Orange boosts affordable housing

County sets aside $10M, calls on other donors to contribute

Orange County commissioners set aside $10 million Tuesday for an affordable-housing trust fund which hasn’t been created yet.

The fund and cash pledge are key planks in a 10-year plan devised to address the region’s affordable-housing crisis and lift Orlando from last among U.S. cities in rankings by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Mitchell Glasser, manager of the county’s housing and community development division, described the budget pledge as a “firm commitment” in support of the wide-ranging plan, which was drafted by the “Housing for All” task force, a group of representatives from Universal Orlando and Disney World, realtors, architects and leaders from nonprofits and hospitals that Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings created shortly after he was elected in November 2018.

The recommended trust fund has not been created yet as the County Attorney’s Office is drafting an ordinance to guide its use and rules to protect its assets from “raids” for other projects.

“This is something they’ve done ahead of schedule,” Glasser said of commissioners, who were expected to provide the initial funding for the trust fund during the 2020-21 budget cycle later this year.

He described the $10 million as

“surplus” funds discovered by county staff after an endof-the year financial update, which also was reviewed and approved unanimously Tuesday by the board.

Glasser said the county hopes other donors, including businesses, step up and contribute as well.

The “Affordable Housing Trust Fund” has been described as Orange County’s version of the William F. Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Funds, created in 1992 by the state Legislature to help lower-income Floridians.

But legislators over the last two decades have

raided about $2.2 billion from Sadowski funds to balance the budget and fund other projects — leaving little to increase access to affordable housing.

Commissioner Betsy VanderLey endorsed the idea of an ordinance protecting the local fund, which is intended to help create rent-restricted housing projects.

“Taking lessons learned from what’s happened with the Sadowski Funds over time, I would like to ensure that when we put an ordinance forward for the fund we’re going to have here locally, we have protections so some future board can’t use it in some other fashion but that it stays dedicated as planned,” she said. “I think

probably when the Sadowski Funds were formed, there were the best intentions.”

Glasser said he expected the proposed trust-fund ordinance to be presented to commissioners within the next 60 to 90 days.

Demings, who has listed the affordable housing crisis among his administration’s biggest challenges, was hopeful the county’s fund would not be diverted from its mission.

“We have a better opportunity to control our destiny and those funds if we keep it local,” the mayor said.

Glasser said the county intends to implement other measures suggested in the 10-year housing plan, which was crafted over months of meetings.

The plan also recommended loosening zoning codes, identifying areas of the county most in need of housing and giving bonuses to developers who build in under-served neighborhoods.

Glasser said the trust fund is projected to raise $160 million by 2030 with an annual contribution from Orange County and hopefully corporate partners.

He said the funds might also be used to create a rental assistance program.