A special MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

february 20, 2020

The Lake County Board of County Commissioners met in a special Housing for All of Lake County stakeholder group meeting on Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 8:30 a.m., at the Community Foundation of South Lake, Clermont, Florida. Commissioners present at the meeting were: Leslie Campione, Chairman; Wendy Breeden, Vice Chairman; and Sean Parks. Others present were: Allison Thall, Director for the Office of Housing and Human Services; Erika Greene, Associate Director, Workforce and Business Support for the Office of Elevate Lake; individuals representing stakeholders in Lake County; and Josh Pearson, Deputy Clerk.

HOUSING FOR ALL OF LAKE COUNTY MEETING

Mr. Steve Smith, Founder of New Beginnings of Central Florida, called the meeting to order and had everyone introduce themselves. The attendees included representatives from cities, nonprofit organizations, land developers, and others. He said that this was an advocacy group formed about a year prior to bring attention to the lack of available workforce housing. He felt that workforce housing pertained to economic development and that it created jobs. He indicated that they needed people to serve as committees and that they were focused on their fall forum, and he thought that they needed to attend city commission and council meetings to discuss the need for workforce housing. He indicated that a city manager had expressed interest in meeting with all of the city managers and possibly all of the chamber of commerce directors to discuss the impact of the current lack of housing and how to address this.

Commr. Parks thought that a joint meeting with city managers, mayors, and the Lake County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) could be important to conduct soon. He commented that he had been on the Lake County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC) for the past year, and that they had realized that some activities were occurring in North Lake that were being done differently in South Lake. He felt that there were great discussions and actions at those meetings that could be heard about in North Lake. He relayed that some actionable items came from the AHAC, and he credited the previous fall forum in the City of Groveland and the speakers there. He stated that the idea of having a workshop would be to develop some actionable items because when there were discussions about designating sites for an affordable housing project, there would have to be discussions at the Lake 100 with the business community, and the City and County would have to work together to waive impact fees and make infrastructure more affordable. He also related that the school district would need to be involved. He relayed that on February 25, 2020, the BCC could possibly change an ordinance for the deferral of impact fees for very low and low income housing, along with adding moderate income housing. He added that they would potentially be having a waiver of impact fees for targeted business industries, along with a refund of impact fees for certain projects and a waiver or deferral of impact fees for accessory dwelling units (ADUs). He noted that there had been good discussions in the fall forum with this group about ADUs on a countywide basis, and he commented that the BCC had embraced this. He said that there could be a situation where someone wanted to live with their family and that this item could cover aging in place or building an ADU for a working individual. He stated that they wanted to be known as an ADU friendly county and reiterated that these were some of the action items that could be taken up on February 25, 2020.

Commr. Campione arrived at 8:45 a.m. She said that many different groups were having discussions about affordable housing and that many good ideas were being generated, that the ideas were being evaluated for how practical they were, and that it was being discussed how to engage the public with this issue and what they were trying to accomplish. She felt that misperceptions could occur with affordable housing that did not necessarily coincide with the goals for ensuring that everyone had a safe place to live while understanding that there were different price points and needs throughout the community. She said that this issue was occurring in the county, state and country, and that individuals could experience difficulty for a variety of reasons such as mental illness, drug addiction, bad luck, circumstances and traumas. She stated that Lake County was trying to find solutions that were directed at addressing how they could get people into housing. She commented that it may not be as simple as having housing or a shelter, and she expressed that individuals who had normalized homelessness may not want to leave where they were. She explained that the County was trying to come together communitywide to formulate a variety of strategies, and their focus would be on housing first to get people into permanent housing with supportive services. She noted that there still may need to be emergency sheltering if an affordable home could not be found for an individual or if they were waiting on a home to be ready. She related that they were meeting with The Salvation Army who had expressed interest in operating a shelter; however, The Salvation Army was concerned about the cost to do this and had questioned if it would make more sense that once an individual’s needs were assessed, to possibly bypass the shelter and move them into housing. She wondered how these issues could be solved if there were not affordable places that people could live, and she said that the County was hosting a meeting that afternoon with the plan to reach out to the four largest Cities of Clermont, Leesburg, Mount Dora and Eustis. She expressed interest in meeting with all of the Cities, and she mentioned that this would require working closely with law enforcement and training the people who were interacting with homeless individuals. She commented that each case was different and that the City of Clermont police department had a program where they were doing this; however, they did not have a next location to place individuals. She said that the County was working with The Salvation Army to address this and that the BCC had voted to proceed with housing first and provide some seed money as part of a pilot program. She hoped that The Salvation Army would be the key entity in operating this, along with the Cities.

