Challenges in finding affordable housing by millennials in Manatee addressed at conference

PALMETTO -- Housing is a major challenge millennials in Manatee County face and on Saturday, they got the conversation going about what to do about it.

Change needed to meet housing needs was the topic of conversation among local officials, developers and those in financing during a panel discussion of the conference day at Millennial Con -- a three-day conference for local millennials.

Millennials also had their opportunities to have their questions heard and answered.

"If you want to have change in your community you are going to have to show up and be louder than the people that are still so afraid of change in Manatee County," Manatee County Commissioner Betsy Benac said. "And that's why I am here,

I'm hoping that you all want to see change, and you are willing to work for it.

So you are going to have to show up and tell your county commissioners that this is something you want and that you feel is necessary for the community to grow and accommodate all you." Benac was prompted by a comment by millenial Robert Barto, who works for Manatee County neighborhood planning.

"My job is to make Manatee a place where people can live," Barto said. "I hate driving. I hate traffic."

If he could, Barto said he would get rid of his car. But he has a 500-square-foot hardwood floor one-bedroom house in St. Petersburg for less than $600 a month.

"It didn't happen over night Barto said. "They did something that made it a place where people can live, why can't we do that here?"

Wesley Benham, vice-president of Hancock Bank, acknowledged that St. Pete has a formula that has worked. Serving on the board of directors for the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corporation, he assured Barto that their voices were being heard and that the densities would be increase to enable prices to come down.

"It's not going to happen overnight," Benham said. "It may take a while to get to the point where it all works well on the mortgage side."

Benac shared her knowledge not only as an urban planner, but from her days of working in the county's planning department.

"The cost of land in Manatee County is so low because of that extremely low density," Benac said. "We are going to have to change how we do things if we want to have affordable housing. The density word -- the D-word -- has been a dirty word as long as I have been here since 1982."

The Barriers to Millennial Housing panel was part of jam-packed day at the conference held at the Bradenton Area Convention Center. The event was put on by the Manatee Millennial Movement, or M3, comprised of millennial Manatee County government employees who since January have brought the housing issue to light facing millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 2000.

Millennial Con will wrap up Sunday at 9 a.m. with yoga and mimosas at Manatee Public Beach.

Jessica De Leon, Herald law enforcement reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7049. You can follow her on Twitter @JDeLeon1012.

This story was originally published April 2, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Challenges in finding affordable housing by millennials in Manatee addressed at conference ."