On the site of the old Fun-Lan Drive-In Theatre along East Hillsborough Avenue, the future of housing in Tampa is taking shape. Marquee Square, a 354-unit mixed-income apartment community, opened its doors this month with rents starting as low as $804 a month a welcome sight in a city where affordable housing is a hot commodity.

For Sherman Lovett, who has been searching alongside a friend for more than a year and a half, the opening feels almost unreal.

It freaked me out," he said. "Me and her, we had passed by them long time ago, and we said, oh, we can't afford him, Lovett said. Those are condominiums. We're looking at $2,000, $3,000 $1,500 a month. You know, we only getting $800, $900 a month in Social Security. So forget about that.

But Lovett said once he saw what Marquee Square r

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