Affordable Housing Initiatives Discussed in Tampa Bay Housing Market

If Florida is going to make headway in trying to develop more affordable housing, it’s not going to happen by doubling the state’s Homestead exemption.

At least that’s the opinion of Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala during an attainable housing forum in South Tampa Friday.

“It would cause a drastic, drastic crisis for the government,” said Latvala, who also is president of the Florida Association of Counties. “It would force city halls to literally hand over their keys to the governor because they won’t have enough money to pay their constitutional officers.”

Numerous political candidates on the campaign trail have been touting an increase in the state’s Homestead exemption - which allows full-time residents to cap their property taxes - as a way to lessen the tax burden on homeowners. However, providing a tax break would only Band-Aid the affordable housing problem in Florida in the state and not correct it, Latvala said.

“We have a problem because the tax structure in Florida is way out of whack,” she said. “We need to totally revamp our tax schedule. The reason why apartments are converting to condominiums is because they can’t afford the taxes and insurance to operate as a rental property.”

Regional participation

Latvala joined two other elected officials, St. Petersburg City Councilwoman Rene Flowers and Hillsborough County Commissioner Thomas Scott, in addressing ways the two counties are working to combat a median house price that in Hillsborough County has grown from $75,800 more than a decade ago to $230,900 today.

Such figures make it hard for average income-earners to take out a Florida mortgage.

With Hillsborough’s population jumping 20 percent since 1996, the county would need to add 3,800 more units of affordable housing each year to keep up with the demand, Scott said. Having those additional units for the next five years would mean the creation of an additional 79,000 jobs, along with $4.6 billion of new income for the entire region.

“Escalating apartment rates, condo conversions, rising house prices, all have moved (living in the county) beyond the level of affordability.”

In the past year, with more than $4 million of state and federal funding being removed from the equation, Hillsborough County officials have started to set a little more than $3 million aside to address issues locally through means of advocacy, down payment assistance, and working with developers and other government officials.

The recent actions alone are enough create 1,000 new units of affordable housing annually, but pressuring the state Legislature to remove the cap from funds generated through the Sadowski Act could increase the state contribution to Hillsborough from the current $10 million, to upwards of $30 million or $40 million, Scott said.

The Sadowski Act was passed in 1992 and uses revenue from the doc stamp tax to provide affordable housing to residents in the state.

Inclusionary zoning

Pinellas County, in the meantime, is moving forward with its plans to create inclusionary zoning throughout the unincorporated parts of the county, which would require builders to include affordable housing as part of their projects either on-site, or elsewhere in the county.

Many efforts are being made to open up the Florida mortgage loan world to as many applicants as possible.

“It’s a tool in the toolbox,” Latvala said. “We are surrounded by water, so we know there will be places where it just won’t be appropriate to build affordable housing. That’s why we want them to set some land aside.”

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which was created under the Sadowski Act, had its distributions capped by legislators in 2005 at $243 million, said Flowers, who also is president of the Florida League of Cities.

That currently leaves $507 million remaining in the fund with state officials estimating another $944 million to be added in 2006. Florida League of Cities officials said they want the state to appropriate all $1.4 billion of the fund for the coming year.