Advocacy

Economic Stimulus 2008

Florida is in an economic downturn and there is no end in the immediate future. There is no better way to stimulate the economy than to invest money in the housing industry. Read more.

Providing Affordable Housing to Special Needs Populations Is Beneficial to the Individual And The Community

Housing is not an isolated issue. Local governments and major business organizations, in both urban and suburban settings, are increasingly recognizing the need for affordable housing and are developing strategies and programs to create affordable housing. Affordable housing not only improves the quality of life of the individual and the community, it saves the government money and invigorates the economy.

The lack of affordable housing has many impacts, not the least of which is the peripheral costs to our healthcare and justice systems. For example…

  • According to Florida's Agency for Persons with Disabilities, providing support services in the community costs $20,000 to $70,000 less per person per year than providing similar services in a group home, nursing home or other institution. This represents millions of dollars of direct Medicaid and Medicare savings for the State.
  • Additionally, providing services in an affordable home or apartment rather than a facility has a 50% greater success rate. Therefore, community based services are not only less expensive but more effective in improving the individuals' quality of life.
  • However, individuals able to leave facilities are unable to be released because the service providers can not identify an affordable place for the individual to live upon release.
Further, the cost of homeless on the healthcare and criminal justice system is well documented. According to a 2004 study of Duval County:
  • The criminal justice system spent $5million that year arresting the homeless, primarily for trespassing, in order to return them to homelessness upon release.
  • The health care system spent $1.8million that year for crisis stabilization and detoxification services in order to return the patients to homelessness after 24-72 hours of care.
  • These expenses do not include other aspects of the healthcare system, such as mental health services, emergency room care, hospitalization and psychiatric hospitalization expenses.
  • According to the same study, the total cost to not produce housing is $35million each year. For less than the cost of five years of homelessness, housing can be produced to eliminate this blight on our society.

Producing affordable housing for various special needs populations is ultimately the most beneficial approach the state can adopt. It improves the quality of life of the individuals and their families; it improves the quality of life of the entire community and it saves the state money. The Florida Supportive Housing Coalition offers the following recommendations regarding how the State can address this issue.

Recommendations
  • Eliminate the cap on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
  • Permanently reserve a portion of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for the creation of housing for extremely low income households
  • Create a set-aside for the creation of housing targeting special needs populations, remarkably enough persons with disabilities are not a special need in Florida Housing Finance Corporation programs
  • Target half of all rental units created for extremely low income households to special needs populations

Legislative language for each recommendation can be provided.

National Legislative Update

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) was allocated $50.7 billion for its FY08 spending, an increase of $2.8 billion or 6.7% over its FY07 amount. The House Appropriations Committee approved allocations to its 12 subcommittees on June 5. These allocations are known as “302b” allocations, referring to the section of budget law that authorizes them, and marked the next formal step in the appropriations process following the adoption of a joint budget resolution in May.

The next step is for the subcommittee to mark up a THUD bill that divvies up the $50.7 billion in allocated subcommittee funding among all of the federal programs under its jurisdiction, including funding for all HUD programs. The THUD subcommittee, chaired by Representative John Olver (D-MA), will hold its mark-up for the FY08 spending bill starting at 3 p.m. on June 11.

The full committee, chaired by Representative David Obey (D-WI), is expected to mark-up the THUD bill on June 18. The bill is then slated to be considered on the House floor the week of June 25.

  NLIHC is urging the following among other requests:
  • Sufficient funding for the housing choice voucher program, including $15 billion for voucher renewals and pro visions to base administrative funding on the number of families each agency serves.
  • New funding for at least 100,000 new, incremental vouchers in FY08.
  • Adoption of HUD’s proposal to award $5 million in bonus administrative fees to public housing agencies that consolidate the administration of their voucher programs.
  • $3.5 billion public housing capital funds.
  • $5 billion public housing operating funds.
  • $6.1 billion to $6.7 billion, depending on latest HUD data available, for the renewal of project-based rental assistance contracts.
  • Consideration of appropriations needs in H.R. 1227, the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007.

State Legislative News

Removing the Cap on the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund (HB 367)
Florida lawmakers refused to remove the cap on the Sadowski Trust Fund. The House did workshop a bill to remove the cap in its Policy and Budget Council; however that is where it ended. The Senate did not address the cap in any committee. (No bill heard in committees). The Legislature did appropriate $391,400,000 of the Sadowski fund towards Housing initiatives some of the money appropriated was from last year’s unappropriated dollars.

Funding/Policies for the development of extremely-low income households
HB 1375, this session’s ‘comprehensive’ affordable housing bill included $15 million for extremely low income housing development. This is a 50 percent decrease from the current funding set a-side.

Independent Living Transition Services – SB 2114 - Passed
Includes provision that assistance to youth formerly in foster care receive temporary assistance to prevent homelessness be provided expeditiously

Affordable Housing – HB 1375 - Passed
Includes provision allowing FHFC to provide a partial loan forgiveness for units developed for extremely low elderly by nonprofit organizations where the affordability of the units lasts for at least 15 years.

Presentation to House Interim Workgroup on Affordable Housing, October 23, 2006

As has been shown by Florida Housing's own analyses, the greatest unmet housing need in the state is among households earning 30% or less of the Area Median Income. Therefore, Florida Housing's resources should focus on attempts to create and maintain housing for these households.

Following are the recommendations of the Florida Supportive Housing Coalition with regard to how Florida Housing Finance Corporation can revise the 2007 Universal Cycle in order to address the housing needs of Florida's residents: Advocacy Letter to Florida Housing Finance Corporation, September 18, 2006.