Gainesville City Commission reviews legislative priorities and disparity study findings, changes direction on focus of affordable housing funds

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the November 14 General Policy Committee meeting, the Gainesville City Commission approved their legislative priorities, reviewed the findings of their disparity study, and discussed changing the focus of their affordable housing budget allocation from owners to renters.

Legislative priorities

The City’s lobbyist presented the list of legislative priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

Local funding requests:

• 8th Avenue/Waldo Road corridor economic redevelopment
• Creation of a connector road between Williston Road and SW 34th Street by extending SW 47th Avenue
• A consolidated multi-use public safety services center in the southwest area
• A new 26,400 sq ft building for property and evidence storage for law enforcement
• Roofing and weatherization needs for GTEC

Advocacy issues:

• Home rule (oppose preemptions at the state level)
• Affordable housing (full funding of the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund)
• Homelessness (provide grants for local service provider operational and emergency housing needs)
• Infrastructure (a long list of grants and funding needs)
• Cybersecurity (funding)
• Mental health, social, and support services (increasing available resources for mental health and substance abuse treatment)
• Annexation (support legislation to facilitate annexation of unincorporated enclaves and areas where City services are already provided)
• Historic preservation (create Florida Historic Tax Credit, oppose undermining the protection of historic buildings)
• Quality food access (provide incentives for urban agriculture, support funding to promote equitable access to fresh, healthy food options)
• Program set-asides (advocate for cities to receive funding when counties do)

After the presentation, Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she was “very pleased with the approach the lobbyist is planning to take with 8th and Waldo. We’re going to have to be creative as we move forward on that particular item, but I have no doubt she will be successful.”

Mayor Harvey Ward said, “We certainly have the opportunity for some legislators to be heroes and to get lots of local credit for making 8th and Waldo, Citizens Field, MLK, etc., as wonderful as it can possibly be.”

The motion to approve the list of priorities passed unanimously.

Disparity study findings

The Commission heard a presentation from Griffin & Strong on the disparity study findings and recommendations (the full presentation can be found here). The study found that “Gainesville has a factual basis for establishing race- and gender-conscious program elements, in addition to race- and gender-neutral efforts… [D]isparities remained after controlling for capacity and other race- and gender-neutral factors.”

The consultant commended the City for its small business efforts, invoice templates, encouragement of prime contractors to use women- and minority-owned subcontractors, its tracking of subcontractors, and its mentoring program.

The consultant made 10 recommendations:

• Allocate additional resources and staffing
• Set aspirational goals
• Set contract-by-contract subcontracting goals for women- and minority-owned businesses
• Establish a prompt payment policy for subcontractors
• Ensure robust contract compliance
• Expand use of B2Gnow (supplier diversity and compliance software)
• Review contract sizing
• Expand outreach and supportive services
• Require joint ventures
• Reform collection and tracking of data

Next steps include performing a gap analysis, determining the aspirational goals, drafting a new program plan, developing an implementation plan, determining budget and staffing needs for new program elements, and training staff.

Ward said the Commission would not give staff any specific direction but would just hear and accept the report and ask staff to come back with recommendations.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director Zeriah Folston pointed out that the consultant will continue to work with City staff for another year, “so they’re not doing the presentation day and then leaving.” He also announced a community engagement meeting on December 16 to share the information with the community. 

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker made a motion to accept the disparity study findings, refer recommendations to the Charter Officers for further review, and return to the Commission in late spring with a plan regarding the feasibility of the recommendations; there were multiple seconds. The motion passed unanimously.

Sponsors needed for A Very GNV Holiday Parade

During member comment, Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said there are over 100 entries for the Very GNV Holiday Parade, and they’ve had to turn people away, but “where I’m looking for help… is with sponsors and calling sponsors to help us recruit funds.”

