Lowest-income residents have most pressing — and most ignored — housing needs
Gainesville residents have spent a lot of energy and time in recent years arguing about zoning changes meant to encourage more affordable housing to be built.
But these changes might not even be the most effective way to help residents with the greatest need for affordable housing, who would benefit more from local government spending additional money to build that housing.
The Sun’s community advisory board met May 11 to gather information on local housing problems and possible solutions. The board heard from the Gainesville nonprofit Community Spring, which provides local residents experiencing poverty with nine-month fellowships to research and advocate for ways to address challenges they face.
More from Nathan Crabbe:
Ombudsman's office would serve as complaint department for city of Gainesville
Now is the time for Gainesville residents to get informed, involved in housing issue
Gainesville City Commission shouldn't reinstate law banning public drinking
Fellows from the group’s 2021-2022 class focused on affordable housing in a campaign called the Lighthouse Initiative. The campaign’s website (www.csgnv.org/lighthouse) includes an amazing array of housing information, advocacy resources and stories, including videos of the fellows sharing their own struggles in securing housing.
Fellow Julius Irving spoke about sleeping in his car and on couches while he was homeless for two years.
"Being a homeless father, it was really tough on me trying to spend time with my children, trying to find a suitable place to arrange time for us to be together and spend time,” Irving said.
The Lighthouse Initiative makes the case that Gainesville’s definition of “affordable housing” has become so broad that some housing policy considers $1,392 to be an affordable monthly rent. The federal government considers housing to be affordable if it costs no more than 30% of a household’s income.
The initiative has found that the most pressing — and most ignored — local housing needs are those of about 26,000 Alachua County households making less than $25,000 a year. More than two-thirds of these households lack affordable housing under the federal definition, according to data collected by the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies. That means they're paying so much of their incomes toward housing that they have little money left over for basic necessities.
The initiative calls on local government to allocate more funding and land toward providing housing for these residents. Community Spring’s policy director, Max Tipping, told the advisory board that much of the local money currently dedicated to affordable housing is spent on ancillary issues such as beautification and infrastructure projects.
“When your affordable housing dollars are very limited, spending all your affordable housing dollars on things that don’t make housing more affordable is a shame,” Tipping said.
Advisory board members who participated in the discussion — Todd Chase, a former Gainesville city commissioner; Linda Cottler, an associate dean and epidemiology professor at UF who was founding director of HealthStreet; James F. Lawrence, executive director of Gainesville for All; Tamára Perry-Lunardo, president of the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida; and Carol Richardson, coordinator of the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center — asked to continue looking into housing issues at our next meeting.
We’ve invited Corey Harris, the city of Gainesville's new senior housing strategist, to speak at that meeting. I will be using the board’s input to provide ideas for columns and an eventual editorial on housing. Contributors have already started submitting housing pieces, like the photo essay in today's Issues section, but I encourage additional columns. Email letters@gainesville.com with submissions or to run ideas by me.
Funding sources for housing should be a big focus in the weeks ahead. And while zoning changes might not be the best way to help our neediest residents obtain housing, these changes should still be considered for other benefits they provide. Zoning was supposed to be the topic of a May 17 city workshop mentioned in a previous column, but a COVID outbreak among city commissioners caused the workshop and another city housing session to be rescheduled for early June.
Residents should follow the housing discussion closely and help our community come to a consensus on the most effective housing policies and programs to implement.
Nathan Crabbe is The Sun's opinion and engagement editor. Follow him on social media at twitter.com/nathancrabbe and facebook.com/nathancrabbe.
Join the conversation
Share your opinions by sending a letter to the editor (up to 200 words) to letters@gainesville.com. Letters must include the writer's full name and city of residence. Additional guidelines for submitting letters and longer guest columns can be found at bit.ly/sunopinionguidelines.
Journalism matters. Your support matters.
Get a digital subscription to the Gainesville Sun. Includes must-see content on Gainesville.com and Gatorsports.com, breaking news and updates on all your devices, and access to the eEdition. Visit www.gainesville.com/subscribenow to sign up.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Nathan Crabbe: Neediest residents ignored on housing in Gainesville
