Hi there, and welcome to Housing Matters – an occasional update on housing affordability issues in Collier County, Southwest Florida and beyond. Here’s what you need to know this week:

The Collier Board of County Commissioners discussed housing affordability during the Feb. 22 meeting. Commissioners heard from a variety of stakeholders, including Greater Naples Chamber President & CEO Michael Dalby, about this important community issue.

After about 3 hours of discussion and public comment, the Collier BCC directed staff to:

• Schedule a special meeting to further discuss, and vote on, staff and commissioner recommendations related to housing affordability.
• Provide a legal analysis on impact fee waivers for affordable housing, as well as a Florida statute (125.01055) that allows county commissioners to approve developments on any parcel zoned for residential, commercial or industrial.
• Look for partnership arrangement with different local governments and municipalities for development of affordable and workforce housing.
• Bring back a recommendation for a consultant to do a nexus study for linkage fees for affordable housing.
• Identify county-owned land that can be used for development of affordable and workforce housing.
• Identify eligible parcels of land that could be purchased using infrastructure sales tax revenue for development of workforce housing.
• Bring back information on creating a millage equivalency not to exceed one-tenth (, or approximately $10 million, for the housing trust fund during the budget workshop.
• Move $20 million from the infrastructure sales surtax into a designated land acquisition fund within the infrastructure sales surtax fund.
• CALL TO ACTION: Email the Collier Board of County Commissioners to say “thank you” for their action on Feb. 22 and encourage them to schedule a special meeting as soon as possible to continue to address this critical community concern.
  • Need email addresses for BCC? Don’t worry. The Chamber has you covered. Visit www.napleschamber.org/electedofficials for their contact information.
  • DON’T FORGET: Please make sure to let us know if you’ve reached out to commissioners about this important topic.

RESOURCES

Collier County residents experiencing sudden, high rent increases that could result in a change of housing or homelessness are encouraged to apply to the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program.

• What is it? The ERA can help qualified renters pay back rent, future rent, utility fees and offer other housing stability services, such as legal fees or security deposits.
• Who is eligible? Applicants must prove their income doesn’t exceed 80% of the average median income ($60,750 for a family of three), experienced financial hardship related to COVID-19 outbreak; at risk of housing instability; and be Collier residents.
• You can find more information here: https://tinyurl.com/5n8sxd5k

IN THE NEWS

• Collier commissioners to fight pricey housing issue by encouraging more options via Naples Daily News
• Residents in Collier County call on commissioners to fix the affordable housing crisis via WINK News
• Collier commissioners pass affordable housing measures via FOX-4
• Working families struggle to afford staying in SWFL via NBC-2
• Seniors hit hard by affordable housing crisis in SWFL via FOX-4
• Affordable housing and affordable rents are a priority for an alliance of relief organizations in Immokalee via WGCU
• SWFL figures heavily on Emerging Housing Market Index via WGCU
• Which Florida housing markets are seeing the biggest price increases via Sarasota Herald-Tribute
  
  

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