By Carole Hawkins, Staff Writer
Even before Karen Stern became a Realtor, she knew how important it was for everyone to have a home.
As a former St. Johns County commissioner, Stern helped disadvantaged neighborhoods in West St. Augustine secure public funding for housing and infrastructure redevelopment.
“There’s such a tremendous need for affordable housing there and for the financially needy — both for low-income residents and for the homeless,” she said.
Stern for the last two years has worked as an agent at Davidson Realty’s World Golf Village office. The job hasn’t been so much a career change as a natural progression of interests she’s had all her life.
“Selling real estate, to me, is really about finding the right fit for people,” she said. “And personal interaction and relationship building really are my strengths.”
Stern grew up in a small town in Alabama, the daughter of a general contractor. Her father built custom homes and, as a child, Stern got to see a lot of construction sites.
“I used to love reading the blueprints that were spread out across my father’s work table,” she said. “When I was really young, I loved going to the job sites and picking up the cut-up pieces of wood. They were my blocks.”
As an adult, Stern first hoped to become a teacher, but graduated instead with a degree in sociology. After getting marriage, she opted out of a career to raise her children. A strong education proponent, she served on the school board during that time.
When her youngest entered high school in St. Augustine, friends noted her pending empty-nest lifestyle and asked her to run for a seat on the county commission. It took a while for Stern to say yes.
“I kept asking, ‘Why is it important that I do this? You’ve already got people there,’” she said.
Then somebody gave her a copy of the West Augustine area community redevelopment proposal, an initiative to improve housing in St. Augustine’s inner-city district. Stern knew she had found a cause to which she could lend some leadership.
“It’s a very economically depressed area — the average household income is $16,000 a year,” she said. “I realized this really would be a fulfilling thing for me to do.”
The job required Stern to advocate at the state level, where her talent at building relationships paid off.
The county secured community development grants to renovate houses and to tear down and rebuild housing that couldn’t be saved. There was also help for the district’s septic tanks, which were fraught with drainage problems, due to a preponderance of wetlands.
“It was a time when we were presenting a lot of checks to the city,” Stern said.
As a Realtor, Stern remains active in housing issues. She serves as a NEFAR board member and is on the organization’s legislative committee.
This year she’s watching what lawmakers do with the Sadowski Trust Fund, state money that’s supposed to pay for affordable housing. She’s also interested in lowering the commercial lease sales tax and in policies related to septic tanks.
Stern was one of 44 NEFAR Realtors who in March traveled to Tallahassee to talk to the local delegation about issues.
“Because of my past public service, I have good relationships with most of the legislators there,” she said. “And I have a passion for it. That’s really necessary when you’re working on advocacy.”