Program reducing rent of apartment dwellers who make repairs should be revived

Charna Cohn
·2 min read

Like death and taxes, affordable housing will always be an issue.

Decades ago, when I worked for the United Way, Oscar Harris of the Community Action Agency and I co-hosted an affordable housing conference and created an Affordable Housing Coalition. I think the most important outcome was a project that worked with local landlords and the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to reduce the rent of residents who could prove competence in various household maintenance skills so that the landlord did not need to call a plumber, electrician, etc. needlessly.

The process needs to be updated but it has great potential. Young people don't seem to learn the basic skills while living at home and it carries into adulthood. Unfortunately, the city housing office took it over and lacked the resources to keep it going. I still think it is a great idea and is worthy of a pilot project today.

When I think of an updated version, landlords can offer YouTube videos and websites if a tenant has a problem. Tenants can be required to attend a class or two to cover necessary information about the program or their responsibilities as a tenant.

The rent can be at a discount if the tenant creates no problems or expenses for the landlord. The discount could come at the end of the lease, after a trial period or worked out another way.

The landlord could charge a lower rent if the tenant agrees to pay for any professional house calls or repairs. This might require a higher deposit because, unfortunately, not all tenants would be trustworthy to do the right thing and property could be permanently damaged.

For some potential tenants, the deposit could be paid out over time.

There can be tenant sweat equity programs.

A woman builds walls for her future home with the help of Habitat for Humanity builders and other future homeowners needing "sweat equity" hours . Every future homeowner has to secure "sweat equity" hours through a combination of attending homeowner education courses, community service, physical labor through home building and working in Habitat's ReStore.

We have lots of apartments and homes that can be rented affordably without violating the zoning laws that protect the investments of home and apartment owners.

I applaud The Sun for all its efforts to bring people together in order to discuss and, hopefully, work toward resolving community problems. We all have a stake in keeping Gainesville safe, affordable and worthy of living here.

Charna Cohn lives in Gainesville.

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Charna Cohn: Reduce rent of apartment residents who make repairs