By Scott Heidler, WESH 2
Several hundreds of people gathered at a Melbourne church organized by the Brevard Justice Ministry to raise attention about the lack of affordable housing in the county.
Rising rents, stagnant salaries and inflation have left some people living on the edge and some out on the streets.
During the meeting, one church leader said he was saddened that Brevard County officials did not come.
However, the county says they met with the group, outlining its programs on affordable housing.
“We have communicated to that group. Our director of housing and human services at the behest of one of our commissioners actually met with this group in April face-to-face,” Don Walker of Brevard County Government said.
There’s a legal issue for the board of commissioners to attend a meeting like this as a group.
Due to the Sunshine law for transparency, their meetings have to be an advertised public forum.
“They were informed that we could not be there as a group. The commissioners could not be there as a group, and when they reached out to individual commissioners — one in particular I’m aware of — he told them that he could not be there because of a prior commitment,” Walker said.
Brevard County officials added that they are working on the issue of affordable housing, agreeing that it’s a crisis.
With housing and funding shortages, they’re doing all that they can.
Those issues were made more intense by money spent on assistance during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.
“None of these problems are going to get solved overnight, but that does not mean that we are oblivious to what’s happening or that we are not sensitive to those needs or that we were not aware of this meeting last night,” Walker said.
“It’s just that we have ways to do this. We have open meetings, and these groups are welcome to our board meetings,” Walker said.
The next Brevard County Commission meeting is Tuesday night at 5 p.m.
View the original story here.
