Median home pricesIt’s been two weeks since the City of Jacksonville released it’s study on affordable and workforce housing in Jacksonville. With little (Thanks Karen!) or no media coverage of this report I am taking it upon myself to cover it. WJCT’s Karen Feagins did an audio report on the affordable and workforce housing taskforce story. It clocks in at just under 5 minutes and is a great summary of the report. At two weeks this story is old news by today’s standards, but whatever.

The study begins by summarizing the affordable housing crisis in Jacksonville and across the country. It attributes the affordable housing crisis to increasing land costs, hyper-appreciated housing values and insurance, rising interest rates, wages that don’t track inflation and government affordable housing programs that can’t keep pace with these changes.

Jacksonville attacks the affordable housing crisis by studying three areas identified by the taskforce as important to addressing housing needs in the city:

  1. Leveraging the availability of City-owned land to spur affordable housing production;
  2. Furthering existing and establishing new City partnerships with both not-for-profit and for-profit developers to bring affordable housing to the market
  3. Identifying and making recommendations about legislative and regulatory barriers to the development of affordable housing.

Mmmmm. So vague. So tasty. So bureaucratic sounding. At this point, the study starts throwing out definitions and figures. It offers definitions of affordable housing and workforce housing and begins to lay a framework for the 38, yes, 38 recommendations of the taskforce. The recommendations, some which taken from other cities around the country:

are intended to be a starting point for ongoing discussion, and will serve as a guide for elected officials, City staff, and community stakeholders as they continue to address Jacksonville’s ongoing needs for affordable and workforce housing.

The taskforce goes on to say not all the recommendations will be implemented, they are merely a starting point for discussion and may require additional investigation. In other words a taskforce taskforce. So on to the recommendations:

  1. Preserve Existing Affordable Housing
  2. Make Affordable Housing a Priority in the Disposition of City-Owned Land
  3. Update the City’s Comprehensive Plan
  4. Create an Affordable/Workforce Housing Development Office
  5. Strengthen the Affordable Housing Components of DRIs
  6. Continue to Build Support for the “Seeds of Change: Growing Great Neighborhoods” Program
  7. Improve Infrastructure
  8. Use CDBG Funds on Complementary Projects
  9. Coordinate Drainage and Open Space Requirements in All Neighborhoods
  10. Encourage Employer-Assisted Housing Programs
  11. Adopt the “Don’t Borrow Trouble” Program to Increase Financial Literacy and Homebuyer Readiness
  12. Eliminate Barriers to Efficiently Allocating Housing Resources and Improve Communications with the Mayor’s Office and the City Council
  13. Mandate Long-Term Affordability
  14. Ensure Shared Appreciation & Recapture Funds
  15. Continue Local Bond Issues
  16. Create an Affordable/Workforce Housing Trust Fund
  17. Create a Revolving Loan Acquisition Fund
  18. Create a Predevelopment Fund and Facilitate Title Clearances
  19. Create a Local SAIL Product
  20. Accumulate Funds for Downtown and Infill Housing
  21. Become More Aware of and Involved with FHFC’s Programs
  22. Encourage Development Along Transportation Corridors and Mass Transit
  23. Appropriately Assess Ad Valorem Taxes
  24. Study the Save Our Homes Amendment to the Florida Constitution and Proposed Increase in the Homestead Exemption
  25. Support the “Scrap the Cap” Initiative
  26. Support Insurance Reform
  27. Expedite Review Processes
  28. Waive or Defer Permitting Fees
  29. Implement Density Bonuses
  30. Consider Fractional Permits for Increased Density
  31. Transfer Development Rights
  32. Provide Other Incentives
  33. Combat NIMBYism
  34. Utilize Architectural Design Standards
  35. Develop Strategies to Better Address the Homeless and the Extremely Low-Income
  36. Encourage Inclusionary Communities by Incentives, Not Mandates
  37. Implement Community Land Trusts
  38. Authorize a Nexus Study

With so many recommendations it’s hard to know where to get started. What is City Hall actually doing to implement these recommendations? What are CDBG Funds? What is the “Scrap the Cap” Initiative? I don’t know. I hope to find out.

In reality homebuilders and developers are not going to find it in their hearts to start producing affordable housing units. It’s going to take government intervention and developer incentives to bring affordable housing to the market. It’s also going to take an educated populace to demand affordable housing for our teachers, firefighters and police officers.

Affordable and Workforce Housing Taskforce Report

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 at 10:54 am and is filed under Affordable Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.