An attendee asked if the proposed shelter would be in the City of Leesburg.

Commr. Campione replied that they were not necessarily considering a concept of one large shelter. She said that it was being explored and that the County was embarking on the housing first part of it, but the idea for the shelter was possibly to have a few locations for an in-between place while they were trying to move people into housing. She felt that this could address the issue of where someone could go for a few days while a place was trying to be found for them to live. She stated that a concern about building a large shelter was that there was a general rule indicating that for each bed in a shelter, there should be a plan for needing six permanent housing units to move people into. She thought that if the housing component was not in place first, then the shelter could have high operational costs and could become a place where people stayed. She said that the housing component could be started now but while they were working on it, they would have to determine if they should have one or more shelter locations. She mentioned the group housing concept and thought that from a zoning standpoint, group homes were allowed in single family neighborhoods by law. She suggested the possibility of having four or five group homes strategically placed around the county where people could go, though they would have to consider the cost of operating each location.

Commr. Breeden arrived at 8:51 a.m.

The stakeholder group discussed the following items: law enforcement assessments of homeless individuals; why people were not able to afford homes; wages; a moratorium in the City of Clermont for apartments; being unable to fill jobs in service industries; interest in getting large employers involved in building workforce housing; and housing for individuals who had been evicted.

Commr. Parks relayed his understanding that Collier County had a slowdown of their economy and that a contributing factor was affordable housing, as most of their workers could not afford to live and work in the City of Naples and the surrounding area.

Commr. Campione expressed concerns for when individuals are evicted but also for them being unwilling to leave a place that was created for them to go to. She explained that The Salvation Army used a model in other locations where not-for-profit groups could help place someone in a hotel while permanent housing was being found for them. She also questioned sustainability if housing costs were high, and she said that during a housing assessment, there could be a determination if an individual qualified for certain funding sources to help pay for permanent housing; however, it may not cover all of the housing costs and this is where nonprofits and local government could possibly assist and fund supportive services. She said that a variety of groups were working to address different parts of these issues, such as the Lake 100 community considering how to reach out to large employers and request housing for workers.

Members of the stakeholder group then discussed items which included the following: the need for an emergency shelter; the lack of capacity at nonprofit organizations; facilitating workforce housing; ADUs; assisting offenders who are homeless, along with those with chronic mental health or substance abuse issues; causes of becoming homeless; the visibility of homelessness in the community and bringing awareness to the issue; engaging businesses with their workers; the types of individuals who could not afford housing; the wages of local government positions; and streamlining the process for affordability.

Commr. Campione noted that what made housing unaffordable was not just one’s salary but also why it was so expensive to begin with. She felt that elected officials needed to consider this, and she noted that fees were a significant part of this issue.

Mr. Greg Beliveau, with LPG Urban and Regional Land Planners, discussed the Lake 100 and its subgroup’s efforts to facilitate affordable housing for workers.

Commr. Campione felt that South Lake was affected by the service industry and she expressed interest in large businesses possibly facilitating housing for their employees. She thought that Orange County was in the process of supporting this but that communities would have to recognize it as a tool which could be used. She also relayed that Lake County was currently having an impact fee study done to determine whether they could lower the school impact fees, in conjunction with the school district, for certain types of housing units. She commented that they were currently letting people defer those fees for ADUs. She said if the study showed that if a unit was small enough and there would not likely be a family living there, then it would probably only be one or two people and the County could potentially charge a lower fee. She felt that this could also be true for cities that allowed the construction of small cottage homes and that this could be a way that local governments could assist. She noted that the school impact fee was countywide and that the County worked with the school district, who would have to be amicable. She relayed her understanding that Orange County had an issue with their school district not wanting to lose that funding, but she felt that the fee should not have to be paid if there were no impacts.

