Affordable homes should leave room for a life.
An Affordable Housing Innovation Lab in St. Petersburg, Florida
Breezeway Land Preservation & Housing Trust
Breezeway tests practical ways to create stable, affordable homeownership for working people. We build and rehabilitate small projects, measure what happens, improve the model and share what works so others can use it.
Meet Shayla
A steady job, but no clear path home
Shayla is a hardworking St. Petersburg resident with steady work, benefits, and even an employee-ownership stake. She does most of the things we tell people to do: shows up, saves what she can, and plans ahead. Even so, conventional homeownership keeps moving out of reach.
Breezeway asks a simple question: can we create one more path? A path that fits people like Shayla, keeps monthly costs predictable, and still works for lenders, public agencies, and neighbors.
Permaculture is the design method
The garden is not the permaculture part of Breezeway. The whole housing system is.
We use permaculture as a practical design method: stack functions, use what already exists, observe and measure, start small, and reuse what works. At Breezeway, that means connecting housing, food, energy, work, education, and ownership so each piece supports the others instead of competing for the same dollar every month.
Affordable enough to thrive
More than a mortgage payment
For most working households, “affordable” is about more than the purchase price. Total monthly cost is shaped by ownership structure, energy use, maintenance, transportation, resilience, and opportunity.
Breezeway’s work is to test combinations of these pieces in real homes, with real residents, and share what we learn so more people can afford not just to stay housed, but to build a life.
Community ownership in plain English
At Breezeway, residents buy limited-equity cooperative shares instead of a single private lot. They own and govern together, using clear bylaws and resale rules to keep homes affordable for the next resident.
This is not a promise that prices will never change. It is a practical way to share benefits and responsibilities, keep speculation in check, and give residents a real voice in how their housing works.
One vision, three demonstrations
Breezeway’s current concept has three proposed demonstration stages:
• Gilbert: 1 to 4 homes
• Dolly: 6 to 12 homes
• Breezeway: about 32 homes
Each stage is designed to test a different mix of home types, ownership structures, and site conditions. All are still in development. Financing structures are being explored, modeled, and verified with partners before any commitments are made.
Central Oak Park is our neighborhood laboratory.
We work with willing homeowners, renters, and small landlords in Central Oak Park to test practical improvements in homes of different ages and conditions. Changes might include energy upgrades, small site changes, or new ways of sharing space.
Participation is voluntary. Results are measured, documented, and shared so neighbors, partners, and the City can see what actually works on the ground.
No one builds this alone.
Breezeway is inviting public agencies, banks and CDFIs, foundations, utilities, contractors, design professionals, attorneys, accountants, neighbors and future residents to help build, test, document and improve the model. Some partners may fund a demonstration. Others may contribute materials, experience, pro bono or reduced-fee professional work, or simply help us ask better questions.
Learn about the model and read the plain-language guide
Contribute practical or professional expertise
Offer pro bono or reduced-fee professional services
Support or help fund a demonstration
Become a mission-aligned project partner
Participate in neighborhood testing and future discussions
Housing that builds capacity
Breezeway is designed to build capacity, not just units. That includes appropriate hands-on work, clear documentation, testing, mentorship, and workforce pathways.
Residents are invited to contribute roughly one volunteer hour per week, suited to their abilities and interests. That might mean helping in the landscape, supporting a neighbor, joining a work session, or sharing a skill. The goal is to make the neighborhood stronger, not to add unpaid labor to already full lives.