November 2017 Archives

EDITORIALS


Don’t scrap tax credits for affordable housing

Nov. 28, 2017  |  Florida Times Union

Public-private partnership — it’s a phrase synonymous with good government. The federal government encourages these with “tax expenditures,” giving various kinds of tax breaks to private businesses that are pursuing public purposes.

An outstanding version of this comes with housing. The private market often has difficulty justifying housing for low-income or workforce families. Giving investors various kinds of tax breaks helps to make these projects viable for investors, and it frees the government from doing all the work.
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Puerto Rican coalition calls for full recovery funding and debt relief

Nov. 20, 2017  |  Florida Politics

A national coalition of Puerto Rican groups with heavy representation in Central Florida urged in Orlando Monday for Congress to offer full relief funding for the hurricane-ravaged island and for Florida and federal relief for evacuee housing in the Sunshine State.

Joined at Acacia’s El Centro Borinqueño by U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, and Orlando Democrat, and state Rep. John Cortes, a Kissimmee Democrat, Power4PuertoRico criticized federal relief efforts as inadequate and worse, given that still more than half the island is without electricity, water remains a critical shortage, many hospitals are operating on generators, and schools remain closed.
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Federal policies fuel affordable housing

Nov. 20, 2017  |  Herald-Tribune

The Sarasota-Manatee region and large parts of the United States have an ongoing affordable-housing crisis that severely strains the budgets of low-income individuals and families and stifles economic development as businesses struggle to attract and retain qualified employees who can afford the cost of living.
So, it would be counterproductive for Congress to approve changes in the tax code that undermine successful strategies for building affordable housing.
Yet the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of a tax bill would do just that.
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Response: Why affordable housing is faltering

Nov. 20, 2017  |  Orlando Sentinel

The Cato Institute is regurgitating the same old myths against the housing tax-credit program and private activity bonds. Echoed from Cato’s own “academic research,” its analyst opposes any federal housing program that encourages affordable housing through federal subsidies (“The sky will not be falling under tax plan in U.S. House,” Vanessa Brown Calder, Orlando Sentinel, Friday).
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A bigger deal on adult homelessness

Nov. 17, 2017  |  Herald-Tribune

Seven months ago, following four years of false starts and acrimony, the Sarasota city and county commissions separately but unanimously approved a 36-page report — complete with locally specific recommendations — on chronic adult homelessness.

The joint endorsement was, we wrote at the time, a big deal.

Now, the city and county — aided significantly by community-based organizations — are on the verge of a bigger deal.
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Don’t gut U.S. housing help for young families and the elderly

Nov. 16, 2017  |  Orlando Sentinel

One of the most successful housing programs in the United States is also one of the lesser-known ones. Tax-exempt bonds are used by state and local governments to finance loans to moderate-income first-time homebuyers and loans to developers who build or renovate apartments that are rented to working families and the elderly.
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OP-EDS & LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Tax plan may limit access to housing

November 9, 2017 | Miami Herald

The tax reform plan being considered in Congress would harm affordable-housing efforts in Florida and make it harder to repair and rebuild many homes damaged by Hurricane Irma. Congress must act immediately to address this problem.
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NEWS ARTICLES


Rangel: Becoming homeless is getting easier in Brevard County

November 22, 2017  |  Florida Today

Cynthia Watkins and her three daughters slept in her 2007 Mitsubishi Galant for nearly two months: Watkins curled up in the driver’s seat, her 12-year-old in the passenger’s seat and her 14 and 18 year olds huddled in the back.

Watkins ‘ journey into homelessness can be hard to understand for those on the outside and even she was caught off guard. She’s not a drug addict. She worked part-time at the Kennedy Space Center when she became homeless.
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Fla. lawmakers call to stop legislative sweeps of affordable housing funds

November 22, 2017  |  Spectrum News, News 13

As tens of thousands of low-income families displaced by this year’s hurricanes struggle to find affordable housing in Florida, a chorus of lawmakers are calling for an end to legislative sweeps of the state’s affordable housing trust fund.
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Ben Carson’s public housing plan would be crippled if the GOP’s tax bill passes

November 15, 2017  | ThinkProgress

HUD Secretary Carson has touted a program that would be severely restricted by the House’s tax bill.

