How a DeFuniak Springs affordable housing project 'turned into a mess' and what's next

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — For over a year, several partially completed homes on Orange Avenue that could provide space for low-income families have sat empty with no signs of construction activity.

The Village Springs Housing Development in DeFuniak Springs was initiated in late 2018 with the vision of making 50 units available to families searching for affordable housing — a growing need in Walton County.

However, the project has been stalled for over a year due to stormwater and engineering issues, among other things. Meanwhile, affordable housing in Walton County has become even scarcer.

“It is way off schedule,” said Harold Sample, executive director of Workforce Housing Ventures, the company in charge of the project.

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Stormwater issues pose problems

The city of DeFuniak Springs issued a stop-work order to the contractor, GHD Construction Services, on July 7, 2021. The order cited violations of the city’s code of ordinances regarding storm water and other drainage issues.

The city’s planning director was not available for comment. However, the project has been fraught with challenges since construction began. Sample said most of the problems have come from the property’s location on a steep hillside.

The initial plans approved by the city in August of 2018 included a retention pond that would hold and distribute rain runoff in order to prevent flooding. However, Sample said the pond was collecting too much water and had to be re-engineered.

“The capacity of it had to be adjusted for the water in order to meet the storm water requirements for the water that was coming in,” he said. “So the site work couldn’t be completed until the modifications to the retention pond were decided and the configuration of the pond.”

Sample said it took around six months for the engineer to complete the modifications after the problem was identified last year. The company is now awaiting a permit to restart construction.

However, Sample said it is not just storm water that has been an issue as there are still some other deficiencies the contractor will need to correct.

“The contractor is not blameless,” Sample said. “There’s been a lot of issues with the contractor… between it all, it just turned into a mess. But we are hopeful that he either performs or we will be taking other action in the next few weeks.”

Need for affordable housing

Tom Baker, director of the Walton County Housing Agency, has long been awaiting the project’s completion. The agency provides housing assistance for low-income families as a part of its HUD Section 8 program.

The Village Springs Housing Development is one of few in the city that could be used to house some of the 184 people on the agency’s waiting list. As of August, there were 45 families that had been issued emergency housing vouchers.

“We have a real severe shortage of affordable housing in the DeFuniak Springs- Walton County area for low-income families, and as far as I know, this is one of the only developments that has come about in our community in the last few years,” Baker said.

Only about 12 percent of families who are issued vouchers in Walton County are able to find housing within the four months before their vouchers expire. Baker noted that 12 percent is a “very low figure.”

“We have close to 50 families that actually have a voucher right now that are looking for homes. So you can see how quickly we could place families in a shelter if we had those units," Baker said of the Village Springs project.

The project is primary funded by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation through the HUD HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which helps finance housing projects for low-income families, typically in smaller, more rural areas.

“So it’s basically called affordable housing in that the rent rates are controlled under the HOME program," said Sample, who added that a portion of the funding also comes from PNB Community Bank.

All housing developed with HOME funds must serve low- and very low-income families. At least 90 percent of the units, which range from one- to three-bedroom homes, will benefit families that have incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income.

That would include anyone making at or below $40,434 in Walton County, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Completion date moves to 2023

“We understand that there is a very significant need for decent, affordable housing,” Sample said. “Mr. Baker, he has a lot of Section 8 vouchers that he hasn’t been able to place. When this started in 2018, we were hopeful, we as the owners, were going to be able to supply him with 50 units.”

Many of the units already have roofs, doors and windows installed. However, there is still much more work to be done. Sample said he hopes to have construction restarted within the next few weeks, and the units ready for move-in by Spring 2023.

“It is our intention that they be completed,” he said. “We finally have that engineering, and we will be putting a demand on the contractor to immediately commence. We just apologize to the community that this project has taken so long to get completed.”

Baker said the project’s completion will bring much needed relief from the shortage of housing in Walton County, but it is only a short-term solution.

More affordable housing projects will be needed in order to accommodate a growing number of families searching for homes in a shrinking market.

“Really, if we had these units today, we’d be behind,” he said. “There’s just not many homes to satisfy the need here for our HUD Section 8 program. In the next year and a half our community is growing tremendously, and I’m sure this need is going to increase a good bit.”

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Village Springs: DeFuniak Springs affordable housing project stalled