As the population of Hillsborough County continues to rise, local governments are faced with an ever rising problem: current housing is inadequate.
There simply aren’t enough homes and apartments in the county to handle the demand of those who wish to call Hillsborough home. A large part of that issue lies in the lack of affordable housing available in the area. It’s a problem the City of Plant City has had in the back of its mind for years now and it appears that action is beginning to take place to start chipping away at the demand.
On March 9, city commissioners met with Affordable Housing Director Cheryl Howell. She spent more than an hour discussing updates on opportunities amiable through federal, state and local funding for both workforce and affordable housing.
Though the presentation itself was not too in-depth, commissioners came loaded with questions to further ascertain what the city’s next move should be.
“What it all comes down to, in my opinion, is it told me I need to talk with them a little bit more,” City Manager Bill McDaniel said. “It was a bit of a broad brush on the topic, but it had enough information to let us know we need to start acting on this. Now I want to get more specific and find out what the benefits might be for our city and our community.”
The city has already begun setting the pieces in place to get some action going. It currently has approximately 20 properties planned for achieving that goal. They opened bids for developers and by the next commission meeting and CRA meeting — or at the very latest, the one following that — we should see some of the contracts come for a vote.
Those 20 properties will be developed for affordable housing, mainly into small homes. The properties were acquired through a variety of means including tax defaults and lien defaults. McDaniel said there were several properties that had “a lot of layers” of relatives, former property owners and other invested parties the city had to comb through to get to finally have the issues resolved. It ended up a complex ordeal, so the city hired outside counsel to manage the process for them.
Because the city was able to obtain them for such a low price, it is in turn able to offer a low cost for interested developers, which will help keep the final cost down to ensure the homes are reasonably priced. All of the properties, McDaniel, said are a perfect fit for bringing more affordable housing to the city.
“First and foremost, you have to look at the reality of the lots,” McDaniel said. “These are smaller lots in older neighborhoods and this is infill-type development. The character of the lots drives the fact that they are going to be affordable housing lots. Old, typical smaller, narrow lots lend themselves very well to that. The way we acquire them also makes them very attractive to that because they’re very low cost of entry lots, which is critical to helping keep the price of the house down.”
McDaniel added that these aren’t $50,000 or $75,000 lots, so the buyers are entering the agreement at reasonable prices, which helps the affordable housing model.
In fact, it was a topic Howell brought up time and again in her presentation. Cities have to find a way to provide housing without breaking the bank. The issue of affordable housing at its core is not about housing at all, but about people and the community, Howell said. So cities need to find a way to make sure they’re building the communities they want and adding to the character that makes people want to live and spend their lives there.
“Affordable housing is not affordable to build,” Howell said. “We have to look how to do our housing. We have to look at re-engineering our efforts to get more for our money. Leveraging our resources to expand our efforts. There are ways to make this work. We have to find them.”
There is also more funding on the table this year than there has been in a very long time. There is $12 million at stake in Hillsborough County, and the City of Plant City technically could work with Howell and her team to come up with projects that address the issue and help facilitate a change in town.
Howell discussed the average salary of residents in the county and pointed out many of the hurdles they face economically when it comes to finding a place to live. The need, following her presentation, was evident and commissioners promised to continue the conversation as quickly as possible so they could come up with projects and attempt to acquire some of that financial assistance from the county.