ChuckE Law - Community Lawyering in Miami

In 1992, the Florida Legislature established a dedicated revenue source for affordable housing along with creative and highly accountable programs for the use of those monies, known as the William E. Sadowski Affordable Housing Act. The resulting affordable housing trust fund became one of the best in the nation. The Sadowski Act state and local housing trust funds have produced or preserved over 200,000 homes for Floridians. The design of the funding for the trust funds was deliberately tied to documentary tax revenues so that as real estate cost increased, doc stamp receipts would also increase and the monies available for housing would increase proportionately. However, beginning July 1, 2007, an arbitrary cap of $243 million per year was placed upon distributions from doc stamps to the housing trust funds—$150-$300 million per year less than the dedicated revenue would have generated for housing in accordance with its design. There is an ongoing major campaign to “Scrap the Cap....

After many years of fighting, led by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, we finally have a new National Housing Trust Fund. It was passed as part of the large foreclosure package. While there were many compromises, and the amount of funding is not as great as was hoped, it accomplishes the key objectives of the campaign. The key objectives were a dedicated source of funds, its use for rental housing production and targeting on Extremely Low Income households. All have been accomplished. The three most important provisions: (1) It provides a permanent dedicated source of funding without a sunset provision; not subject to the annual appropriations process. It is on the mandatory side of the budget and does not compete with HUD budget. Funds will go into the Trust Fund. (2) Primarily targeted to rental housing - at least 90% of the funds must be used for rental housing; up to 10% for homeownership. It may be able to be used for an operating subsidy but only for opera...

In addition to foreclosure relief, the new Foreclosure Bill contains significant changes to the Section 8 program. Currently, Housing Authorities are permitted to "project base" up to 20% of their tenant vouchers. However, the project based vouchers cannot exceed more than 25% of any building and the contracts cannot exceed ten years (although they are renewable.) The Foreclosure Bill allows Housing Authorities to exceed 25% in any one building as long as the entire "project" does not exceed 25%. In addition, the new bill allows Housing Authorities to enter into project based contracts for 15 years.

There is increasing pressure to subsidize housing for those earning 100% - 140% of median income - so-called “workforce housing.” In Miami-Dade County that is families earning $60,000 to over $80,000 a year. Certainly, there are families earning over $70,000 that have trouble finding affordable housing. But should scarce affordable housing subsidies be focused on these families. One way to answer is to look at who is spending the greater part of their income on housing. HUD measures families who are spending over 50% of their income for housing. These families are considered to have especially serious housing need. The following charts show the distribution of that need in Miami-Dade County. Household Size 1-2 Miami-Dade County Household Income Cost Burden 50%+ Percent of Median Income Household Count Percent of Total 21503 26.9% 20-29.9% 21314 26.7% 30-39.9% 12503 15.6% 40-49...