Panel hears of upcoming affordable housing plans

TALLAHASSEE — As the lack of affordable housing continues to vex businesses and local officials, a House panel on Tuesday called for an at least $50 million program to provide housing incentives to essential public employees who can’t afford to live in the communities they serve.

Gearing up for the 2006 legislative session now several weeks away, members of the House Growth Management Committee heard from a group of players on myriad affordable housing initiatives backers say immediately must be addressed.

On the table are proposals to relax development requirements, shelter tax liability and provide financial assistance to teachers and other essential public servants who can’t afford to rent, much less buy, a home.

Of equal concern is an upcoming deadline that if not dealt with will cut the state’s $500 million affordable housing program by more than half while 300,000 new residents continue to call Florida home every year.

“Floridians have a right to own their own homes and we have a responsibility to help them,” committee Chairman Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration.

From 2002 through 2005, median costs of housing in Florida went from $147,500 to $250,000. In Southwest Florida, appreciation has gone up even faster. In Collier, for example, the median cost of a home is $500,000. Meanwhile, household income has risen by less than 2 percent.

Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, is expected to introduce a multifaceted affordable housing bill that would address such issues as local permitting, surplus property donations and the ability of local governments to match state funding efforts.

“It is a crisis, no doubt about that,” Davis said. “Any of us who live in coastal counties see there is already a degradation of services.”

One critical shortage is in teaching. Next year, school districts are expected to need 31,000 teachers, many of those in critical areas of math and sciences. Among individual proposals, one measure calls for providing a one-time incentive of up to $26,000 in housing assistance for teachers in critical shortage areas of math, science and reading.

The plan would allow targeted teachers who agree to teach for at least four years to be allowed access to the funds for down payments on homes. For that access, local governments would have to waive impact fees and match with local housing assistance.

Other funding issues also are of great concern. The state’s affordable housing program now earmarks about $500 million a year. For the upcoming fiscal year, lawmakers will have an additional $400 million in reserve funds, bringing to more than $900 million the amount available for lawmakers in the months ahead.

Next year, however, available funds will drop to $243 million unless lawmakers vote to repeal the cap.

“The most important thing to deal with is the cap and the elimination of the cap, then you can work toward what goes to workforce housing or (other targeted groups,)” said Leo Boggio, CEO of Carlisle Development Group, one of the largest private builders of affordable housing in the state.

Rising building costs also are taking a toll. Nearly a third of the companies that have provided affordable housing are out of business or building more expensive homes, Boggio testified. Those that remain are facing escalating building costs that are outstripping the rents that can be charged to keep a development affordable.

“We pay the same costs as the guy who’s building multimillion-dollar condos,” Boggio said.