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Florida Builders Return Fire on Attack Against Affordable Housing Trust Fund

Last year, lawmakers in Tallahassee siphoned off $126 million from the trust fund, an amount that would have enabled nearly 9,000 working families to become home owners, according to the Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA). This year’s proposal would be to the detriment of an additional 11,000 families.

Since 1992, the trust fund program has provided funding for more than 150,000 working families, seniors and disabled to buy homes. The fund was created by the Sadowski Act, which allocates 20 cents to the fund for every $1,000 spent on real estate.

Identifying the Affordable Housing Trust Fund as one of his association’s top three priorities in the upcoming legislative session, FHBA President Mike Hickman said that ending guaranteed state funding for affordable housing would “make us come back year after year to lobby lawmakers for affordable housing dollars. We cannot tolerate this action. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund is sacred.”

Without the fund, affordable housing would have to compete for state funding with such interests as schools, health care and juvenile justice on a yearly basis, the association says.

The association is urging its members to participate in an e-mail campaign to bring the issue to the attention of the governor, state senators and representatives and local newspapers.

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