Janet Bellows, an Operating Room Registered Nurse at Florida Hospital Flagler, has been selected by the Volusia County Council to serve on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. Janet is one of eleven members chosen to serve on the committee for a term of two years. The committee was created in an attempt to develop an affordable housing program that will serve the needs Volusia County citizens.
Janet has been a Florida Hospital Flagler employee for the past nine months, but she’s been a professional in the area for the 10 years. “I’ve been in management and I’ve been staff, and particularly when I was a manager, I would get so frustrated with the mass exodus of nurses,” Janet said. “They were leaving Florida and the sole reason was that there wasn’t any affordable housing available.”
After noticing a small article in the newspaper announcing that the Volusia County Council was looking for local professionals to serve Affordable Housing Committee, Janet decided to take action and apply. “I wanted to make a change,” she said. “I wanted to enhance our community by encouraging professionals of all backgrounds to move to our cities. I also didn’t want residents to feel like they had to leave the state to get quality health care because of a lack of nurses locally.”
While Janet does acknowledge that the slowing economy has allowed inflated housing prices to come down, the new problem is that many nurses are living on a smaller income because their spouses have laid-off because of the economy.
The committee’s first meeting is at the end of the month and Janet is excited to get started. “I’m looking forward to meeting all of the other professionals on the committee,” she said. “I can’t wait to find ways to keep families and professionals in our community.”
