Grant

Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, University of Florida ($500,000)

Grant

Florida Housing Coalition ($475,000)

Grant

Florida Housing Finance Housing Corporation ($25,000)

Background

Florida has more than 253,000 subsidized rental housing units, of which more than one quarter are more than 20 years old. Subsidies on more than 43,000 of the units will expire by 2015, and almost half of the properties with expiring subsidies are located in five large urban counties. With Florida’s rapid growth and available land, the state’s affordable housing focus has been historically on new construction. Most of these newer units have rents that are not affordable to the lowest income families. The properties have been built primarily by for-profit developers, rather than nonprofits with a mission to serve extremely low-income households or those with special needs. To create a more balanced approach to meet Floridians’ rental housing needs, Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) is expanding its focus to meet the housing needs of extremely low-income households. Nearly 71 percent of extremely low-income renter households in Florida paid more than 40 percent of their income for rent in 2007. In order to meet the needs of these lowest income households, Florida Housing realized that it will be more cost-effective to preserve the existing federally-assisted stock, but that this will require a readjustment of the “new construction” mindset that dominates Florida’s affordable housing policy environment.

Project Description

Florida’s preservation goal is to create more mission-driven organizations with the experience and capacity needed to preserve properties that provide housing for extremely low-income households and people with special needs. To accomplish this goal, Florida proposes to level the playing field for nonprofits and for-profits and to encourage both types of developers to preserve existing housing that serves these populations. The Florida Housing Coalition will host approximately eight free workshops throughout the state for nonprofit developers and local governments to promote preservation as a key strategy for serving the target populations. Participants in these workshops will form a network of informed and interested housing providers and funding entities able to identify and support preservation opportunities. The Florida Housing Coalition will also provide a small number of nonprofit developers with more than 200 hours of technical support on specific transactions through the pre-development, acquisition, and long-term financing phases of projects. The grant to the Shimberg Center will enable it to use data about Florida’s communities and people to undertake several research initiatives. The Shimberg Center will analyze information on tenant income and demographics to determine which populations are most affected by loss of the assisted housing stock; measure the state’s market-rate affordable rental housing supply; analyze the full lifespan of assisted housing properties; and develop a model to incorporate transportation costs and proximity to employment into the analysis of rental housing affordability. Together, these initiatives will create a more robust picture of the impacts of housing preservation on markets, communities, and families.

Florida’s preservation initiative also includes three key complementary strategies not funded through this grant. A new permanent financing demonstration loan fund that provides funding targeted to nonprofits for acquisition and rehabilitation to preserve properties will be complemented by a new preservation bridge pilot program that uses intermediaries to bring private capital to match with state funding for acquisition of properties for preservation in three counties (Pasco, Palm Beach and Orange). Finally, changes to Florida Housing’s rental application cycle (and corresponding programs) to support the financing of preservation applications submitted by nonprofit organizations will also occur.

Contact

Nancy Muller
Policy Director
Florida Housing Finance Corporation
227 N. Bronough Street
Suite 5000
Tallahassee, FL 32301
(850) 488-4197
nancy.muller@floridahousing.org

Debby Beck
Operations and Conference Manager
Florida Housing Coalition
1367 E. Lafayette Street, Suite C
Tallahassee, FL 32301
(850) 878-4219
beck@flhousing.org

William O'Dell
Associate Director
Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, University of Florida
Rinker Hall, Room 203
P.O. Box 11503
Gainesville, Florida 32611-5703
(352) 273-1171
billo@ufl.edu