After denying permission to advertise proposed amendments to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund last week, Fort Myers City Council continued its discussion on proposed changes at its Dec. 11 workshop.
Community Development Director Steve Belden sought direction from Council on amendments to the trust fund itself, as well as some funding priorities outside of the fund’s rental assistance program.
The proposed changes receiving the most pushback at last week’s meeting were increasing the rental assistance threshold to 120% of the area median income, prioritizing city employees for rental assistance and requiring prospective tenants to demonstrate employment within the city.
Currently, based on direction previously provided by Council, the city is requiring applicants to live and be employed in the city to qualify for the rental assistance program.
Council member Teresa Watkins Brown was in support of changing the requirement of being employed in the city. Council member Terolyn Watson agreed with Brown, while council member Fred Burson had no objections to the way the ordinance currently stands.
“The reason being is if we’re going to provide affordable housing, one of the ways we do it is to cut down on travel expenses,” he said. “If we want to encourage somebody to live within the city, we should also encourage them to not be commuting 25 miles plus to work, because it causes a lot of other expenses outside of housing.”
Mayor Pro Tem Darla Bonk said she understands both sentiments and is open to not limiting applicants to be employed in the city.
“We aren’t necessarily creating business friendly areas within the city, and people are having to have no other choice but to go outside of the city for employment,” she said.
Council member Johnny Streets said most of the issues are outside the city, addressing increasing rent prices. “The problem is not who we can help, but how much we can help,” he said. “We’ve got to stop kicking the can down the road, and we have to make some other alternatives here.”
The city allocated $400,000 to rental assistance, which Belden says isn’t going to go very far, since the city is awarding roughly $500 to $600 a month for rental assistance per approved applicant. “You’re looking at [assisting] less than 100 people annually for that $400,000,” he said.
Therefore, the city is evaluating expanding eligible expenditures to include move-in costs, such as first and last month’s rent, utility costs and back rent.
As far as prioritizing city employees, Belden’s recommendation was to treat them as any other applicant.
However, Streets then suggested a separate fund for city employees outside of the trust fund.
“We have enough concerns about trying to put money in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to sustain it, so I don’t want to lessen that by taking away,” Streets said. “We need to still be concerned about our employees.”
City Manager Marty Lawing said he would look into the suggestion, but added he isn’t aware of such a program outside of rental assistance funds for law enforcement.
There was no opposition from Council on increasing the rental assistance threshold from 100% of the area median income to 120%. There also was general consensus on increasing the percentage of rental assistance funds allocated to those at 80% AMI or below from 65% to 75%.
Belden said these proposed changes will be brought back to Council for consideration.
