By Josh Rojas, Bay News 9
Nearly 100 faith leaders and residents from the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality, or HOPE, held a rally outside the county center on Monday to urge commissioners to keep the $10 million affordable housing fund in the 2025 budget.
“There is a serious housing affordability crisis here in Hillsborough County, and the county commissioners are not taking it seriously,” said Dr. Sheila Simmons Tribble, HOPE co-president. “These residents are severely cost burdened because they are spending over 50% of their income on housing.”
The organization lobbied the commission to create the affordable housing trust called the HOPE fund in 2019. It allocates $10 million each year for the development of quality homes that are affordable for working families, people with disabilities, and seniors with low and very low incomes, according to HOPE.
Last year, in a party-line vote, the Republican majority on the commission took $8 million out of the $10 million HOPE Fund budget to build roads and repair sidewalks.
“We support roads and sidewalks,” said Pastor Justin LaRosa, Affordable Housing Committee co-chair. “However, more people will be sleeping on roads and sidewalks if we don’t fund the affordable housing fund.”
At last month’s budget meeting for fiscal year 2025, Simmons Tribble said Commissioner Joshua Wostal made a motion to remove the entire $10 million HOPE Fund. Commissioners Christine Miller and Donna Cameron Cepeda supported the motion, but because there were only three votes, the motion failed.
“Now why on Earth would they take away one of our strongest tools to address affordable housing for our most vulnerable residents?” asked Simmons Tribble. “Commissioner Kemp, Commissioner Cohen, Commissioner Meyers and Commissioner Hagan did not support this motion.”
Among the three commissioners who voted for the motion, only Wostal responded to a request for comment so far.
“The HOPE Fund is fueled by working-class citizens’ unavoidable property taxes, “ he stated. “Members of HOPE outright argued this wasn’t true, which is disturbing they don’t understand that low-income families that own their home are now subsidizing homes for others that might not even be from here.”
Wostal also said he believes affordable housing has already been funded through a state program.
“We have always supported the continued use of the proper consumption state sales tax,” he stated. “SHIP (State Housing Initiatives Partnership), that’s specifically created for workforce housing.”
Simmons Tribble said Wostal is comparing apples and oranges when contrasting the state versus the local fund.
“SHIP… there are very specific specifications for that money, and that money does not address only the low- and very low-income families,” she said. “This is the only fund that specifies that it is for low and very low-income families.”
LaRosa said the HOPE Fund is the most effective tool to create new units for affordable housing.
“Some will say that they believe they don’t need it because the affordable housing budget is funded. That isn’t true,” he said. “They also will say that they’re looking for ways to save taxpayer dollars. That seems a little bit counterintuitive to me. The response is profoundly misleading. Don’t buy it.”
HOPE leaders said there are two more budget public hearings on Sept. 12 and 19, when commissioners could once again try to remove the $10 million affordable housing fund, and they’re asking members to show up to make their voices heard.
View the original story here.
