92-Unit Affordable Housing Community Opens in West Augustine with County Support

A new 92-unit affordable housing community in West Augustine has opened its doors, offering income-restricted apartments to families and individuals as St. Johns County contends with a housing crunch driven by its status as one of Florida's fastest-growing counties. The Village of New Augustine, located at 280 N. Volusia St. in St. Augustine, completed construction this month with the help of more than $1.6 million in county funding.

All 92 apartments at the $26.5 million development are reserved for households earning up to 60% of the area median income, with current monthly rents ranging from approximately $634 to $1,599 depending on unit size, household income, and household size. The community is now leasing and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August attended by St. Johns County officials, the City of St. Augustine, developer Ability Housing, and project financial partners including Bank of America and National Equity Fund.

What's happening

St. Johns County provided $460,000 through an Affordable Housing Grant and $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, approved by the Board of County Commissioners, to support the project. A 2022 county ordinance allowing developers to defer impact fees also reduced upfront development costs, according to the county announcement.

The development includes 20 one-bedroom, 36 two-bedroom, and 36 three-bedroom apartments. On-site amenities include a community center, computer lab, library, fitness center, walking trail, and outdoor recreational areas. Ability Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer with projects across Northeast Florida, led the development in partnership with the West Augustine Historical Community Development Corporation, a local organization focused on the historically Black West Augustine neighborhood.

The 280 N. Volusia St. site sits in the West Augustine area, a neighborhood west of the city's downtown core bounded roughly by U.S. 1 and the San Sebastian River. The location places residents within reach of U.S. 1 commercial corridors and employment centers along State Road 16 and in the broader St. Augustine area.

Impact on housing affordability and displacement pressure

The project adds supply at the lower end of St. Johns County's rental market, where demand has intensified as the county's population surges and home prices climb beyond the reach of service workers, young families, and fixed-income seniors. St. Johns County is among Florida's fastest-growing counties, with residential development concentrated along the CR 210 corridor, the Nocatee and SilverLeaf master-planned communities, and the SR 16 / World Golf Village area. That growth has driven the county's median home price above $450,000 in recent years, squeezing renters and moderate-income buyers.

Income-restricted housing like the Village of New Augustine targets households whose earnings fall below market-rate thresholds — in this case, 60% of area median income, a benchmark used in federal and state affordable-housing programs. For St. Johns County, 60% AMI translates to annual incomes of roughly $40,000 to $50,000 for a family of four, depending on household size adjustments, meaning the units serve teachers, healthcare aides, retail workers, and others in occupations critical to the local economy but often priced out of market-rate rentals.

The West Augustine neighborhood has historically been home to longtime Black residents and working-class families, and the area has faced displacement pressure as St. Augustine's tourism economy and residential development boom push values upward. Deed-restricted affordable housing offers a mechanism to preserve housing options for lower-income residents in neighborhoods experiencing gentrification pressure, though the scale of new supply — 92 units in a county adding thousands of housing units annually — is modest relative to overall demand.

How public funding shaped the project

The $1.6 million in county support represents a blended-finance approach typical of affordable-housing projects, which rarely pencil on market-rate rents alone and instead rely on layered public subsidies, tax-credit equity, and below-market debt. The $460,000 Affordable Housing Grant came from county funds set aside under Florida's State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program or local affordable-housing trust dollars, while the $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds came from the federal pandemic-relief allocation St. Johns County received in 2021 and has deployed across infrastructure, public health, and economic development priorities.

The 2022 impact-fee deferral ordinance mentioned in the county's announcement allows developers of affordable or workforce housing to delay payment of transportation, parks, and other impact fees until after construction, reducing the up-front capital required and making projects more feasible. Impact fees in St. Johns County can run several thousand dollars per unit, so deferral or waiver programs are common tools local governments use to incentivize below-market housing production.

Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), the primary financing engine for affordable rental housing in the United States, likely also played a role in capitalizing the project, though the county announcement does not specify. National Equity Fund, listed among the partners at the ribbon-cutting, is a tax-credit syndicator that pools investor equity for LIHTC projects. Developments financed with tax credits must maintain income restrictions and rent limits for a compliance period of at least 30 years, ensuring long-term affordability.

Implications for West Augustine and St. Augustine's rental market

The addition of 92 units to West Augustine's housing stock represents a small but tangible increase in affordable supply in a city where rental inventory has tightened alongside the broader housing boom. For existing West Augustine residents, the development brings new neighbors and activity to the Volusia Street corridor, along with the community amenities — fitness center, computer lab, library — that the county and Ability Housing are positioning as tools for resident stability and economic mobility.

Joe Cone, Assistant Director of St. Johns County Health and Human Services, noted in the announcement that the project aims to connect residents with "tools, programs, and resources" through partnerships with community organizations. Supportive services — job training, financial literacy, childcare referrals, transportation assistance — are increasingly bundled into affordable-housing developments as developers and funders recognize that housing stability depends on more than rent alone. The involvement of the West Augustine Historical Community Development Corporation suggests an intent to root the project in the neighborhood's existing civic fabric and history.

For the broader St. Augustine rental market, the units relieve a sliver of pressure on working families competing for scarce affordable apartments, though the scale is small relative to the queue of cost-burdened renters. Housing advocates and developers typically emphasize that solving affordability requires production at scale — hundreds and thousands of units annually — alongside zoning reforms that allow more diverse housing types. The Village of New Augustine is one project in a larger pipeline the county and nonprofit developers are advancing, but the gap between supply and need remains wide in a county adding population at one of Florida's fastest clips.

What happens next

The Village of New Augustine is now leasing apartments, with prospective tenants required to meet income qualifications and apply through Ability Housing's process. Information on availability, income limits, and application procedures is available on the project's website. The income restrictions and rent limits are locked in for the compliance period tied to the project's financing, typically decades, meaning the units will remain affordable housing rather than converting to market rate in the near term.

St. Johns County continues to grapple with housing-affordability policy as growth accelerates. The Board of County Commissioners has allocated SHIP funds, ARPA dollars, and incentives like impact-fee deferrals to spur affordable production, and the county's strategic plan identifies housing as a priority. Additional projects are in the pipeline from Ability Housing and other nonprofit and for-profit developers, though each requires the complex layering of subsidies, tax credits, and local support that made the Village of New Augustine possible.

The opening of this West Augustine community underscores the difficult arithmetic facing fast-growing Northeast Florida counties: strong in-migration and job growth drive housing demand, but construction costs, land prices, and regulatory timelines make it hard to build affordably without subsidy. How much local governments invest, and how quickly they can move projects through approvals, will shape whether working families can stay in the communities fueling the region's economic engine.