The Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Committee in the state of Florida is taking a look at the affordable housing system. The committee has been tasked with looking at the system because there is a shortage of affordable housing in Florida. Despite this view, there is a professor who believes the reason changes should be made is due to a favorable economic situation.
The professor noted the growth management law revisions from 2011 and exiting the recession as main reasons why Florida should jump on the opportunity to improve affordable housing throughout the state.
A representative from Economical Housing thinks that the tax credits used for subsidizing affordable housing cannot keep up with the the population growth of Florida. The representative said that the tax credits help with roughly three thousand houses, but last year alone there were 114,000 households added.
The Economical Housing representative who spoke on the issue believes Florida’s best bet is to cut into local impact and permitting fees. He believes that dedicating a large portion of the state’s trust fund for housing to those two items and then requiring the local governments to match those numbers would help cut into the issue.
One of the biggest arguments was that people who work at the beach cannot live at the beach because that land is too expensive to afford. Some senators believe that people cannot live where they work or near where they work if it is not an affordable option.
Some of the speakers at the committee meeting blamed local governments for the affordable housing shortcomings, but Republican Senator George Gainer of Panama City said the following: “Having spent 18 years as a county commissioner. I take exception to the fact that local governments are the problem here. Local governments are glad for you to build house and increase the ad valorem tax base of that community.”
An experienced real estate lawyer can answer all of your construction and affordable housing questions in Collier County, Florida.
Source: WFSU, “Senators Push Back On Affordable Housing Fixes,” Nick Evans, March 29, 2017