The Daytona Beach News-Journal

An estimated 40 percent of Volusia County households don’t earn enough to cover all their expenses, let alone an apartment that rents for $1,500 a month.

Last week’s report on luxury apartments cropping up in the Daytona Beach area described spacious new digs teeming with amenities like fitness centers, theaters and poolside grills. This area has been identified as one of the hottest target markets for upscale multifamily residential development, and 15 new complexes are slated for completion through 2021.

But The News-Journal’s Clayton Park didn’t back away from the other side of this luxury-driven boom. An estimated 40 percent of Volusia County households don’t earn enough to cover all their expenses, let alone an apartment that rents for $1,500 a month.

And the squeeze will continue for the foreseeable future. Volusia County has a very low housing vacancy rate of 3.8 percent, increasing competition and raising rents for even the most modest properties. That puts the squeeze on — not just for the very low-income workers who flip hamburgers, mop floors and make beds, but for middle-income professions such as teachers, police officers and office workers. As Park points out, a salary of $35,000 works out to $3,000 a month — before taxes, health care and other deductions. A $1,500 apartment would cost significantly more than half of each paycheck.

And builders don’t seem interested in building anything more modest. That’s because the price of land and the cost of construction is rising so fast, John Wanamaker, the broker/owner of Coldwell Banker Commercial AI Group in Orange City, told Park.

Costs are going up so fast, in fact, that at its last meeting the Volusia County Council approved significant increases in the amount of no-interest loans and subsidies for first-time home buyers.

But local governments can’t carry this burden alone. They need the state Legislature to release its greedy grip on a fund that was set up to provide for affordable housing across the state.

The Sadowski Fund was set up to use documentary-stamp revenues, generated from real estate transactions, to fund affordable housing. It’s a rich source of revenue, even when property sales are down — but in this go-go market, the fund is expected to capture nearly $246 million in revenue for 2020-21.

If the program were fully funded, that could bring $1.3 million to Flagler County and $6.3 million to Volusia County to build and underwrite affordable, workforce housing.

Unfortunately, lawmakers can’t keep their hands out of this cookie jar. In past sessions they routinely raided the fund, taking money that should be used for affordable housing and spending it on their own priorities.

That should not happen this year. Gov. Ron DeSantis is recommending full funding for the Sadowski program. If lawmakers don’t want to listen to the governor, they should instead turn to their local chambers of commerce and other business groups. Some of the state’s most powerful interests — such as Associated Industries of Florida, AARP, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida League of Cities — have joined more than three dozen other groups to form the Sadowski Housing Coalition. And countless local organizations — including the Daytona Beach Regional Chamber — have Sadowski funding on their short list of priorities. They recognize that affordable housing is a critical component of a healthy economy.

It’s time lawmakers understood this, too. And that should start with a resolution to direct all of the Sadowski Fund revenues toward the purpose for which they were intended.

Article last accessed here on January 22, 2020. A print-ready version is available here.