Officials: Housing initiative falls flat
2 commissioners: OK’d plan ignores challenges low-income renters face
Despite unanimous approval of a new plan to address the region’s housing shortage, some Orange County commissioners remain concerned the initiative ignores the challenges of low-income renters.
The plan, which passed Dec. 17, was devised by Mayor Jerry Demings’ Housing for All task force created in November 2018. The 10-year plan aims to add 30,300 new housing units by loosening zoning codes, identifying areas of the county most in need of housing, giving bonuses to developers who build in underserved neighborhoods and creating a dedicated fund for future projects.
The county will establish an affordable housing trust fund projected to raise $160 million by 2030 and a revolving loan fund for nonprofits to tap into to use for housing projects.
What’s missing, county commissioners Maribel Gomez Cordero and Marya Uribe said, are ideas to address the people being evicted from their homes or who are unable to qualify for apartments because of previous evictions or expensive application fees and rents.
“My community is very much working-class folks, middle-class folks … and I feel like it’s not always finding a place, but all the factors around it. It’s not just saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got houses, now we can fill them,’ ” said Uribe, whose district includes areas east and south of downtown Orlando. “That worries me when you think of something as a numbers game. I think there are so many more levels to this than having available units.”
Both Gomez Cordero and Uribe supported the plan and applauded the task force’s work but said they believed it was missing “the people element.” “I felt it was important to
support it because I didn’t want it to go by with nothing being done,” Uribe said in an interview. “You can’t throw your hands up in the air, ‘Well, they didn’t do it right, we’re not going to do anything.’ ”
Uribe said she’s working with county staff on possibly expanding the housing plan in the future.
Demings emphasized the plan is just one component of the county’s strategy to address the housing crisis. There are many other programs, county staff said, that specifically address renters. Still, there are 800 people in Orange County on the waiting list for Section 8 subsidized housing.
The number of commercial and residential evictions in Orange County was 10 times higher in 2018 than
it was in 2007. The median cost of rent plus utilities is $1,163 a month, according to Census data.
Under the plan, the county hopes to encourage developers to build more diverse housing options besides luxury apartments and single-family houses. By relaxing zoning laws, the county anticipates there will be a significant increase in the number of more affordable townhouses, mother-in-law suites, duplexes and triples, and tiny homes and microunits.
Calling the plan a “great first step,” advocacy group Organize Florida has asked the county to adopt policies to protect renters and is currently drafting a “renters bill of rights,” which it plans to present later to commissioners. Some have floated the idea of providing incentives to property owners who agree to follow the bill of rights.
Organize Florida members have called on the commission also to establish a trust to help renters pay application fees and security deposits. Demings said the money from the affordable housing trust fund could possibly be used for rental assistance, but it’s unclear if the fund will be used that way.
State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, reintroduced a bill this year that would set up some protections for renters, including restricting the reasons for which landlords can evict tenants, preventing landlords from charging excessive application fees and requiring them to refund fees when no units are available.
It would also require landlords to provide leases and eviction notices in tenants’ preferred language, give tenants three months of notice before raising rents more than 5% and prohibit landlords from turning away applicants because they receive federal housing vouchers.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, have also introduced federal legislation aimed at reforming eviction and screening policies “so individuals with a criminal history have a fair chance at housing assistance.”
Gomez Cordero, who represents much of south Orange County, stood with members of Organize Florida after the Housing for All vote and announced she “wants to work with the rental rights bill.” She said that could take the form of introducing local policies or supporting Smith’s bill in
Tallahassee. However, neither Gomez Cordero nor Uribe has yet to endorse Smith’s bill.
Gomez Cordero said she would like to see the county look into providing legal assistance to residents facing eviction, and said the county needs to better communicate with the community which programs are available.
“Phone calls come into my office with eviction notices that are not reasonable. I receive phone calls from families, single moms who are sleeping in their cars at Millenia Mall in the parking lot,” Gomez Cordero said.
Referring to the 10-year plan, she added: “We don’t have these houses now. What are we going to do now?”