Home » Publications » Housing News Network Journal » Vol. 21, No. 1
| Contents
1 – Recommendations of the Hurricane Housing Work Group 4 – 2005 Legislative Session: A Message from the Florida Housing Coalition 5 – Housing Costs Increase Outpaces Income 7 – Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Funding Saga Continues Through FY 2005 and FY 2006 Budgets 9 – Balanced Residential Communities: Including Affordable Housing in Smart Growth and New Urbanist Development 13 – Demonstration Project Offers People with Disabilities More Housing Freedom 14 – Historic Buildings: A Powerful Tool for Addressing the Nation’s Housing Crisis 16 – Demographics: Illuminating the Path or Just Another Three-Ring Circus? 21 – Resources for Financial Literacy and Homebuyer Education 24 – Creating Inclusive Communities in Florida Revised and Reprinted 25 – Resource Information on Mortgage Products 26 – SHIP Clips 28 – Coalition News |
Recommendations of the Hurricane Housing Work Group
For many other Floridians, often the elderly, people with disabilities, and the poor, the markets will require additional incentives to respond. More than 15,000 Florida families are living in travel trailers and mobile homes that FEMA has provided, roughly 400,000 of those affected by the hurricanes have annual incomes below $30,000, and the housing stock that served the state’s elderly population suffered disproportionate levels of damage. As part of Florida’s response, Governor Jeb Bush and I have recommended that the Florida Legislature appropriate $354.4 million in one-time hurricane housing recovery funds, above and beyond the $192.9 million in recurring state affordable housing funds that we have recommended in the traditional Florida programs, and above and beyond the supplemental $100.9 million in disaster recovery CDBG funds that the Department of Community Affairs will start to distribute soon. To recommend the most effective ways to leverage these one-time hurricane housing funds to best help the markets respond, Governor Bush created the Hurricane Housing Work Group and asked me to serve as its chair. |
The four hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004 damaged more than 700,000 homes. For many of the affected Floridians, the markets will respond naturally to meet the housing needs that the storms created. Those families had appropriate levels of insurance and are able to pay for or finance the necessary repairs or rebuilding efforts, or they can find suitable and affordable replacement housing.