click away - Florida Housing Finance Corp.'s Web site helps families find subsidized rentals

A new online site that officially debuts today should make it easier for Florida residents to locate affordable, subsidized rental housing.

The Web site, FloridaHousingSearch.org., can be searched by community and identifies apartments and other properties funded by the Florida Housing Finance Corp. As the system is developed, other government-subsidized and privately owned affordable-rent properties will register units on the site.

Properties are identified by name and location, with a map and telephone number. Rent and deposit information as well as size and amenities are posted.

Most properties have waiting lists, and while that is noted for each unit, the size of the waiting list, or the potential wait time, is not specified.

"So you would want to go ahead and initiate a telephone call" to the rental complex to get those details, along with income requirements and other information, said Ian Smith, communications director for Florida Housing Finance in Tallahassee.

Smith said the units are for families who meet certain income limitations, generally about 60 percent of an area's median household income. For a family of four in Metro Orlando, for example, the typical income limit to qualify for subsidized rentals would be about $34,400 a year.

The online site, which operates in English or Spanish, is being developed by the housing agency with Socialserve.com, a nonprofit provider of housing-locator services. Free online searches are available 24 hours a day, but Socialserve.com also provides toll-free, bilingual call-center support to property owners and mangers, tenants and housing-service providers, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.