Alachua County Commission moves forward with programs to educate tenants and possibly add “Housing Navigators”

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a Special Policy Meeting today, the Alachua County Commission discussed ways to enforce minimum living standards and energy efficiency standards in rental housing, given the state preemption that forced the County to repeal its landlord program. 

Assistant County Manager Missy Daniels said the County’s living standards code is enforced on a complaint basis; the County receives an average of 4-5 complaints a month. Daniels said that when a code officer arrives at a property to investigate the complaint, “nine times out of ten, whatever they called about, that code officer is going to walk in and see something else, as well.”

Staff recommended that the Board consider increased education for both landlords and tenants and a dedicated Minimum Housing Code Enforcement Staff, with an estimated cost for the first year of $128,804 for a new officer. Daniels said staff has met with GACAR (Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors) and the Alachua County Labor Coalition as potential partners in educating residents on their rights as tenants and landlords on their responsibilities. Staff also recommended voluntary certification programs for landlords in which the County would certify that their rental properties are energy-efficient, for example.

Cornell: “No landlord wants an Alachua County person to walk into their unit unless invited.”

Commissioner Ken Cornell supported the recommendation for education of landlords, “as long as there’s not a huge cost associated with that… That’s secondary, though, to really educating. If we really educate the tenants and they know who to call if there’s a concern, and we send out a County code inspector person–that will solve the issue with the landlord, I guarantee you, because no landlord wants an Alachua County person to walk into their unit unless invited.”

“Housing Navigators”: Hiring people who have experienced housing issues to help others

Chair Anna Prizzia said she was “excited about the idea of having a dedicated code enforcement officer for minimum housing standards, living standards, whatever we call them… And so, as we educate and more come in, we’re already prepared and more proactive in terms of being able to respond to those things, because I think it will increase the calls. So I definitely think those two things need to be paired together.” She said she saw the dedicated code officer and the education coordinator as separate positions and added that “housing navigators” would be “another opportunity… that’s been successful in many communities around the country.”

Prizzia mentioned that the County is currently piloting a Community Health Worker (CHW) program, and “I think some of those Community Health Workers could also be Housing Navigators. And/or we could have a parallel type program that would be about hiring people who are in these lived experiences in the communities, being able to have conversations and do some of that education.” She said an Education Coordinator could oversee the education materials and make sure the messages being communicated are accurate and also do landlord coordination and connect with organizations like the Labor Coalition, “but we could also have potentially a Navigator program and people kind of on the ground… having dialogue with people… and maintaining affordable housing and maintaining people in housing, as well as thinking about the minimum standards.” She said the program could be a pilot program.

Prizzia said she didn’t have the program fully fleshed out, but “what I envision is that individuals that have experienced housing insecurity, who have experienced tenancy in places that struggle with minimum housing standards, people who have lived impacted lives around these issues of housing and affordability, would be hired to help have conversations with other people in those same communities about their rights, their responsibilities, and the resources available to them… and hopefully eventually help them move in a direction toward being able to afford housing.”

“And I’m saying we have all these community resources, we have all these people in our community who need employment, who understand the issues, who have lived the experiences, who know how to reach community, who know how to speak to people in ways that they can understand. And we can leverage that to be able to build a team for this education coordinator.” – Chair Anna Prizzia

Commissioner Mary Alford said she “really, really” liked the idea. Prizzia added that she didn’t want to just hire one person and say, “That person’s job is to do education… They have to do this whole big thing. And I’m saying we have all these community resources, we have all these people in our community who need employment, who understand the issues, who have lived the experiences, who know how to reach community, who know how to speak to people in ways that they can understand. And we can leverage that to be able to build a team for this education coordinator… Then we can expand on it if it works.” Prizzia said she wanted staff to work on the idea in the next few months and then bring it back as part of the FY25 budget discussions.

Complaints are required to initiate a codes enforcement case

Prizzia asked whether there was any way for inspectors to “do drop-in inspections on sites that have had violations in the past.” Daniels said they have “the ability to do proactive code enforcement, but you don’t really have the staff right now.” She said, however, that it’s different with rental housing because someone has to allow access to the property.

Senior Assistant County Attorney Diana Johnson said that under Florida law, a code officer cannot initiate a case unless a complaint is made, and they cannot accept anonymous complaints. She said the only exception would be in cases where there is an imminent threat of public health and safety and welfare. 

Prizzia said that if they did an energy-efficiency certification program for landlords, “I do think that it’s going to cost us money… [We should have] a map and a dashboard that showcases them… So I’m not opposed to it, but I would definitely want a lot more information and make sure that [the standards] are the highest and best standards.”

Motion: Proactive education program, housing navigators, consider best practices for FY25 budget

Cornell made a motion “for staff to evaluate a proactive education program considering dedicated minimum housing staffing needs and consider incorporating the idea of housing navigators and our community partners, as well as consider other statewide best practices and return with the 2025 budget proposal.”

During public comment, Bobby Mermer from the Alachua County Labor Coalition suggested putting some of the standards that were recently repealed into the business code, “but not applying them to situations where a landlord-tenant relationship or a residential tenancy exists. Legally speaking, there is no residential tenancy and there is no landlord-tenant relationship when a unit is unoccupied or when a unit becomes vacant.”

Alford asked whether Code Enforcement has multilingual employees; Daniels said she has several that speak Spanish.

Prizzia: “So I feel like if we’re going to talk about best practices… we have to get outside the state of Florida.”

Prizzia said she was interested in Mermer’s idea about the business code and vacant units. Cornell suggested looking into whether other counties in Florida are doing anything similar, and Prizzia responded, “I think we have to get outside of Florida sometimes because… by and large, we have a largely rural state. And we have a largely conservative state that’s very focused more on business as usual than it is on protections for vulnerable populations. So I feel like if we’re going to talk about best practices, when it comes to stuff like this, we have to get outside the state of Florida to find best practices around housing protections. I just don’t think we’re going to find it in Florida all that much. I mean, maybe Miami-Dade, maybe in Pinellas County, maybe in Orlando, Orange County, Hillsborough. Yeah, maybe a little bit in Leon.”

The motion passed 4-0, with Commissioner Chuck Chestnut absent.

During the next agenda item, Equity and Community Outreach Manager Deidre Houchens said she had something to add to the previous discussion: “Often I’m finding, too, that Florida is not where I can go for best practices. As a matter of fact, I think we might be the only Office of Equity and Community Engagement in the state. So when I’m looking at the kinds of place… it’s certainly not Florida where I’m getting best practices; where I’m getting best practices are the Northwest. The reason for that is because that’s where GARE was founded, the Government Association for Race and Equity. So all of those municipalities in that northwest area, they’re doing some really, really neat things related to equity and community engagement. And they’re far further than we are. So we were blessed to hire an expert from that area, who’s on the ground doing some of those things with the County, in departments from water management to climate action.”