By: Dick Batchelor and Jaimie Ross | Orlando Business Journal
Orange County lost nearly $13 million in local affordable housing funds last year when the Florida Legislature swept those funds into general revenue. It is impossible to know where that money was used. We just know it was not used for housing.
The same story plays out around the state. The higher the population, the more local housing trust funds were lost. For example, Broward County lost about $20 million in funds last year.
With the 2019 legislative session just beginning, now is the time to stop these sweeps of Sadowski Act state and local housing trust funds — money specifically designated for affordable housing. The Legislature can create more than 30,000 jobs and more than $4.4 billion in economic impact if it appropriates the trust fund money for housing.
On the local level, Sadowski money funds the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program, a nationally acclaimed model for effectively and efficiently meeting community housing needs. SHIP provides sustainable homeownership and rental housing for Florida’s workforce, helps prevent homelessness, and provides emergency repairs and disaster recovery for Florida’s most vulnerable residents, including the elderly, people with disabilities and veterans.
The Sadowski state housing trust fund primarily supports the State Apartment Incentive Loan Program. SAIL is a nationally acclaimed model for gap financing, producing apartments for Florida’s workforce and at-risk populations who might otherwise need to live in an institutional setting.
SHIP and SAIL have proven track records of performance, transparency and accountability.
The 2019 Home Matters Report, recently released by the Florida Housing Coalition, found the number of very low-income households in Florida that pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing increased from last year. These families are one unexpected expense away from homelessness.
So why is the housing crisis getting worse? For more than a decade, the Florida Legislature has taken money statutorily dedicated to state and local housing trust funds and redirected it into general revenue. The total exceeds $2 billion, an extraordinary amount of lost affordable housing.
When Florida had a budget deficit from the Great Recession, using that money was understandable. But for the past several years, there has been no deficit.
This year could — and should — see an end to this practice. In his budget, Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed using every penny of the state and local housing trust fund money for housing — the first time in more than a decade that we have the governor’s support of full funding for Florida’s housing programs.
In addition, state Rep. Rene Plasencia, (R-Orlando) is the prime co-sponsor of House Bill 1103, which state Rep. David Silvers (D-Lake Clarke Shores) filed a week before the session started to stop the trust fund sweeps. This is the companion to Senate Bill 70 filed by state Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R-Rockledge). This bipartisan effort to stop the sweeps catalyzes the movement for full appropriation of the housing trust funds.
Using Florida’s housing funds solely for housing creates a positive economic impact for the state by fueling economic development, creating jobs, investing in our local communities and contributing to the well-being of Florida’s families, veterans, elderly, persons with disabilities, persons experiencing homelessness and deserving Floridians in need of affordable workforce housing.
Article last accessed here on March 12, 2019. A print-ready version is available here.