Commr. Parks questioned if the houses Mr. Beliveau mentioned would be located near the place of employment, and Mr. Beliveau confirmed this.

The stakeholder group discussed a complaint about ADUs regarding Airbnb, creating small workforce housing groups, a lack of homes, issues with affordable housing and school capacity, impact fees, and a lack of funding at the state level in the Sadowski Trust Fund.

Commr. Parks commented that the impact fee would have to be supplemented from another source and that there could still be school station deficiencies.

Commr. Campione felt that if a community was being built and it was known who the houses were being built for, then the fees could possibly be waived. She explained that there was a provision in the County’s school impact fee ordinance that allowed for a complete waiver from the school district if it was demonstrated that no impact was being brought in. She indicated that for a larger project, they would have to find a way to pay the school district so that the capacity could be built. She opined that they would have to be working with their legislators regarding the Sadowski Trust Fund because if the funds were there and could be used for school impact fees, many of these issues could be addressed. She supported a potential constitutional amendment to indicate that the Sadowski Trust Fund must be used for affordable housing and thought that there could be unified support for this. She suggested a possible statewide movement to support this, and said that she had spoken to the County’s legislators about addressing the legislation but not about conducting a grassroots movement to oppose taking that funding.

The stakeholder group further discussed this item.

Ms. Allison Thall, Director for the Office of Housing and Human Services, relayed that 65 percent of the Sadowski Trust Fund was for first time homebuyers and homeownership. She suggested that the Florida Statute and the legislation would have to be modified to remove the percentages that restricted the majority of that funding.

Commr. Campione suggested working on getting the statute amended to allow more flexibility while also working on a statewide effort. She felt that if work began now, a constitutional amendment could potentially be on the ballot for the next election cycle. She thought that the Florida Chamber of Commerce could be the best place to start and that state organizations could also be contacted. She supported assembling a group of local individuals and having them reach out to their state groups.

Commr. Parks mentioned the possibility of contacting the Florida League of Cities, the Florida Association of Counties (FAC), realtors, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

An attendee discussed possible volunteering efforts from the group, individuals’ financial struggles, creating a public awareness campaign, the suggestion that waiving impact fees should not be done lightly, and the Lake 100 possibly contributing toward impact fees.

Commr. Campione expressed a concern for the Lake 100 possibly contributing toward impact fees and relayed her understanding that some members of that group had been proponents of reducing impact fees and finding other sources of funding. She thought that another source of funding would have to be found, and she suggested that the Lake 100 could possibly be the group to help fund a public service announcement.

The stakeholder group discussed inclusionary zoning, free webinars for awareness and education, losing inventories from affordable housing, and possibly extending the 15 year time period for the state providing loans to build workforce housing, after which individuals could sell the property for significant profits.

Commr. Parks related that the County was conducting a multifamily availability study.

Commr. Campione indicated a concern that changing the 15 year time period could lead to unintended consequences because it may be better to provide new inventory and let older inventory enter into the regular market. She noted that when the Sadowski Trust Fund began running out, it was challenging to keep a balance.

Commr. Parks asked about the action for the mayors, city managers and elected officials that was being done for affordable housing in South Lake and if this would occur at the fall forum.

Mr. Smith explained that they would be trying to bring other communities in to discuss what they were doing and that it was suggested for the Cities to come together. He relayed his understanding that there were monthly meetings with the all of the city managers, and he commented that there could be meetings once per quarter and that this could be a topic. He then indicated that the next Housing for All of Lake County meeting would be on March 19, 2020.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to be brought to the attention of the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 9:58 a.m.

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leslie campione, chairman

ATTEST:

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GARY J COONEY, CLERK