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Lawmaker Seeking Money For Affordable Housing
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Published: February 20, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Thanks in part to the condo conversion craze of recent years and budget woes, Pasco County has been losing more and more affordable housing complexes.
So state Sen. Mike Fasano and county leaders want to help keep a roof over the heads of lower-income apartment dwellers.
Pasco has some 860 units that might lose subsidies of one kind or another within the next five years, Florida Housing Finance Corp. numbers show.
Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has a bill ready for the 2008 session of the Legislature, starting next month. It would keep affordable housing subsidies, for both apartments and mobile home parks, in place.
The bill would create the Florida Housing Preservation Program. Florida Housing Finance Corp. The FHFC would be able to tap a trust fund containing up to $50 million for loans and other financing.
Under Fasano's proposal, some banks could put up funds as well.
The money would be available to nonprofit community groups seeking to buy or fix affordable housing units. These units might otherwise be sold to private developers who would raise rents.
The funds also could be spent to preserve subsidies for some apartment dwellers or to keep rent control caps intact.
A shortage of apartments exist in part because developers snapped up complexes and converted them into condos to be sold to residents. Now a glut of condos has formed after the real estate market bubble burst last year.
"That caused a strain," George Romagnoli, Pasco's community development manager, said about apartment buildings converted to condos.
Yet apartment rents aren't going down because of the short supply.
"The big thing is the ones that have subsidized rents" through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD for short, Romagnoli added.
"HUD just doesn't do those much anymore," he said, referring to subsidy vouchers.
The FHFC figures suggest 20 affordable housing complexes in West Pasco might be at risk.
They include "rural development properties" such as Sunset Villas Apartments in Hudson with 45 units, Anclote Villas Apartments in Hudson with 74 units and Orangewood Lakes Apartments in New Port Richey, also with 74 units.
Four elderly housing units are on the list: Bethlehem Housing, in Hudson, 60 units; AHEPA Apartments, New Port Richey, 50; Greencastle of Bayonet Point in Port Richey, 80; and Mandala Satellite Apartments, New Port Richey, with 14 of 15 units qualifying for rental assistance.
Five complexes catering to persons with disabilities – Congress Street Apartments, Pasadena Drive Duplexes, Gulf Coast Egret Housing and Forest Avenue Triplex, in New Port Richey, and Hardy Street Apartments, in Port Richey – are also on the list.
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