By Lizzy Alspach, Tampa Bay Times
Kathy Arnold took a deep breath as she stood before the Hillsborough County Commission. Her purple shirt, reading “Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality” on the front and “Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly,” stuck out against the brown lectern.
“I stand here before you today with meager Social Security income, unable to afford housing and only because of the help of my daughter I am not homeless,” Arnold said. “I am not unlike the many individuals HOPE is asking each one of you to help.”
Arnold was one of dozens of advocates, residents, local faith leaders, teachers and lawyers who asked commissioners to keep $10 million of county funding toward the HOPE Affordable Housing Act trust fund at their Wednesday meeting.
Hillsborough County commissioners voted 5-2 to remove the money.
The vote comes nearly a month after commissioners repealed an ordinance that required $10 million of Hillsborough’s budget to go toward the affordable housing fund.
The money allocated for the affordable housing fund will remain for this year, said Commissioner Chris Boles, who made the proposal. Board members will discuss in a July meeting about where to allocate the money, which could go toward public safety for the next year, he added.
Commissioners Harry Cohen and Gwen Myers voted against redirecting the money. Cohen said he toured parts of District 1, the western part of Hillsborough that he represents, to find many people who are living in the county’s canals.
“This problem is not going to go away without our doing everything that we possibly can to leverage our funds and be able to solve it,” Cohen said. “This is a topic that we must return to.”
In 2019, the County Commission created the HOPE Affordable Housing Act trust fund in response to pleas from Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality, a group with nearly 30 multicultural and interfaith organizations that advocate for social justice issues.
Several speakers at the meeting said the act has helped created nearly 1,100 affordable homes.
Commissioner Joshua Wostal voted to repeal the funding on Wednesday because he said the ordinance requirement would restrict future boards.
“I was thinking about the ‘No Kings Day’ that just passed, and only kings force people to tithe. Only kings force people into philanthropy,” Wostal said, referring to last weekend’s “No Kings” nationwide protests against President Donald Trump’s policies. “Only kings restrict what other people can do with their property rights.”
Some audience members reacted in opposition to Wostal’s comment.
The County Commission revisits the budget each year and can reallocate money depending on what board members find important, Cohen said in the meeting. Commissioners were also able to determine how the $10 million in affordable housing funding was spent.
In the last two years, they voted for $2 million of the $10 million to supporting housing projects and allocated the remaining funds to other areas.
Boles, who was previously a battalion chief with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, said in May that he knows “there are affordable housing needs in our community,” but that he wouldn’t “apologize for supporting our first responders.”
Myers, who also voted against changing the ordinance last month, said in May that more than 60% of the county’s budget already goes toward public safety.
Hillsborough’s Affordable Housing Services Department also administers federal and state funding to support low- and moderate-income residents, according to its website.
The county also received a $709 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help with hurricane relief. It will be spent over six years.
At least 70% of the grant must benefit low- and moderate-income communities and must be used to support housing, infrastructure, public service and economic revitalization initiatives. In a series of public meetings in June, county officials identified housing as the area with the most unmet need.
Rev. Karen Jackson-Sims, a former deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development who represented parts of Hillsborough, spoke in favor of the affordable housing funding on Wednesday.
She said any funding from the $709 million federal grant would be used for rebuilding existing homes and infrastructure damaged in storms, not producing more affordable housing.
Audience members shouted “shame!” after the commission’s vote.
Outside the meeting room, HOPE coalition leaders emphasized their continued commitment toward affordable housing projects and supporting communities in need.
After the board’s decision, Arnold said she has been lucky, but she isn’t sure her daughter can continue supporting her.
“I am just like everyone else,” Arnold said. “We try.”
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