January 7, 2016 | Tribune/Naples Daily News Capital Bureau
By Jeff Schweers
TALLAHASSEE — A group of 30 social service advocates, home builders, business leaders and faith-based organizations want the Legislature to spend all $324 million of housing trust fund money on housing programs this year rather than sweep a huge portion of that money into the state’s budget.
Spending the money would create 32,600 jobs and provide $4.6 billion in economic stimulus to the economy, Sadowski Housing Coalition members said at a news conference Thursday.
“This money is collected by statute, and we’re talking about not sweeping it. We always have the same ask. Don’t sweep the trust fund,” said Jaimie Ross, president of the Florida Housing Coalition and facilitator for the Sadowski Housing Coalition.
More than 951,000 Floridians spend more than half their income on housing, Ross said. Florida is also the third highest state for homelessness — consistent with its status as the third most-populous state — with 35,900 people in shelters or on the streets, including veterans and children, she said.
The revenue raised by the documentary stamp tax paid on all real estate transactions goes to state and local housing trust funds. About 70 percent goes to the local government fund for the State Housing Initiatives Partnership, or SHIP, and the rest goes to the state trust fund for the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, which includes programs like the State Apartment Incentive Program, or SAIL.
But in the years following the Great Recession, the Legislature has made a habit of using trust fund revenues to shore up the general fund. Last year, the Legislature swept $81 million — almost a third of the available housing trust money — into the regular budget while the housing programs got $175 million.
This year, $226.5 million is available for SHIP and $97.4 million for SAIL.
Ross said she understood that when the recession hit, everyone had to chip in to keep essential services running.
“But when there is not that pressure, that amount of money that should be appropriated to our housing program,” Ross said. “That is the amount money collected for the trust fund by statute. That’s the amount that should be appropriated.”
In Tampa, the trust fund money was used to launch Operation Versailles, a program to get homeless veterans off the streets and into houses and apartments, and assist with home repairs for other veterans, said Vanessa McCleary, the city of Tampa’s manager of housing and community development.
“They shouldn’t have to go fight for our country and come back to no home,” McCleary said.
SHIP money was used to redevelop an apartment complex to house vets, and help repair 11 homes in the city of Tampa and another 11 homes in the county, she said. Seventy-nine vets were taken off the streets, she said.
The money also helped veterans hard hit by foreclosures.
The result is Tampa has achieved what she called functional zero in veteran homelessness – a goal to get newly discovered homeless vets off the streets and into a shelter within 30 days.
SHIP money is also used helping people with jobs who can’t afford housing in the current market, she said. With the rising cost of housing and rental rates, it is hard for working families to find safe, affordable housing, McCleary said.
The city’s next project will be to create a camp for homeless kids. Like Operation Reveille, it would be a one-stop shop for services that would help put families in touch with the right agencies to help them find housing and work, she said.
Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who was instrumental in getting last year’s $175 million, said it was unfortunate that the Legislature has gotten into the habit of sweeping the trust fund.
“It’s like when the holidays are approaching and you know you are going to eat more and gain weight,” he said. “It is not a good policy to assume a sweep of trust funds. They should be used exactly as intended.”
He said he believed his colleagues in the senate would be receptive to the argument to raise the amount, even though it’s almost twice what the Legislature appropriated for this year.
Fully funding the housing trust funds are more important now than ever, with the state experiencing a shortage of affordable housing not only for first-time homebuyers but renters, too.
“We need to provide safe and affordable homes for a growing workforce,” said Frank Walker, vice president of government affairs for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said that building affordable homes is good for all businesses. “We need an adequate supply of affordable housing.”
Article last accessed here on January 7, 2016.