Rental Units Needed to Have Affordable Housing

You have to love the easy access people in the Sunshine State have to public records. While taking some pictures for last week's WGWW I noticed a permit box hanging on one of those yellow 4 unit apartment buildings Port Tampans love to hate. This one is just south of the library on Mascotte Street. Windows were missing but work was obviously in progress so I looked up the owner and exchanged a few e-mails regarding the building's future.

Turns out two units were damaged by arson back in Jan./Feb. and repairs are in progress to make them habitable. Though investigators are sure the fires were set intentionally, the police say they cannot prove who did it. That's too bad, since there is a prime suspect.

On the positive side, the building is not being remodeled to become a condo conversion, nor torn down to build townhomes. "How is that positive?" you ask. Of all people, Port Tampa the blogger, an unabashed booster of home ownership and believer in community redevelopment, should be looking forward to the day all these buildings are long gone. Au contraire mon frere.

To have permanent affordable housing you must have rental units. I'm not saying individuals, of any income level, should occupy rented apartments forever. The apartments should be available to a series of occupants who stay for a while then move on in their lives-perhaps to buy a house or maybe take a job in a new city. Thus, I find Tampa's current investigation of how, or if, to require condo developers to reserve some units as "workforce housing" a great move but I worry that there is no way to write regulations that will keep those units within reach of teachers, police officers, artists, or personnel from MacDill. We must find a way, through tax incentives, or zoning variances, or things other cities have found to be successful, to include decent, affordable, rental housing in the mix.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal covered area jurisdictions' attempts to support affordability. You can read it all for yourself.

The part that really piqued my interest was:

"...But rental inventory in the Tampa Bay area continues to drop in a hot condominium conversion market, and existing home values are still rising. That's causing some programs to be less effective.

Potential homeowners in Tampa have help from a down payment assistance program through which city officials working from state and federal grants can place a 20 percent down payment on qualified homes that cost up to $164,000, which is paid back if the owner ever sells the home. While up to $35,000 in assistance can go a long way in reducing monthly house payments, there's been a problem. Few houses meet the criteria.

'We can't find it [homes that qualify]," said Cynthia Miller, director of Tampa's Department of Business and Housing Development. "If you find a house for $200,000, then we can't be of any assistance.'"

This is the lowest priced single family home listed at realtor.com for Port Tampa. They are asking $205,000.