Tallahassee Sun

The City of Tallahassee earned statewide honors as the recipient of the Florida Housing Coalition 2023 State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Award for its rehabilitation and new construction programs.

With affordable housing prioritized in its five-year Strategic Plan, the City provides a variety of programs to rehabilitate and enhance existing housing inventory, as well as to facilitate and encourage the construction of new affordable housing units. As part of the City's efforts to support a strong community with vibrant neighborhoods, these programs help keep low-income homeowners in safe, healthy homes and aid others on the path to homeownership.

The City's programs and partnership opportunities also incentivize developers to bring housing projects across the affordability spectrum to Tallahassee and help stretch public dollars, creating a more sustainable, long-term affordable housing environment.

"In the last fiscal year, more than 13,000 citizens were served by City housing programs. Through effective policymaking and implementing proven programs, the City is a leader in our community's affordable housing efforts. I'm proud to see these efforts recognized as best practices in our state," Mayor John Dailey said.

In addition to the support for residents, the impact of City programs can be measured through the dollar amount of affordable units preserved through repair, rehabilitation or reconstruction. In Fiscal Year 2022, the City's SHIP investment of more than $500,000 leveraged with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funding preserved more than $5.2 million in housing stock for low-income homeowners.

In the same program year, $750,000 in loans supported new homebuyers, for a total of $6.35 million in real estate sales.

"The Florida Housing Coalition recognizes the City of Tallahassee as a leader amongst its peers in the state, demonstrating effectiveness in leveraging local, state and federal resources in innovative ways to achieve maximum impact," said Ashon J. Nesbitt, Chief Executive Officer for the Florida Housing Coalition. "The City implements several best practices, including construction funding for nonprofits and permanent affordability in partnership with the community land trust. In the past three years, the City has increased its affordable housing pipeline to serve more than the past 25 years combined. This is a testament to the high level of expertise, professionalism and creativity of City staff and the City Commission's active commitment to affordable housing."

The City pairs these programs with new construction, including short-term construction loans for small developers, infill construction on City-owned parcels and new construction through the Community Land Trust and Community Housing Development organizations. The new homes built with support from these programs are affordable for those earning 80 percent or less Area Median Income.

"Leveraging federal, state and local funding along with private investment is critical to our community's ability to increase affordable housing stock. With the City's strategic focus and holistic approach, more affordable housing units are being added and preserved locally as housing challenges are felt across the country," Director of Housing and Community Resilience Dr. Kimball Thomas said.

To learn more about the City of Tallahassee's commitment to affordable housing programs, such as inclusionary housing, new home infill program, down payment assistance, construction loan program, Community Land Trust and more visit Talgov.com/Housing.

Original source can be found here.