Central Florida
Central Florida is a region of complexity and contrasts: Downtowns and suburbs and rural areas. Tourists, transplants, and multi-generation locals. Businesses and academia and government and nonprofits and faith communities. Many colors, many languages, many creeds, many situations, and circumstances. Each group with different needs and wants and dreams. Bright Community Trust engages these voices from across Central Florida so we put each unique neighborhood’s priorities front and center when planning the future of housing in our region. We need every sector and voice pulling together – and dissenting sometimes too – to transform our shared future. We need stories, numbers, data, policies, dollars, expertise, capacity, organizations, and people, of course. But most of all? This is your home. We need YOU.
Active Initiatives
Community Land Trust: Bright Community Trust serves as a land trust in Central Florida to steward affordable land in perpetuity. Learn more about the Community Land Trust program here.
Community Involvement: Frank Wells participated in Leadership Seminole Class 30 and their Legacy Project at the AdventHealth Hope & Healing Center, which treats those with opioid addictions in Seminole County. The initial goal of the combined Class 29/30 Legacy Project was to raise $75,000, which would cover the costs of 15 individuals seeking addiction recovery, and they successfully surpassed their goal. Traci Blue is currently a part of the Leadership Seminole Class 32, and their Legacy Project is focused on The Village, Impower’s transitional housing program for young adults aging out of foster care. Traci also serves on the OCPS A.C.E. School's Community Leadership Council. Our staff also regularly attends the East Altamonte Community Association meetings.
Evictions and Foreclosures Group: As the number of evictions and foreclosures began to rise, Bright Community Trust created an Evictions and Foreclosures Group (EFG) task force comprised of leaders throughout the region to create a coordinated response to these looming crises. This group meets bi-weekly to address evictions and foreclosures resulting from the pandemic, which includes cities and counties from around Central Florida; nonprofits addressing housing and homelessness issues; the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando and Orlando Regional Realtor Association; the County Court judge managing the evictions docket; legal aid organizations; Heart of Florida United Way; Career Source; and state and national agencies like the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies at the University of Florida and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. If you are a regional leader who would like to be involved in these discussions, please contact Frank Wells here.
Parramore Community Engagement Council: The council was established in 2016 by Valencia, UCF, the City of Orlando, and local residents and businesses to improve the quality of life in Parramore with a focus on five key pillars: jobs, health, education, safety, and affordable housing. Traci Blue serves as a member of the Parramore Community Engagement Council and chairs the PCEC Housing Focus Group. Learn more about the work of the PCEC here.
Homeownership Equity Initiative: In our market of the four-county area (Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Lake Counties), there are about 873,000 households, having an overall homeownership rate of 61%. Of White households, 73% are homeowners, but of BIPOC households, only 52% are homeowners. The need has never been greater, with homeownership out of reach for an increasing number of residents, especially people of color, but there is also an unprecedented level of commitment and investment by organizations and jurisdictions in the four-county area. Learn more about the program and how you can get involved here.
Previous Initiatives
Financial Empowerment Classes: From September 2022 to September 2023, Bright offered a total of six monthly financial empowerment classes throughout the Central Florida area, covering a wide range of topics including the path to homeownership, identity theft/protection, budget basics, and more. Learn more about this program here.
Housing Conditions Survey: The Parramore Community Engagement Council (PCEC) partnered with the University of Central Florida (UCF) to conduct a housing conditions survey in the Parramore area. The researchers had two main goals: analyze the existing housing stock in the Parramore community and evaluate the urban form and functionality of the built environment. You can read the results of the study here.
COVID-19 Response: The COVID-19 pandemic changed our community in ways that will continue to affect us for years to come. With many people losing their jobs, we created a food-delivery system for those that were the most affected in Parramore and surrounding areas. We partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank to make nearly 9,000 deliveries of perishable and non-perishable food boxes. Additionally, COVID-19 Testing was a huge challenge during this pandemic. There were not enough testing sites to administer tests to everyone who needed them, so we partnered with the Central Florida Urban League to set up pop-up COVID-19 testing sites in and around Parramore to help our community be safer for everyone. We serviced over 200 community members with free COVID-19 rapid testing.
2020 Census: The deadline for participating in the 2020 Census was moved from October 31 to September 30, giving people less time to participate. We created an ad hoc task force to improve the Census participation rates by 10% in Parramore and West Lakes. Bright's Census Task Force partnered with One Heart for Women to host a food drop at Tinker Field, providing over 70,000 pounds of food and getting dozens of Census questionnaires completed while people waited in line for food and other resources. Our team also created a Census-A-Thon event with weekly drawings for prizes to incentivize residents to complete their census forms and partnered with other organizations hosting events to have residents complete the census.