Heather Trammell lives in Apopka, and says the increased cost of food — and just about everything else — only stretches her fixed income even thinner.  She says she’s on disability for an autoimmune disorder and mental health struggles.

“It is hard to get ahead because when you try to get ahead, they say that you’re taking advantage of the system or you’re taking advantage this or things like that,” she said.

A subsidy program is helping Trammell pay the rent and keep her rental home for now, but she’s not sure for how much longer that will be the case. 

She’s in thousands of dollars of debt, so affordable housing is crucial for her, but Trammell says she needs more options, and that Apopka needs more affordable housing. 

One developer is trying to bring more subsidized housing to the city. 

Southwick Commons is planning a nearly 200-unit complex that would include affordable housing units. The company is now suing the city of Apopka after city leaders rejected the developer’s plans.

In its lawsuit, the company says the rejection “jeopardized Southwick’s favorable workforce-housing financing through the FHFC and Orange County that is necessary for the community to be economically feasible as a qualified workforce housing development.” 

Southwick officials say the city knew it was using affordable housing funding for the project, but Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson says the city center property is the only area where affordable housing is not allowed.

“We’d love to have some workforce housing within the city, we need it,” said Nelson. “But to make that center successful — which is hiring restaurants and coffee shops and all of that — affordable won’t really help us reach that goal.”

Trammell is working on new goals of her own in order to keep a roof over her head in the future. She is taking a phlebotomy class, hoping to get a better-paying job at a medical lab.

“For now, I want to do the phlebotomy, get in there, do something part-time, learn more about it and get more experience, and then go from there with it,” she said.

Trammell says there’s already enough luxury housing in Apopka, and Realtor.com says home prices are currently up by nearly 27% compared to last year. The website says the city's median selling price is $409,000.

Trammell hopes the city’s future developments will include some realistic housing options for those whose incomes do not support those prices after a hard day’s work. 

“Just have enough to make it and not be stressing about everything,” she said.

No matter what happens with planned housing development in court, the fate of one man’s home and his family’s property hangs in the balance. 

The planned development would go in on a property on the southeast end of East 6th Street and Alabama Avenue in Apopka — potentially affecting the property across the street. 

On that property, Stephen Nelson takes great pride in taking care of the land where his home sits — it’s a place he’s called home since he was born.

“I have a special connection to this house, and I always wanted to live in it,” said Nelson.

And for now, he still lives in the house his parents built more than 70 years ago and says there’s a lot of history on the sprawling surrounding property that his extended family has owned for generations.

But Nelson says much of that family has moved away. His uncle, longtime Apopka Mayor John Land and his wife Betty, who lived in the house next door, have both died. Nelson says the city sold off land across the street.

“They sold it to a developer who started developing it, and that is kind of like, 'Here’s what you’ve got to deal with now,'” he said.

Nelson says the developer made an offer to buy the land his home sits on, but offered him no money for the house itself. 

“I kind of see myself as a caretaker, but I’m willing to accept the fact that progress needs to go on in our county,” said Nelson. “So I can accept the fact that I need to sell it, but only if the right offer comes along. I don’t think I should be cheated out of my own house.”