By Cleveland Tinker | Gainesville Sun
Dilapidated hotels could be part of the solution to reducing homelessness in Alachua County.
Providing money in their budgets to pay for housing the homeless, as well as owning and operating low-income housing are a couple of avenues Alachua County and city of Gainesville officials want to explore to reduce homelessness here.
The Alachua County and city of Gainesville commissions earlier this month met to discuss homelessness and government’s role in curtailing it. During the discussion, they decided to begin developing budgets to implement a housing-focused model to serve the chronically homeless, which officials say number around 300 in Alachua County.
The housing-focused model is desirable because it costs less keeping a person housed than living outdoors and because it allows officials to provide social services in those homes, among other things, officials say.
The housing-focused model will be phased in over a period of years, which well be determined later, with goals and performance measures for each year, officials say.
Funding options should include using housing bonds, said City Commissioner Gail Johnson, and both commissions agreed.
Local governments around the nation have had success using housing bonds to provide affordable housing to residents, Johnson said. Housing bonds are debt securities issued by state and local governments to raise money to spend on housing.
Led by Assistant City Manager Fred Murry and Claudia Tuck, director of county Community Support Services, officials will analyze several ideas that might become part of a long-term plan to combat homelessness that will be presented to the commissions in December.
Those ideas include analyzing opportunities to buy apartment complexes and hotels that can be used for affordable housing, creating an incentive program for landlords to rent to the homeless, developing a better emergency housing site that would feature dry pads for tents, staff patrolling and improved hygiene, asking state legislators to urge state officials not to use money from a state fund meant to help pay for affordable housing for other causes and to request the state Legislature mandate that all 67 counties “equitably address funding for the homeless issue.”
The Florida Legislature established the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund about 25 years ago to take revenue generated through doc stamp taxes — the tax on documents such as real estate titles — and save it for assisting with affordable housing.
But beginning in 2003, the Legislature began taking money out of the trust fund and using it to shore up other parts of the state budget. The process accelerated during the Great Recession, but the process has continued even as the economy recovered.
Last year, the doc stamp taxes generated about $292 million for affordable housing trust funds, but more than $130 million of that was moved to general revenue to balance the budget. That happened every year since 2003, even as the Legislature passed tax cut after tax cut.
City and county officials also want the Malcom Randall Veterans Administration Medical Center, North Florida Regional Medical Center, University of Florida Health and UF President Kent Fuchs to appoint a member of their staffs to provide them with information and attend meetings about the issue.
It’s going to cost about $3 million to $4 million to deal with the issue annually, City Commissioner Harvey Ward said, while suggesting the housing-focused approach discussion include the idea of single-room occupancy — in essence, providing hotel rooms to the homeless.
“There are motels around Alachua County that are not in great shape and are barely staying afloat, some of which are abandoned,” Ward said. “Maybe we need to look at the city and county owning those, doing some minimal remodeling, rehab and retrofitting, and maybe that’s part of the answer. We’re only talking about 300 units here. That ought to be solvable.”
City and county officials also want their staffs to draft a policy that will govern who is eligible to take advantage of whatever housing model is adopted to serve the homeless.
“The residency issue is real,” said County Commissioner Mike Byerly.
Homeless people throughout the region will flock to the county if they find out there is no residency requirement, Byerly said.
“We’ve got Williston, Ocala and we’ve got Palatka, and we have Starke and Lake City and we have communities around here with their own chronic homeless who would not come here for Dignity Village, but if they hear Alachua County is giving away housing, that (coming to Alachua County) will happen.”
Cleveland Tinker is a Gainesville Sun staff writer.
Article last accessed on June 28, 2018 here. A print-ready PDF is available here.