On Tuesday, the Leon County Commission voted 5-2 against a Capital Area Justice Ministry (CAJM) proposal that would reallocate 20% of the County’s portion of the Blueprint infrastructure surtax to establish an “Affordable Rental Housing Land Acquisition and Leaseback Program.”
County Commissioners Bill Proctor and David O’Keefe voted for the proposal. Those voting against included commissioners Brian Welch, Nick Maddox, Rick Minor, Carolyn Cummings, and Christian Caban.
Concerns by officials who did not support the proposal included problems with funding projects outside of a normal budgeting process and the fact that the proposal focused on acquiring land for affordable housing. Officials indicated that acquiring land is not a major obstacle to building affordable housing at this time. Rather, it is matching developers with the needed financing arrangements.
Elected officials did vote 6-1 to look at the affordable housing issue during future budget discussions. Proctor voted no on the motion.
The Proposal
During the November 19, 2024, Board meeting, CAJM representatives requested the proposal be adopted to provide financial assistance to multifamily housing development projects (rental) to set aside units for very low and extremely low-income households. A subsequent motion approved by the Board later in the meeting requested an agenda item on the CAJM proposal.
CAJM’s proposal is modeled after the Pinellas County’s Penny for Pinellas Land Assembly Funding Program which is one approach to address affordable housing. The Pinellas County Program acquires land for proposed affordable housing projects with the proceeds from the infrastructure surtax. The land is then leased to the affordable housing development at nominal or no cost for 99 years. The developers are required to set aside units for low-income households for the duration of the lease agreement.
The agenda item noted that CAJM’s request would reallocate approximately $1.2 million annually over the life of the current infrastructure tax (2039) and would require a reduction in funding to the roadway resurfacing program absent supplemental funding from another source.
Leon County Commission Votes 5-2 Against Affordable Housing Proposal added by Staff on
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@ David T. Hawkins. Just remember Abe Lincoln had many political & personal setbacks before gaining political offices. I read your postings and like your platform, you ran a clean race with Cummings and should consider running again. You need volunteers to get your message out and with O”Keefe doing such a poor job it may be a good time to reconsider!
@ Sherri W = I have ran twice for County Commissioner At Large. I was Self Funded both times and still had Money left over. My main Goal was to Reel In Wasteful Spending, Lower the Crime Rate, Improve the Local Economy and help the Homeless. It seems that being self funded is not Good and being Funded by Lobbyists and Developers are a Good Thing. I live in District 5 and even ran but dropped out to have Back Surgery. I still have about 100 New Signs for District 5 but have decided to not run again.
David O’Keefe is my commissioner and does not represent his constituents. Instead of ensuring tax dollars are spent wisely and frugally, he wants to redistribute road money to “affordable housing”? This guy has to go! Please someone from District 5 who wants to serve step up and introduce yourself.
Terms like “Affordable Housing” and “Workforce Housing” are simply woke’ism for “Taxpayer Subsidized Housing Projects”.
Taxpayers should not be responsible for a facade designed to make people feel better about themselves or their status in life. People will live where they can afford to live. If you want nicer things or a nicer house… pick yourself up, work harder, and take responsibility for your position in life.
Commonsense, I think you are correct. Those were my tnoughts when I heard of the new huge Orange Ave housing project. Give it 10 years and see how crime, trash and roach infested it is even though it has stricter standards for selecting the subsidized tenants it allows in.
A long time ago the city of Chicago built a so-called “affordable housing’ project named Cabrini Green. It was a very nice complex of reasonably priced rental units. People moved in and everything was nice for a few years. Then, the “low-life” individuals moved in and the place turned into a drug-infested high-crime area that even the police avoided going into….similar to the current South side of Chicago today. Cabrini Green was eventually bulldozed down because it had been trashed by the residents.
The problem with “affordable housing” projects is that the residents have no “skin in the game” and some “bad-players” have little respect for a residence that is provided primarily by government support. It’s nothing like owning your own house. If the government helps build subsidized housing I’m afraid it’s just a matter of time before it will go down-hill just like the Chicago experiment did.
There is no such thing as “affordable housing”. It is simply taxpayer funded (welfare) housing.
It’s not only the land acquisition and getting contractors. It’s also about routine maintenance and repairs…remember hurricanes? Is the city/county going to pay for insurance on all of these structures? Also, if a ‘tenant’ has a problem, not related to normal city/county ‘stuff’, the city/county are the ‘landlords. Will they call the city/county? And…what about utilities, which are way too high in Tallahassee. Are we going to pay for those too? I hate to use the ‘can of worms’ comparison but…that’s about where we will be headed if this thing goes through.
THIS is what I have been saying for quit some time……. There is no such thing as “Affordable Housing”, it is Government Subsidized Housing.
There is no mention on the number of illegal immigrants in these low income numbers. Homeless numbers have recently shown other cities are referring homeless individuals to Tallahassee! Is this becoming Tallahassee’s newest industry?