Fewer state dollars, fewer to live American dream
County sees $3M shortfall in fund for affordable housing.
Evelio Deluna and his family bought their first house about one month ago west of West Palm Beach. It’s a three-bedroom, two-bath with a pool.
The Delunas’ share of the American dream came with the assistance of a State Housing Initiatives Partnership program that addresses the affordable housing crisis.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this otherwise,” said Deluna, 56, who works at a hotel. “It would have cost too much.”
Going forward, a lot more would-be homebuyers in Palm Beach County will find that their dream home is going to be out of reach. That’s because the county is looking at a $3 million shortfall in SHIP funds for 2018-19.
About 3,700 county residents have turned to Palm Beach County for financial help with buying their first home. The county expects to have enough SHIP money to help only about 80 or 90 of them.
County officials say they expect to get about $1.4 million for the 2018-19 budget year, which is a $3 million decrease from the year before. If the county’s total SHIP needs were fully funded, it would receive about $10 million.
Needs almost always exceed funding in a county where the most recently surveyed median home price — $354,000 — is the highest since the crash. But with the annual SHIP allocation cut by roughly two-thirds, the county has found itself in a “dire situation,” said Jona- than Brown, the director of the county’s Department of Housing and Economic Sustainability.
“We will not be able to assist as many people as necessary whether it is with achieving the American dream of home ownership, whether it is rental or foreclosure prevention assistance, whether it is with some form of housing rehabilitation, assisting our developers who want to provide more affordable housing. It’s a major blow, a major impact to the county,” he said.
Christopher Giacomino said he and his wife have always wanted to be home- owners, but the prices in South Florida coupled with their household income made it difficult. His wife is a teacher but is staying home to home-school the couple’s three children, and Giacom- ino is a mail carrier in Pompano Beach.
With the county’s help, the couple bought their first home this month west of Boynton Beach.
“We’re really surprised,” said Giacomino, 31. “We
didn’t imagine we’d get into the neighborhood we did.”
The SHIP money is paid for with the state’s documentary stamp tax on real estate transactions. The taxes go into a trust fund for affordable housing, but state offi- cials have pushed the money elsewhere. This year, SHIP dollars were diverted by the Legislature in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but Brown said the trust fund had been “raided” before that.
“I don’t believe there is a genuine focus at the Leg- islature level on affordable housing needs throughout the state. Not that they don’t care. But I don’t know if the focus is as great as it should be,” Brown said.
Of the county’s allotted $1.4 million, staff is using $900,000 for homebuying assistance; $327,667 for owner-occupied housing rehabilitation; $60,000 for foreclosure prevention and $143,074 for administrative costs, according to county documents.
Separate from the county, Delray Beach is getting $87,747 in SHIP money and Boynton Beach is getting $98,691. Boca Raton is getting $122,468 and West Palm Beach $147,377.
Families eligible for the SHIP programs must have less than $97,020 of annual income for a household of three, and $107,660 for a household of four. The price of the house has to be $317,647 or less, said Dorina Jenkins-Gaskin, mortgage and housing investments manager with the county’s Department of Housing.
While discussing the SHIP money allocations at a recent commission meeting, Mayor Melissa McKinlay and Commissioner Paulette Burdick criticized Gov. Rick Scott’s response to affordable housing needs.
“It’s very frustrating to come from a governor who touts that he grew up in an affordable-housing complex,” McKinlay said.
Burdick said Scott should declare that the affordable housing situation is in a state of emergency.
“The data’s out there. I wish our elected officials in Tallahassee would look at the data and instead of doing these glitzy things, make decisions based on the data,” Burdick said. “That’s all I have to say as I wring my hands and try to be civil in my comments.”