The GOP’s tax bill would severely curtail its own administration’s plan to solve the country’s $49 billion backlog of public housing repairs. That estimate doesn’t include repairs related to damage from the recent hurricanes — repairs that could also face serious slowdowns if the House GOP’s plan passes.
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Affordable housing crisis? Governor’s budget diverts $92 million elsewhere.

November 14, 2017  | Miami Herald

As every Florida county struggles with an affordable housing problem, Gov. Rick Scott signaled Tuesday he is poised to engage again in the annual real estate bait and switch on taxpayers.

In the last budget proposal of his term, the governor wants to sweep money from the affordable housing trust funds and use $92 million of it for other priorities. If the Legislature agrees, it will be the 17th time since 1992 that millions of dollars intended to lower the cost of housing in Florida will be swept into the general revenue account to fund pet projects, other spending priorities and tax breaks.
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Lawmakers Want To Keep Affordable Housing Funds For Just That

November 14, 2017  |  WFSU

Florida lawmakers want to stop their colleagues from spending money meant for affordable housing on other projects. The move comes after Hurricane Irma battered and destroyed Floridians’ homes.

For years, the Legislature has been dipping into the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund. The money is meant to help with down payments and to incentivize affordable development. Instead lawmakers are sweeping hundreds of millions of dollars into general revenue, to make up for budget shortfalls. Republican Senator Kathleen Passidomo of Naples wants to stop that.
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Tax cut plan: Affordable housing could lose big in Republican proposals

November 14, 2017  |  TCPalm

America needs more affordable housing. That is a fact. How to fund that housing, however, has Republican tax writers in the House at odds with those in the Senate.

It all comes down to a type of tax-exempt bond that funds about half of all affordable housing development. The House tax reform bill eliminates the bond — the Senate bill retains it.
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Rent costs devouring household incomes

November 10, 2017  |  Herald-Tribune

55 percent of region’s tenants are ‘cost-burdened’ The good news in the residential real estate market is more and more homeowners are keeping up with their mortgage payments. The bad news is more and more tenants cannot afford to keep up with their rent payments.

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Lawmakers examine current state of Florida’s affordable housing fund

November 8, 2017  |  Spectrum News, Bay News 9

TALLAHASSEE – As tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria continue to stream into Florida, a key Senate panel spent Wednesday exploring whether the state’s affordable housing programs are being adequately funded.

The question is more than academic. While many storm-weary Puerto Ricans whose homes have been destroyed are moving in with family members on the mainland, thousands of others are in search of housing. With their finances unable to match the steep rents being charged in Florida’s largest cities, the evacuees are turning to the state for help.
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OUR VIEW, Close gap between rents and wages

November 5, 2017  |  The Daytona Beach News Journal

The causes for this imbalance are many. Volusia County is experiencing a housing boom, with thousands of new homes being built or planned in new developments in Daytona Beach, Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach and elsewhere. Many of these residences will sell for more than $200,000. This is a sign of a growing economy that will attract new residents and expand the local tax base — and that developers are rushing to meet a rising demand.

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PRESS RELEASES


Press Release: State Senator Passidomo Files Bipartisan Affordable Housing Legislation

November  14, 2017 | For Immediate Release

Tallahassee, Fla. – With representatives from the 30 diverse statewide organizations that make up the Sadowski Coalition joining her in front of the Florida Senate Chamber doors in the State Capitol in Tallahassee, State Senator Kathleen Passidomo today announced she has filed bipartisan affordable housing legislation. This legislation, Senate Bill 874, would prohibit the sweep of the State and Local Housing Trust Fund. State Representative Sean Shaw is the sponsor of the House companion bill, House Bill 191.
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