Reallocating affordable housing funds to renters

Chestnut also said she was originally “very interested in people having home ownership and being able to buy a home. Upon further reflection, I think that we should look at trying to help the working poor with getting rental vouchers, and we’ll have the opportunity very early next year to begin to look at that $1.5 million dollars that we’ve allocated to housing… to see how we can be of more help to the working class.” She made a motion “to refer to the Manager to come back with recommendations and alternatives as to how we can help the working poor in rental assistance vouchers, and then looking at using the $1.5 million dolars.” Duncan-Walker seconded the motion. 

Ward said, “Certainly we will make sure that we’re using all those funds in the best possible way that has the fastest effect for folks who find themselves in need, absolutely.” 

City Manager Cynthia Curry said a Request For Proposal (RFP) has already been put together “for the developers to kind of pick up on what had not been funded out of the ARPA [funds]. And so this would be a different direction, but again, ultimately the decision is the Commission’s.”

Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons confirmed that staff has been working on a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) and setting aside some additional funding for construction of rental projects, “particularly for vulnerable populations.”

Persons said bids for the first lot in a project referred to as “the ADU” have come back, and construction is expected to start in January, with plans designed in-house. He said the plans for the second lot should be complete later this month, and that lot will start construction a few months after the first one. He said construction costs are “higher than they’ve been,” so the City hopes to provide support for construction funding. He said the units are for “vulnerable populations, people that are facing the possibility of homelessness or fleeing domestic violence – those are HUD rules for the use of that [funding].”

Commissioner Casey Willits suggested giving some of the money to the Community Weatherization Coalition to bring down utility costs in rental housing “because Community Weatherization lost some of their funds. You know, we don’t fund them the way we could have.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he’d thought the NOFA would come back to the Commission before it was issued, and Curry said she could do that, but the Commission had already directed staff to develop affordable housing with the funds, and “there seemed to be urgency from the Commission for us to not slack off the commitment that you all had made for housing on ARPA.”

Eastman said there was urgency when the funds came from ARPA, but since the Commission shifted funds around to use General Fund money for affordable housing, “I don’t see a lot of urgency… – I mean, we want to get it out on the street… We need to figure out ways that we can try to support renters, which are statistically some of the lowest-income folks, right?… Increasing the supply of housing overall is also very important – renters would be ideal, but also home ownership… I would like to see this process play out in a different way, which is to not immediately go on the street and come back to us at some point.”

Chestnut: “I’m just wondering if we can do both”

Chestnut suggested that they “do both – some funds for renters and some for home ownership. We have been working on home ownership, but I’m concerned that the working poor still may not be able to get enough money to qualify to buy a house. And so is there a way that we can help them through vouchers – or whatever? That’s what staff does – they become creative. So I’m just wondering if we could do both to address the issue.”

Persons reminded the Commission that they had given staff direction to use the affordable housing portion of the infrastructure surtax to build units on land that would remain under the City’s ownership and that they were working on an RFP for housing partners to manage those units. 

Duncan-Walker wanted to incentivize small landlords who provide housing for “the most vulnerable populations… because sometimes they face challenges, as well… Some of them… have had to make things market-rate because it simply was not affordable for them [to keep rents low].”

Persons said the County piloted a program that provides grants to small landlords to do repairs or upgrades in exchange for keeping rents at affordable levels. He said staff could ask the County how many landlords participated in the program, which was only for the unincorporated areas. 

Budget was already approved for the fiscal year

Curry pointed out that “without ARPA, we would not have been able to make the efforts and strides that we’ve made, and ARPA is basically moving away from us. We’ve made those decisions; those programs are being implemented… In order to add money, to continue to enhance and improve,… we have to move funds from somewhere else… We have to understand where we are, period, in terms of our resources and the budget that was just approved.” 

Chestnut: “I think that we cannot afford to miss this opportunity to help people who can’t afford to get into a house, but they need rental assistance.”

