As Florida’s housing costs have increased, state lawmakers have annually taken money from the Sadowski Fund, Florida’s pot of money designated to help low-income families with housing costs.
Over the past 12 years, lawmakers have shifted roughly $2 billion that was raised through a tax on real estate purchases to increase affordable housing and used it to and balance the state budget.
Gov. Ron DeSantis had promised to use the money for its intended purpose this year, but last year the governor signed a final budget that pulled $125 million from the fund.
This year, the House’s budget would pull $240 million from the fund, while the Senate and governor remain committed — at this point — to fully funding the fund for the first time in years.
Local governments receiving the funds decide how they are used, and many designate the money to go toward down payment and closing cost assistance for first-time homebuyers. Teachers are among those most likely to tap into the available money because their income is low enough to qualify, but stable enough to meet standard mortgage requirements.
“That is a major program that teachers look for,” said Jamie Ross, Florida Housing Coalition President. “Ultimately, they want to be first time homebuyers.”
As housing has moved increasingly out of reach for teachers, school districts are getting creative.
In 2018, as teacher strikes swept the country, the Miami-Dade School District proposed including a floor of apartments for staff in a new middle school in the trendy Brickell neighborhood of Miami. The initial project is modest in scope, with the school most likely housing 10 school employees, but Miami-Dade is also moving forward with plans to build more than 200 affordable housing units in a school-district owned property.
Sarasota School District officials are looking into building affordable housing for teachers on some parcels of unused land once slated as future school sites. District officials in both Miami and Sarasota stressed that education remained their key mission, but housing has become almost a necessity.
“I don’t know that we as a school district want to be in the housing business, but we have the need and we have the land,” said Jody Dumas, Sarasota School District chief operating officer.
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