Housing News Network, November 2006

Vol. 22, No. 3
 

From the Editor

The Florida Housing Coalition’s 2006 statewide affordable housing conference drew more than 650 housing advocates together to address Florida’s housing crisis in the context of effective advocacy. Many thanks to all of you who participated in the 2006 conference, either as Partners for Better Housing, presenters, participants, or any combination of those three. And special thanks to the recipients of the Florida Housing Coalition’s Housing Champion Award: Representative Mike Davis, and the Florida Association of Realtors.

In this Journal, our authors address the following compelling issues from the conference, including:

• property insurance;
• statewide work around community land trusts;
• the need to remove the cap in the 2007 legislative session and effective advocacy; and
• the work of the Affordable Housing Study Commission.

With so much emphasis on “essential service personnel” and an interest in developing “teacher” or other worker-specific housing, we know there has been concern about whether these preferences run afoul of fair housing laws. We are pleased to lead off with an article written for the Florida Housing Coalition by the nation’s preeminent civil rights law firm, Relman & Associates.

The Florida Housing Coalition works diligently to provide training and technical assistance in every area of affordable housing, and we are already at work with our Partners for Better Housing on the design and development of the 2007 statewide conference: “The Economics of Housing.”