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.
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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?