While lying on his deck chair on his world cruise, Peter Timm is saying to himself, “At last…someone said ‘no’ to any more affordable housing.” Can't you hear him? He's been saying the same thing at commission meetings for years..."everything in Lake Worth is affordable."
Back in the first week of January this year, Staff was in full support of and wanted to implement an affordable housing program. Wayne Bergman presented it to the City Manager. This program is to provide first time home buyer assistance and to provide money for home improvements. It was then put on the January 11th Agenda for discussion in a special meeting held at the Compass Building. Bergman said then that the total CDBG funds were $770,000 and the maximum amount of money available for the City to spend was $673,000.
One of the objectives of Mr. Bergman's program (a bad idea) is to work with developers to build low-cost condos on downtown city sites. Another is to develop a zero interest or deferred low interest mortgage for these people wanting "affordable" housing. Isn't this one of the causes of the housing collapse? People buying houses that they could not afford.
Scott Maxwell said that he didn’t hear anyone asking for a housing program and that the City was not in a position to pull off a successful program-- there were better suited agencies. Commissioner Mulvehill was not that keen on it either. “The City is 60-70% rental in the CRA District.” She then asked if the City could outsource its housing program to other agencies. Even Commissioner Jennings wanted to be assured that CDBG money was allocated for recreation and sidewalks. Golden said that any Plan would have to be with the consent of the residents to see how it would be administered. Mayor Varela stated that government should play a role to improve people’s lives but had concerns.
Basically, no one was in support of using CDBG funds for an affordable housing program other than Staff.
Speaking back in January, Peter Timm said that we should give people a loan with a repayment clause when the property was sold.—that people were in worse shape because of the illegal aliens. Bart Cunningham said that the CDC has a successful housing program and if we approved an affordable housing program, we would be re-inventing the wheel. Even Ed Grimm, member of the CRA and affiliated with the CDC, said that the City had started programs in the past and had failed.
A Motion was eventually made by Jennings to allocate $125,000 from the CDBG Block Grant funds for a gym expansion, $125,000 for street traffic bumps and $350,000 for the affordable housing program. All Commissioners voted Yea on the motion. By the time it was all done, the public input carried no weight nor did the objections and concerns of several Commissioners. All five of them were "turned" and voted to put the bulk of the money into affordable housing.
Last night Darrian Dority asked if there was a disconnect between the elected officials and the residents. He further stated, “Public perception towards the City is terrible.” We agree to his analogy. We need to attract people who can afford to buy the housing stock we have which is at least 75% affordable across the City, not attract more poor people and eventually more foreclosures.
Last night the Finance Advisory Board, with Pickett and Decker absent, said “no” to use any CDBG funds for affordable housing. There was 1.5 hours devoted to discussion as well as an indepth presentation by Board member, Jessica Plotkin. She gave a Power Point on the use of CDBG funds and affordable housing. Her major points were--
1. As currently designed, the program will help only 13 homes.
2. The City Manager says it will have an effect on slum & blight, but the rehab grants can be used for the interior of the homes, with no effect on the appearance of the house.
3. Since the January 11th Commission meeting, all meetings pertaining to the further development of the Housing Initiative have been held in workshops; effectively denying the public an opportunity to say how they feel the program should be designed.
4. The housing initiative is a duplication of services already provided by federal, state and county governments in addition to at least a dozen local non-profits.
The Motion: Motion by Mr. Thrasher and seconded by Mr. Dority that the Finance Advisory Board recommends that the Commission utilize all outstanding CDBG funds for new construction of sidewalks, traffic calming and roadway improvements in the CDBG target area. (5-0)
The next thing is to find out if the City Commission even cares about the FAB's motion, a concern of all members on this advisory board. Affordable Housing is still in the Budget that will be up for vote next month.
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