Next step on affordable housing: a dedicated funding source

Last year was a notable year for affordable housing in Broward County. As momentum builds around the issue, it is time to provide the funding needed to get more affordable units built, increase the income of employees to reduce the gap between wages and housing costs, and improve our existing affordable housing stock.

In no other time in Broward’s history has there been such a focus on the affordable housing crisis.

Last November, 73 percent of voters agreed that we needed to create the Broward County Affordable Housing Trust Fund. In the fall, The City of Hollywood and Broward County entered into a Inter Local Agreement, which will invest millions of dollars annually into low to moderate income housing across the city for neighborhood revitalization.

In addition, Fort Lauderdale is looking to partner with the Housing Authority of Fort Lauderdale to build hundreds of affordable units on vacant land that the city owns. Tamarac recently passed an additional homestead exemption for seniors, specifically targeting those properties with lower values. And Broward County Public Schools passed an updated impact waiver fee program for affordable housing developers.

Also in 2018 the Coordinating Council of Broward published Housing Broward: An Inclusive Plan, Broward’s first comprehensive strategic plan to address the affordable housing crisis. Since then we have seen the business community, government and non-profits working together. The success of shutting down the homeless encampment downtown was one of the most visible ways to show this collaboration, but we know that long-term housing issues can’t be resolved as easily.

Investments in affordable housing can create discretionary income for families by alleviating housing cost burdens. It helps families afford other basic needs such as health care, child care, food and transportation, not to mention being able to become active citizens in their neighborhoods.

But strictly from a financial perspective, government funding for affordable housing is highly leveraged with private sector investment, greatly increasing economic development, creating short term and long term jobs, and reducing social service needs.

There is no way to downplay the significant price tag of building new affordable housing units. South Florida has some of the strictest building codes in the country, construction costs continue to climb and the process to build is long and arduous. Affordable housing can best be described as market-rate housing with a subsidy, either an incentive on the front end for the developer to bring down the overall cost to build, or additional vouchers on the back end for cost-burdened individuals and families to be able to afford to live in market-rate units.

We have the plan, we have the momentum. Now it’s time to take the next step and look at significant dedicated funding sources that can be committed to affordable housing on an annual basis.