Boosting Affordable Stock: A Florida Housing Authority’s View
Charles Glover and Carlos Pizarro on how public agencies can create more housing for low-income residents.
Florida is famous for attracting new residents, and there’s no doubt that the sunny weather, friendly business environment and job opportunities will continue to bring more people to the state. But population growth comes with a lot of challenges for public entities. In Lakeland and Polk County, for example, there’s a lot of pressure on affordable housing.
Local and regional efforts, including government programs, public-private partnerships and community organizations, are working to address the housing crisis, but significant hurdles remain, including land availability, construction costs and funding shortfalls. Additionally, despite some progress, challenges related to public acceptance also persist.
To explore the latest affordable housing trends and gain insights into these pressing issues, Multi-Housing News reached out to Carlos Pizarro, senior vice president of the Housing Authority within the City of Lakeland, and Broker Charles Glover. Both of them have years of experience and know firsthand what it means to work with federal and state policies, local partnerships and community initiatives to create more affordable housing options.
Tell us more about your role within the Housing Authority of the City of Lakeland.
Glover: As the Housing Authority’s regional property manager, I oversee more than 1,000 units over 12 properties in the Polk and Highlands County area. We successfully manage a mixture of tax credits, HOME, Housing Choice Vouchers and public housing units.
What are the biggest challenges you’re facing when it comes to meeting the growing demand for affordable housing in your area?
Pizarro: Some of the biggest challenges are not enough funding from the state, and the political environment of the State of Florida which does not promote equality.
READ ALSO: A Closer Look at Affordable Housing Supply Challenges
How do federal policies, particularly those from the HUD, affect your ability to expand affordable housing options in Lakeland and Polk County?
Pizarro: HUD is changing the way they do business, they have new programs and initiatives running. The problem with HUD is that some of the experienced staff have no development experience and they are not flexible enough to help expand affordable housing quick enough.
What type of additional support is needed from the state or federal level?
Glover: The Lakeland Housing Authority is aware of the housing crisis and are working with different groups, private companies and non-profit organizations to create more affordable housing. More opportunities from programs like Ship, Sail, CDGB and other federal and state funded programs for housing authorities could help a lot.
How do you balance between the need to provide affordable housing and the NIMBY phenomenon that has been adding a lot of tension to many communities across the country?
Pizarro: The NIMBY phenomenon can be minimized by adding self-sufficiency programs and by providing the correct information to the public including, but not limited to, having a good inspection department …
How do you generate new streams of revenue for your projects? To what extent are technology and innovation helping you provide quality affordable housing and self-sufficiency opportunities in Lakeland and Polk County?
Pizarro: Yardi is a key element of affordable housing. Yardi’s products—including RentCafe—allow us to provide services to our families, landlords and vendors that otherwise will be limited. For example, paying their rent online which save our families time and gas, the landlord portal which provides our landlords with information they need in order to keep their accounting books in order and so forth.
When it comes to public housing, do you expect to see more emphasis on redevelopment, expanding housing stock or changing the focus to vouchers and rental assistance?
Pizarro: The Public Housing program is deemed to disappear through the implementation of the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program. We are working on developing at least three to five new communities withing the next two years.
Given the high costs of land and construction, how can developers be incentivized to build more affordable housing units?
Glover: More incentives at the local level from cities and counties, land donations, waving impact fees, expedited permitting and future tax benefits.
What zoning laws or regulatory barriers do you think are most in need of reform to facilitate more affordable housing development in your area as a whole?
Glover: Any law that keeps affordable housing from being developed should be addressed. Affordable housing is not just low-income, it’s for the working-class American and their family trying to better themselves. We need more legislation like the Live Local Act to facilitate more affordable housing developments.
What does the future of public housing look like in Lakeland and Polk County?
Glover: The future of public housing is scarce for both Lakeland and Polk County. Programs like Housing Choice Voucher, tax credits and RAD will be more sustainable. The City of Lakeland’s Infill Land Bank Program is great for expanding the housing stock for homeownership, we need more like this. There should be more emphasis to redevelop these older communities, and build more new housing with energy efficiency features that are designed to withstand Florida’s climate.
