As Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando help build affordable apartments for employees and the public, questions remain about who is going to get to live there and what other local businesses, if any, will follow suit.
The developments on land owned by the theme park companies are being constructed and managed by outside organizations but don’t have opening dates yet. Disney and Universal say the 2,300 combined units will have capped rents, making them accessible to low-wage service workers who make up most of their workforces.
Union president Jeremy Haicken, who represents about 18,000 service staff at Disney with Unite Here Local 737, called Disney’s housing project “a positive step” toward addressing the area’s housing emergency when it was announced last year.
