Affordable housing projects in Florida are not solely dependent on money from the federal government.
Gov. Ron DeSantis fully funded a pair of programs that Florida Housing Coalition's Ashon Nesbitt said could fill in any gaps in federal funding by subsidizing developers.
"We're very fortunate in Florida to have those programs in place, to have infrastructure in place, that we can invest more in to further fill gaps," Nesbitt said.
The programs are the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) and the State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL). Both are funded by the Sadowski Trust Fund, which was established in 1992.
Mark Hendrickson, director of the Sadowski Coalition, said Florida had a history of raiding the fund until a 2021 law guaranteed its money would go toward affordable housing projects.
But that law did not mandate the state fully fund the SHIP and SAIL programs, something Hendrickson said DeSantis has chosen to do every year he's been in office.
This year, Florida's budget allocated $235 million from the trust fund toward the programs.
"We're just ecstatic every year to have that fully funded," Nesbitt said. "We're very appreciative to Gov. DeSantis and the Legislature for recognizing how important housing is to our state."
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The trust is funded by some of the revenue collected from documentary stamp taxes, which are levies on certain documents, such as deeds and mortgages, filed in Florida.
Hendrickson said SAIL allows private developers to apply for the subsidy directly from the state. SHIP funds are allocated to Florida's 67 counties and an additional 60 cities, which then give the money to developers.
"You need to have a certainty that the funding is going to be there because you don't just build apartments in a day," Hendrickson said.
Nesbitt said having state and local support in place is essential for being prepared to deal with any future changes at the federal level.
"We do have a strong housing infrastructure in place here in Florida, which I think puts us at an advantage compared to other states," he said.
Hendrickson said subsidizing private developers means the quality of the low-income housing is higher than Section 8, or public, housing.
"They're well-built, well-maintained, and the people that are living there are just people in low-wage jobs or lower-wage jobs," he said.
He added that the average occupancy is about two years.
"The expectation and the reality is that most of them will move on into different housing," Hendrickson said.
He added that developers are bound by land-use restrictions to ensure the housing they build with SHIP and SAIL subsidies remain affordable. That price fluctuates with median incomes but is monitored every year.
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