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Updated: February 2, 2023 @ 7:01 am
The 1992 Sadowski Affordable Housing Act statutorily created a dedicated source of revenue from a portion of documentary stamp taxes on the transfer of real estate to make affordable housing available for Florida’s workforce.
Unfortunately, the Republican-led Legislature over the past two decades has instead seen fit to shift approximately $2.3 billion of Sadowski housing funds – enough to have subsidized nearly 177,000 new housing units – to other legislative interests.
With the Legislature’s legalized looting a contributing factor to Florida having the third highest homeless population in the nation and nearly 2 million cost-burdened households that are one missed paycheck or financial setback away from becoming homeless, the Legislature last year pledged to no longer raid Sadowski housing funds.
Despite Florida being in the throes of a serious housing crisis from skyrocketing real estate and rental costs that has many Floridians desperate for affordable housing, the Legislature’s pledge failed to survive this year’s legislative session,
The Legislature reneged on its pledge by shifting $100 million of Sadowski housing funds to the newly created Hometown Hero Housing Program, which provides down payment assistance and closing costs for frontline emergency workers, teachers, law enforcement officers and a wide range of health care professionals.
While the Hometown Hero Housing Program is certainly an admirable initiative, the Legislature’s diversion of affordable housing funds to the program rather than finding a separate funding source for it only serves to fuel the current housing crisis by doing more harm than good.
The diversion of $100 million will substantially impact the current housing crisis because every Sadowski dollar spent for its intended purpose leverages $4 to $6 more in federal program funds and private investment to provide gap financing for affordable housing projects that developers otherwise could not afford to build.
With Florida needing hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units, building more housing is a key part of resolving the current housing crisis. As such, the Hometown Heroes Housing Program’s focus on helping frontline emergency workers build single-family homes is more political eye candy than a tangible solution for Florida’s housing crisis that is worsening by the day.
The Legislature’s reneging of its pledge to halt the looting of Sadowski housing funds has once again placed its legislative interests above the desperate need for affordable housing to the detriment of Florida’s workforce, its communities and its economic future.
The Florida Legislature does not “fund” the Sadowski housing fund – buyers and sellers of real estate do. Stop fueling the housing crisis by halting the looting.
