St. Bede's Village: '20-year dream' becomes reality

By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

Photography: TOM TRACY | FC

KEY WEST | The end of the 20-year journey to bring affordable housing to the Lower Keys signaled the beginning of a new day for working men and women in this tropical community known for its high cost of living. 

Archbishop Thomas Wenski led a March 6, 2021 blessing and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Key West-based St. Bede's Village, which will provide 37 units of affordable housing for employed single adult males; short-term accommodations for qualifying individuals with very low to moderate income levels; and permanent housing for disabled individuals who are capable of independent living.

After an opening prayer from Msgr. Roberto Garza, board chairman for Catholic Charities of Miami, Charities CEO Peter Routsis-Arroyo welcomed the agency’s local and senior staff, board members, civic and nonprofit leaders, building and contractor staff, archdiocesan Pastoral Center staff, elected officials and members of the local community, including clergy from the nearby Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish. 

“A project like this needs support at all levels, and we are happy to say we have had the support of government,” Routsis-Arroyo said, noting the presence of Lea Padron, representing U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio; Monroe County Mayor Michelle Coldiron; and City of Key West Mayor Teri Johnston, all of whom took tours of the facility. 

St. Bede’s Village is nearing completion and staff expect to start screening applications this spring and accepting new residents as early as summer. 

“This is a 20-year dream that today is becoming a reality,” Routsis-Arroyo said, adding that Catholic Charities of Miami facilitated some $2 million in aid and relief assistance following 2017’s Hurricane Irma. But a tremendous need remains for affordable housing in the region, even apart from the crisis associated with hurricanes or the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

“What we began to realize was the biggest need was safe, affordable housing (for working, single men), and that is where the dream started of doing this workforce housing facility. It took us four to five years to do the planning, permitting and the zoning — it was a challenge, but I am happy to say the city agreed to it and we moved forward,” Routsis-Arroyo said.

St. Bede’s Village, located at 2700 Flagler Ave., in the center of Key West’s “New Town” district, consists of a $9 million complex of housing modules and staff office space, with another 10 units yet to be built for the disabled clients. 

Key West Mayor Johnston told the gathering that the city has enjoyed a good and collaborative relationship with Catholic Charities and is grateful to the agency for bringing the new housing to fruition. 

“It’s one of our major challenges in this community: We are on a beautiful ‘2x4’ island, with very little land, in the third most expensive county in the United states, so I can’t tell you how much 37 units helps our cause and helps puts people in reliable, acceptable housing,” Johnston said. 

“But also it reduces our homelessness in the City of Key West,” she added. “When you look around it's beautiful and we really do live in paradise, but it's very difficult for many people to sustain in Key West. We are a tourist driven economy. It's historically one of the lowest paying economies that we have.”

Monroe County Mayor Coldiron told the gathering that as an elected official she is asked daily by the public: What is she doing to protect the environment, what is she doing to protect residents and what is she doing for workforce housing. 

“So it is a day like today that makes mayors like Teri and myself happy and exuberant because we are a part of this magnificent building,” Coldiron said. 

Padron noted that Sen. Rubio was working in Washington, D.C. and sent a letter to the gathering where he noted, “The countless men and women helped over the years by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami is a testament to your commitment to God and his commandment to love your neighbor as yourselves.”

“Your commitment here to providing affordable housing for those working in this community as well as your assistance to persons with disabilities helps one another and changes lives for the better. St. Bede’s Village will now serve as a place they can call home in the Keys, and from which dreams can be built together,” Sen. Rubio added. “I look forward to hearing of your continued good work in the name of the Lord in the coming years.”

Archbishop Wenski noted that a lot of people worked quietly in the background over many years to get all the pieces to come together for St. Bede’s Village, a project that at times met with some community reticence. 

“This is an example of the community coming together to do good, and of the Church cooperating to do good,” the archbishop said. 

He recalled the late St. Augustine Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley, who was responsible for much of the growth and expansion of the Catholic churches and facilities in Florida during the 1950s. 

“Archbishop Hurley used to say, the Church must do good, but the Church must be seen as doing good. In that sense he was not trying to promote a false pride, but he was saying what Jesus says in the Gospel, that you don’t put a light under a bushel basket,” Archbishop Wenski said. 

“Catholic Charities exists as the institutional expression of the local Church, of the Catholics here in South Florida in terms of their commitment to do good as individuals, as a parish community — and the Basilica parish here has done great good and their witness for the homeless and needy in this community is unparalleled,” the archbishop added, referring to St. Mary Star of the Sea. 

He added that it takes institutions like Catholic Charities in society to help put together the pieces and build a project like St. Bede’s. “I thank all of you for playing a role in making this possible.” 

For more information, go to: https://www.ccadm.org/sh_projects/st-bedes-village/.