Ward suggested making a motion to ask staff to bring back the current plan for the funds, along with some alternatives, and Chesnut said, “Why can’t we take $750,000 and try to help poor people who need rental assistance? And $750 – half of it – to then help to address housing for the vulnerable – but I think that we cannot afford to miss this opportunity to help people who can’t afford to get into a house, but they need rental assistance.”

Commissioner Ed Book said he wasn’t in favor of directing “specific delineations” of the money from the dais, especially since they had previously given direction to staff on how to proceed.

Willits: “I worry that we’re shifting too far on this and that we were already on a path.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said he wanted the money to go to something “transformational… creating new supply” instead of “something like rental assistance or erasing people’s GRU bills.” He said rental assistance could “induce demand” for rental units because people who were previously rooming together would now want their own unit, “and you now have people demanding more housing, but we haven’t increased the supply.” He also said he was “more interested in an idea, frankly, of energy efficiency,… supporting our local organizations… I want [ARPA funds] spent, and I want creation of new units so people get into their homes. I worry that we’re shifting too far on this and that we were already on a path… I want to see some new units.”

Chestnut said, “Well, I think let’s see what the Manager brings back. I think if there can be a combination… I think this is the population we also need to look at, in desperate need of help.”

Ward: “I look forward to staff bringing yet another set of ideas back to us.”

Ward said he wants “to build wealth for the community and do targeted programs that get people into homes that they own. But the problem really is in folks who… just need help with affordable housing… I also want to help people just get the rent paid so that they don’t become homeless… So I look forward to staff bringing yet another set of ideas back to us.” He said it’s frustrating that “it takes so long to get anything built… That’s not unique to Gainesville.”

City Clerk Kristen Bryant read back the motion: “Refer to the City Manager for recommendations on how the working poor can receive rental housing assistance, possibly using the $1.5 million previously set aside from the General Fund.”

The motion passed 5-2, with Willits and Commissioner Reina Saco in dissent.

Willits: Amendment 5 will shift local government funding to renters

Willits said he was concerned that Amendment 5, which recently passed, will shift the property tax burden from homeowners to renters: “When you shift it, it ends up in rent, and I don’t know what we’ll do in the next couple years about making sure that how we fund our City is perhaps not as reliant on a regressive tax system, but Amendment 5 is going to leave property tax even more regressive than it is right now.” He said the Amendment is estimated to reduce property taxes in the county by about $4.5 million if the property tax rate does not change. He said homesteaded owners will “be shielded, but renters will not be shielded” from inevitable increases in property tax rates, and “commercial and industrial as well.”

Willits continued, “We wonder: why is rent expensive? Well, because the City, the County, the state, and even the voters say we’d rather get our money from renters than homeowners.” He said they would need to “build a more progressive form of funding government. We don’t have a lot of options, but it’s just something that I’ve put out there.”

Hurricane large debris cleanup complete

Ward announced that the City had completed the hurricane large debris cleanup, and the expenses will be fully reimbursible by FEMA. He continued, “I am certain there are folks who will have more questions, but generally speaking, that process is finished – and finished before the Thanksgiving deadline that we promised.”

Ward: “Gainesville is going to continue to provide the things that Gainesville provides. We are here.”

Ward also congratulated Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton on an “exceptionally well[-run]” election. He thanked the voters for “following through on what we asked – or what they asked us to do. The people of Gainesville came to this room and through our emails and said, ‘We would like you to put this GRU thing on the ballot.’ And we took a long time to get it on the ballot, but a lot of people asked us to do it, and those people came through and supported passage of that by 73% – nothing passes by 73%, that’s mind-boggling.”

Ward continued, “I want to say, too, that I know that folks feel all kinds of different ways about the election nationally, and I want to assure everyone that Gainesville is going to continue to provide the things that Gainesville provides. We are here. You elected us with a specific set of instructions that you want us to support you with. We will continue to do those things… And rest assured that the things that we do, the decisions that we make, whether they are short-term or long-term or very long-term decisions, are done with the intent of supporting working families in Gainesville and Alachua County.”