Gov. Bush signs $516M affordable housing bill

TALLAHASSEE — As Florida officially entered the 2006 hurricane season, Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday signed into law a handful of measures including a $516 million package to improve access to affordable housing.

Meeting with reporters at the state’s emergency response center in Tallahassee, Bush signed into law a comprehensive package of affordable housing measures a key sponsor says will benefit homeowners and taxpayers in the long run.

“It was gracious of the governor to acknowledge the comprehensive nature of the bill,” said Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, who spearheaded efforts in the House. “That was what we were trying to accomplish.”

Bush approved the measure as part of a handful of bills to improve hurricane preparedness and recovery that included nearly $100 million to strengthen emergency shelters and operations centers and millions more to educate Floridians on hurricane preparedness.

The affordable housing package includes $108 million to replace housing stock damaged during the 2005 hurricane season and an additional $83 million for communities hardest hit by the storms.

Above the $245 million in traditional affordable housing funds, the package includes $50 million for new programs to assist communities in providing affordable housing to critical public servants such as teachers and public safety personnel. It also includes an additional $30 million to help Florida’s lowest-income residents.

Builders will be able to access $93 million to build rental housing and $15 million to build homes for farmworkers for residents struck by previous storms.

The affordable housing bill also includes close to $8 million for homeless people; $30 million for working poor Floridians and $50 million to help middle-income workers such as teachers, nurses and police officers find housing in the same communities where they work.

Another $245 million will pay for existing state housing programs to help Floridians find afforda.ble housing, including through the Florida Housing Finance Corp.

While lawmakers touted the spending, some advocates said the amount spent compared with the money available was minimal. Nearly $940 million was available for appropriation in state housing trust funds, but lawmakers only spent $433 million. Last year, they spent $10 million more than that.

“I think it’s an inexplicable outcome at a time of unprecedented housing crisis,” said Jamie Ross, an affordable housing advocate with the nonprofit 1,000 Friends of Florida organization.

But Davis said the number marks success — especially when combined with $83 million in federal funding for local projects and housing money appropriated in other bills.

For example, another bill Bush signed Thursday contains $250 million to equip homes against hurricane damage, he said.

“That’s three-quarters of a billion dollars, last time I checked. I think the only honest way is to look at what the total package is because then you can understand what a huge impact this is going to have,” Davis said.

With the bill, legislators created a new category for extremely low-income workers, those who make 30 percent of the area median income. Plus, money that wasn’t spent this year could be appropriated next session, Ross said.

“The bad news is that the money won’t be used because it wasn’t appropriated,” she said. “The good news is it wasn’t used for something else, so we can use it next year.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.