Editorial: Affordable housing

With no easy answers to the solution of the affordable housing problem plaguing Southwest Florida, the City of Bonita Springs is unable to make any real progress without a more specific game plan.

With the city's Local Planning Agency asked to advise how much developers should pay toward affordable housing — only to punt it back to council without a recommendation — the issue remains unresolved.

Bonita Springs last month suspended the practice of developers paying a $11,000 per extra unit of density, with the money going toward affordable housing. That amount is too low — a drop in the bucket compared to what a residence can fetch on the open market today and what it would cost to build a subsidized, entry-level home.

Neither would it help to have developers pay up to $150,000 per extra unit — too much — toward affordable housing.

The city needs a reasonable density bonus fee — and a plan for what to do with the money. Now the city pays out in dribs and drabs, for example, to help a housing agency buy single-family lots or for projects such as Pueblo Bonito.

Plus, the city ought to look at inclusionary zoning — requiring affordable units to be built among market-rate homes. Cities such as Davidson, N.C., have done that and set up land trusts to own the cheaper units and guard against quick, profit-taking trading known as flipping.

Give the city credit for trying. Success — measured by additional homes for productive citizens who cannot afford to live here now — will be worth the effort.