Habitat Funding in Jeopardy

This could hugely affect Habitat for Humanity of Walton County. Last year the grant from the state in partnership with CHELCO meant basically that we were able to stay in business. Please contact your State Rep and voice your concerns.

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Florida Affiliates:

This morning the House TED Appropriations committee unanimously passed HB 639 (the affordable Housing Bill), by Rep Aubuchon, which removes the Doc Stamp cap.
Right after that bill passed, the committee heard the Chair's budget recommendations. Rep. Horner?s recommendations did not include ANY state funding for affordable housing. It would eliminate the base funding for affordable housing programs. The reduction allows for a sweep of trust revenues in the amount of $176.4 million.
Last week, it was discovered that over $65 million dollars has been uncommitted by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. These dollars were for specific programs and programs that had never came to fruition. The legislature is extremely upset about these uncommitted/unspent dollars by the Housing Finance Corp. Those dollars are possibly up for grabs to be redirected towards other programs, such as workforce development. HFH of Florida is exploring a proposal with a couple of key legislators of how Habitat could participate in some of those redirected dollars. These are exploratory discussions and thoughts at this time. We will have more information as we work on this effort.
Yesterday, Chairman Gaetz said that he was "invoking" Senator Alexander's name as the person directing them to propose a permanent redirection of all doc stamp revenues that have been going to the Housing Trust Funds to General Revenue. The reason given was that "we always sweep them to GR anyway" and we should be "intellectually honest" and just put a permanent total redirect in the law rather than sweep each year. The committee also announced their appropriation levels. They are putting $0 of new money to FHFC. Instead, they are taking some of the funds that FHFC already had and appropriating them ($32.5 million for down payment assistance and $5.0 for SHIP). Under current law, FHFC already has the authority to spend these funds, which come from loan repayments, loan interest, and investment earnings. The Senate plan removes their ability to truly operate as a corporation, and makes every expenditure subject to legislative appropriation (Including pass through federal funds).
Over the weekend, Senate staff introduced a proposal to sweep all trust funds (including the housing trust fund) and funnel it to general revenue. This morning we found out that Senate Budget Committee Chair JD Alexander apparently is the driving force behind this proposal. This undoubtedly is a huge concern for Habitat for Humanity and all affordable housing advocates. It has been indicated that this issue and the other proposals that impact the budget process are on ?lock down? meaning that the Senate is using these dollars for the Senate?s budget building process. This particular proposal was discussed today and will again on Thursday in the Senate Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Committee. If this proposal is adopted, each year, the legislature would decide how much from general revenue to appropriate to the housing trust fund each year.
Last week, House Select Committee on Governmental Reorganization presented a conceptual plan to reorganize economic development, workforce development and community development. Concurrently, the Senate Tourism & Commerce heard a presentation by Appropriations staff on the massive proposed reorganization of state agencies. It is 600+page proposal that is in draft form that HFH of Florida, our legislative advocates and HFHI?s GRA office is reviewing at length. From our initial review of the document, housing and OTTED (CCTCP) would all fall under the ?Jobs Department?, under a Jobs Czar for the state.
What we have heard from two legislators, during committee meetings, this past week: ?Habitat for Humanity gets too much of the SHIP dollars? and ?Habitat for Humanity should go back to the old model of no government funds-it works better?. I will be contacting the affiliates who are in the district of those legislators so that follow up can happen.
Mel Martinez has recently been named to the Habitat for Humanity International?s board of directors. We are working in tandem with HFHI?s GRA office, on how best to leverage Mel Martinez?s affection for Habitat with some of his colleagues and friends in the legislature.


We are circling in with our legislative advocates, the Sadowski Coalition, the authors of both affordable housing bills and HFHI to see what type of ?advocacy action? we might take together. This is a critical point in the history of affordable housing in Florida. Now more than ever, we need the synergy and thinking of the collective of Florida affiliates. We would be interested to hear from as many as you as possible on this question:

If all state affordable housing dollars were gone, what would be the percentage of reduction on the number of families (new construction and rehab) that you would be unable to serve?

Example answer: Since the lost of SHIP dollars two years ago, our affiliate has built 20% less houses and unable to serve 5 families.

Your response, thoughts, prayers and support is needed now more than ever. Please take the time to review and respond.

Blessings to each of you,
Lori


Executive Director

Habitat for Humanity of Florida, Inc.
PO Box 677453
Orlando, FL 32867