Struggling families and distressed properties are getting a much-needed helping hand in Hollywood’s southwest section, where one company is providing quality affordable housing to low-income renters while enhancing neighborhoods, fostering a sense of community pride and increasing area property values.
“Everybody wins – the neighborhood, the community, the renter,” said Rochelle Lecavalier, a real estate agent and the fund manager for SISCO Limited Partners, a private equity fund that purchases and rehabilitates foreclosed and distressed properties in South Florida and rents them to tenants who have qualified for Section 8 housing.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Section 8 program, also known as the Housing Choice Voucher Program, awards vouchers for subsidized housing costs to applicants who meet certain income and other requirements.
Lecavalier, who has worked in land development, construction management and real estate for 15 years, currently oversees seven single-family rental properties in southwest Hollywood. The need for public housing assistance in South Florida is great, with a three-year waiting list for prospective Section 8 tenants through local public housing authorities, which approve the vouchers.
“Right now there is such a dearth of affordable housing, especially in Broward,” Lecavalier said. “I think I’m on the forefront of what is possible with residential rental property.”
Lecavalier knows firsthand about the difference a helping hand can make in the lives of families struggling to get on their feet financially.
“I grew up very poor. It was always an issue. My parents divorced when I was really young, and there weren’t a lot of social programs,” said Lecavalier, who grew up in Bakersfield, an agricultural community in Southern California.
She recalled not having enough to eat and living with her mother and siblings in a single room in relatives’ houses during the toughest times.
“It was always a very shameful thing that we didn’t have money and had to stay in someone’s house,” Lecavalier said.
When she was 8, a lack of other options forced her family to live in a house damaged by fire while repairs were being made. “So I can really identify with a tenant telling me they have to take a 5-gallon bucket of water and fill the toilet so you can flush,” Lecavalier said. She said being able to help other families in their time of need is extremely rewarding. “And I’m actually making my investors very nice returns while we’re doing it,” she added.
Lecavalier’s advocacy of Section 8 housing extends to educating landlords about the program.
“I think there’s a misconception in the community about the Section 8 program,” she said, citing landlords’ fears that tenants won’t pay their required share of the rent or will destroy the property.
“My experience has been the opposite,” Lecavalier said. “They’re very grateful to live in a great house.”
One of her tenants, single mother Opal Johnson, has been renting a three-bedroom, two-bath home on 45th Terrace for the past year. Johnson and her daughter April, 15, were forced to move from the two-bedroom townhouse they were renting in Miramar when the property was foreclosed.
Johnson, 35, completed her studies in medical billing and coding at Florida Career College in 2006 but hasn’t found employment in her chosen field because landing the requisite internship has proven elusive.
“Right now I’m not working,” said Johnson, who plans to further her education, most likely in nursing. “It’s really nice to have somebody to help you out in time of need.”
Lecavalier characterized voucher holders as hardworking, responsible tenants who take pride in the rental property they occupy. Lecavalier also pointed out that the local public housing authority conducts annual property inspections, and criminal activity of any nature results in an automatic expulsion from the program.
Lecavalier’s real estate company, Pink Realtor, is known for helping match prospective voucher-holding tenants with landlords, and it also donates 10 percent of its profits to Habitat for Humanity to encourage home ownership.
“I want to see people around me be the best they can be,” Lecavalier stressed. “I want people to excel.”
To qualify for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, an applicant’s income must not exceed 50 percent of the Area Median Income. Other considerations are the number of household members, their ages, and employment and citizenship statuses. Information on the program and its local eligibility requirements are available from the Hollywood Housing Authority at 954-989-4691 or www.hollywoodhousingauthority.com.
For more information on SISCO Limited Partners, call 954-960-6760 or visit http://siscolp.com.
