The Projects

Greetings! This blog is about project living in The Swamp, my daily life, food, couponing and everything else it takes to live like a queen on a really limited income. I landed in the projects after spending six months, a week, and 3 days living in the Dignity Village Homeless Camp, and five months in temporary housing with three UF students for roommates. I'll talk more about this journey later.

The projects shown here is in downtown Gainesville and is run by the Gainesville Housing Authority: aka GHA. Rent is a third of your income no matter what that income is but no lower than like $25 a month. These units are also income restricted as well. So, if you make over a certain amount of money each month you cannot more in.

There are 101 units in this building all studio apartments and small one bedrooms. Rent includes electricity (a/c & heat), water, parking, and free entertainment. Maintenance is also included and usually taken care of quickly once you can get someone to take a work-order. This includes them replacing your light bulbs and the batteries in your smoke detectors.

I live in a studio and my rent is exactly a third of my income. If I were over 60 years old my monthly medical expenses would be deducted from my income and then the remainder would be divided by a third.

Most people who live in my building have incomes around $750 a month and pay around $250 a month rent and are older than 55. Very few of us own a vehicle, I am lucky enough to have one, so parking is limited.