County board unhappy with its workforce housing program
Single-family homes not being built at expected rate.
Palm Beach County commissioners blasted a county program designed to provide housing to middle income workers in the county, saying it has not provided enough assistance while costs continue to rise.
No single-family houses have been built in the workforce housing program’s 11 years of existence, and only 754 multi-family units have been construc ted during that time.
Those numbers ticked off Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, who wondered aloud Tuesday why the program hasn’t accomplished more to help provide housing for workers like teachers, firefighters, sheriff ’s deputies and administrative staff.
“This has been a stated priority for the board for as long as I’ve been on the board,” McKinlay said after she and her colleagues got an update on the program. “We’ve got to find a solution.”
McKinlay and Commissioner Mack Bernard peppered the county’s real estate consultant, BAE Urban Economics Inc., with questions about why it has not come up with suggestions for ways to make the workforce housing program more effective.
“We’ve had a consultant for a year and a half, and we still don’t have a proposal,” McKinlay said.
A BAE representative said his organization is still getting feedback from builders and others in the business community.
The county’s workforce housing program is one of s evera l ways t he c ount y attempts to help middle income workers get housing.
County officials frequently refer to it as “one of the tools in the toolbox.”
But it’s a tool that’s not warmly embraced by residential builders, who are required to price a percentage of their units in a range that would be affordable to middle income workers.
Builders, however, do have an out; they can pay a fee in lieu of building the unit. The buyout fee for a single-family unit is $81,500.
Wi t h t h e medi a n c o s t for homes in the county at $325,000, and single-family workforce housing limited to sales prices in a range of $143,000 to $265,000, builders largely have chosen to write the county the $81,500 check instead of building the affordable housing unit.
The fees go to the workforce housing program and are used to help workers afford homes in other ways, such as providing part of a down payment.
F i g u r e s c o m p i l e d b y c o u n t y s t a f f s h o w t h a t 16,333 housing units have been approved by the county over the past 11 years, with 4,215 of those units having been constructed.
Workforce housing program requirements call for 1,683 affordable units to be built , but , so f ar, no s i ngle-family houses have been built while 754 multi-family housing units have been constructed.
Land-use lawyer Martin F. Perr y, who frequently appears before commissioners on behalf of project builders, said the program isn’t doing enough.
“The re a l i t y i s i t ’s not working,” Perry told com- missioners. “Maybe you need to try some other things.”
One of those things could be to kill the buyout option, he said.
“I’ll be chastised for saying that,” Perry said.
McKinlay said the program numbers laid out by staff is “indicative of a program that needs tweaking.”
“I’m very frustrated,” she said, adding that she was particularly unhappy that Tuesday’s meeting did not include specific proposals to improve the program. “We have got to work faster than this. I mean, come on.”
C o mmi s s i o n e r S t e v e n Abrams reminded his colleagues that the program isn’t the only one designed to help workers find housing. And he noted that the money collected from builders has been used to help those workers.
“It’s about putting people in workforce housing,” he said.
The workforce housing program has been a priority for County Administrator Verdenia Baker, who said the county has struggled to recruit and retain workers because they can’t afford to buy a home here.
The county will hold an affordable housing summit on May 31 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Lenders, builders and others who seek to provide or use affordable housing are being asked to sign up and attend.
Baker said getting municipalities on board is important.
“This is not just a Palm Beach County problem to solve,” she said. “We need help from other folks in our community.”