Archives

  • www.xinsurance.com
Advertisement
The Newspaper for the Future of Miami
Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
Front Page » Communities » County aims to dismiss Affordable Housing Trust Fund board

County aims to dismiss Affordable Housing Trust Fund board

Written by on May 16, 2023
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
Advertisement
County aims to dismiss Affordable Housing Trust Fund board

Miami-Dade County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to dissolve the Affordable Housing Trust Fund’s board of trustees and its revolving loan fund.

“The Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board,” Commissioner Eileen Higgins told Miami Today, “has simply not been able to activate this important funding source to do what it is supposed to do – build affordable housing.”

Commissioner Higgins introduced the proposed ordinance, which now goes to a public hearing June 12 before the Housing, Recreation, Culture & Community Development Committee.

The proposed ordinance would rename the fund the “Affordable and Workforce Housing Trust Fund.” It also would permanently dissolve the Revolving Loan Fund, which no longer has a source of funding and “has not been operable since its creation in 2016,” Commissioner Higgins’ ordinance states.

The board and trust fund were created in 2007. The purpose, ostensibly, was to:

■Establish a permanent, renewable source of revenue to meet, in part, the housing needs of the residents of Miami-Dade County.

■Foster a housing supply accessible to a range of incomes in developments assisted by the Trust Fund.

■Disperse affordable housing units throughout the county.

The trust fund was to be administered by a board of trustees. The new board first met in November 2016, nearly ten years after it was created, according to the commissioner’s report.

“It was contemplated that the main source of monies deposited into it would come from monetary contributions from developers seeking incentives from the county, such as density bonuses, in lieu of building workforce housing under the county’s Workforce Housing Development Program,” the report states.

The new board, however, “determined that such contributions were sparsely made, and thus, insufficient to effectuate the purpose of the trust fund.”

“Meanwhile,” Commissioner Higgins told Miami Today, “the Board of County Commissioners has been and continues to build thousands of units, but many of these projects have gap financing needs.”

It is of “critical importance,” she said, to activate the “Affordable Housing Trust Fund more quickly to get new units under construction or renovate existing units.”

The new board subsequently adopted resolutions establishing recurring sources of finances for the fund. One resolution required that a minimum of 25% of the proceeds from the sales of county-owned properties go into the fund, with certain exceptions.

As of September 2022, the funding source provided over $6 million to the trust fund. A subsequent resolution required that a minimum of 10% of the rents received by the county from the leasing of county-owned properties be deposited into the trust fund, with certain exceptions.

Trustees also established a separate interest-bearing account within the fund to be a Revolving Loan Fund “by which short term loans are made to developers for the construction, rehabilitation, or acquisition of land or housing for sale or rental to homebuyers or renters of a certain household annual income.”

The Affordable Housing Board, however, has only recommended one affordable housing project to the county commission for funding (the Jasmine Housing Ltd.) and “has not expended any monies deposited in the revolving loan fund,” according to the report.”

“It is well known,” the report asserts, “that Miami-Dade County has a current shortage of affordable and workforce housing, and it is anticipated that this shortage will worsen in the coming years.”

“That’s why,” Commissioner Higgins told Miami Today, “this important change in procedures is needed.”

With Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava declaring a state of emergency because of the housing crisis “there is an urgent need to effectively spend the money in the trust fund to increase the stock of affordable and workforce housing for the residents of Miami-Dade County,” the report asserts.

To that end, over the past two budget cycles “over $30 million of trust fund monies have been reallocated to the Public Housing and Community Development Department (PHCD) in an effort to expedite the spending of those monies for affordable and workforce housing.

“PHCD has successfully been able to work with each commission district to expend or obligate these funds for viable affordable housing developments or housing-related programs across the county,” the report states.

Budget decisions for fiscal year 2022-2023 require that 50% of unallocated carryover funds in the countywide general fund budget that are in excess of the adopted budget, up to $10 million, be allocated to PHCD instead of the Trust Fund in order to accelerate development of affordable and workforce housing.

“In order to continue the important work of tackling the housing crisis facing this community,” the report states, the ordinance would permanently assign the “duties and responsibilities of administering the Trust Fund to PHCD, or any department as designated by the mayor.

“PHCD is capable of administering the trust fund,” the report states, and the county commission “does not want the trust fund to languish.”

The ordinance would become effective ten days after enactment unless vetoed by the mayor, and if vetoed, would become effective only upon a veto override by the county commission.

  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
Advertisement