The Leon County Commission has approved a $35 million bond issue to construct 156 rental units exclusively for low-income and very low-income families. They’ve authorized the Housing Finance Authority of Leon County to issue the bonds for the Lake Bradford Apartments Affordable Housing Project on Kissimmee Street.
The county says its greatest housing need is for rental units affordable to households earning 50 percent of area median income or less. Most of Leon’s very low-income and extremely low-income households pay more than the standard affordability metric, which is 30 percent of one’s income on housing costs. So, the 156 units the commission authorized for Kissimmee Street are sorely needed. Here’s Assistant County Administrator Shington Lamy:
“And then, for this project specifically, 39 of those units will be for families that we call ‘very low income,’" he said. "Those are those that are making 50 percent or less of the area median income. And that is the highest need in Leon County, because we have 18,000 households that are paying more than 50 percent, that are at less than 50 percent of the area median income here in our community.”
Over the past two years, the county has provided $4.3 million in direct funding to increase the number of affordable rental units. It has also authorized roughly $148 million in bond financing to develop or redevelop affordable multifamily housing. County Commission Chair Nick Maddox says that’s not enough.
“Really, that is where we’re having the biggest problem when it comes to affordable housing – affordable rentals in particular – is that that 60 percent and below, we got about 15,000 households and about 120 units that just came online," he said. "We’re not cranking them out enough.”
Commissioner Bill Proctor noted that Leon County doesn’t have rent control or a union for renters. He questioned how the county could monitor the price index to ensure that the people in those units were maintaining an affordable rent over time.
“And I know that word ‘affordable’ changes, evolves, escalates, and goes up and up," he said. "So, what this commission is calling ‘affordable’ right now may well – it just may well – numbers changes and those numbers go up. And the people on Kissimmee Street may not be able to stay abreast.”
Mark Hendrickson is the financial adviser to the Housing Finance Authority. He told commissioners that the developer for the Kissimmee Street project will be entering into a land-use restriction agreement for 50 years. That will limit the rents on all those units to an affordable level.
“And as an example, when you ask about what are these rent levels, well, for the 30 percent units, it’s as low as 483 dollars. For the people at 60 percent of median, it may be about 11-hundred dollars. They’re well under market and they will remain under market for 50 years.”
The commission approved the bond issue unanimously. More than 1,000 affordable rental units will be developed over the next 18 months due to actions and investments by Leon County.
