December 2019
Affordable housing options expanding
for Fort Lauderdale residents
There has been a lot of buzz around town lately about the affordability of housing in our community. Your city government takes this issue very seriously. We are working hard to ensure people of all incomes can live here.

As your mayor, I want Fort Lauderdale to be a dynamic, cosmopolitan city. I believe that means we need to be a community that spans all income levels. Nurses, teachers, restaurant servers, bank tellers, seniors on fixed incomes and recent graduates should not be priced out of making Fort Lauderdale their home.

Over the past two years in particular, the city has made tremendous strides in expanding housing opportunities for those who earn middle and lower incomes. The City Commission has approved numerous affordable housing projects, often encouraging their construction with the use of community redevelopment money and incentives allowed in our land-use regulations.

First, the city's Housing Authority has been expanding its portfolio of public housing:

  • Suncrest Court. The Housing Authority is rebuilding this 8.5-acre public housing site to improve living conditions and almost double the number of units. Previously consisting of 68 units, Suncrest is undergoing a $28.7 million makeover into a rental community of six buildings with 116 units. The city designated the property last year as a brownfield site to help facilitate its redevelopment. It should open next fall.

  • Sailboat Bend II. Offering views of the New River, this 110-unit complex will serve low-income seniors downtown when it opens next fall. The Housing Authority is building it on the lot adjacent to its earlier Sailboat Bend I project that was also geared toward seniors. Units will be rented at about half of the market rate for the area.
 
  • Poinciana Crossing. This is another Housing Authority project moving forward with city assistance. When the City Commission canceled the Wave streetcar project because of its increasing cost, we had to decide what to do with land that was dedicated for its maintenance facility. The commission sold the property to the Housing Authority for $1 and designated it a green reuse site to facilitate its redevelopment. Construction will start next fall. When completed, it will have 113 units targeted to lower-income families.
 
  • Federal Apartments. The Housing Authority is investigating the possibility of redeveloping this privately-owned community of 164 units off Sistrunk Boulevard. Residents earlier this year complained of blighted conditions. Their concerns prompted an investigation by city code inspectors and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and led the Housing Authority to step forward.
 
  • Broadview Park. The Housing Authority and the city have been in negotiations to allow it to build a housing complex on city-owned land just outside Fort Lauderdale in unincorporated Broadview Park. The goal is to build more than 500 units of public housing. 
My thanks go out to the staff and board members of the Housing Authority for showing such leadership and helping the city on this important goal. In addition to their work, a lot of effort on workforce housing has been occurring in the private sector, again often in conjunction with the city.

  • Six13. Affiliated Development is building an 11-story, mixed-use tower in the Sistrunk Boulevard corridor that includes 142 workforce rental units. These apartments will be offered at considerable savings compared to other new properties in the Northwest-Flagler-Progresso area. The city committed $7 million in CRA funding to assist with this development.

  • Village View. The Housing Trust Group is about to open this 100-unit affordable housing project for seniors in Flagler Village. The developer was spurred by the success of its similar Village Place that it built in 2005.

  • The Adderley. Urbano Co. has included affordable housing units in a larger project planned in the Sistrunk area. In all, there will be 455 rental homes and 17,752 square feet of commercial space of retail and restaurants. Because developers set aside 10 percent of the units for affordable housing, the City Commission agreed this fall to provide a height bonus — allowing the project to rise to six stories rather than the normally permissible four stories.

  • FAT LIVE. FAT Village developers have included 125 units for workforce housing in their broader project that includes a hotel, market-rate housing, art studios, office space and retail in Flagler Village. The city provided a $5 million loan this fall to assist in the development of the affordable housing. The plan is contingent on a pending application for state housing tax credits.

  • Broward Partnership for the Homeless. The Broward Partnership in late 2018 received city zoning approval to build an affordable housing development next to its homeless center. The eight-story building will have 72 apartments and ground-floor commercial space. Half of the units will be rented to formerly homeless individuals who require permanent supportive housing, and the rest will be rented to individuals who earn less than 60 percent of the area median income. 
In all, more than 2,000 affordable housing units have been built, approved or currently in planning review in Fort Lauderdale since the end of the last recession. The city will continue to support similar housing initiatives and look for other ways to encourage affordable housing.

Affordable housing must continue to be a key goal of the city. Every study of the housing market conducted recently shows that too many of our residents dedicate a very high percentage of their incomes to housing costs. That is not sustainable for the community in the long run.

We had considered re-writing the land-use development code to require inclusionary zoning. This would have required developers to set aside a certain number of units at affordable prices within a larger market-rate project. But, the state Legislature passed a law that took away our ability to pursue that idea unless we compensated developers for their costs.

Still, I’m hopeful of future progress in light of voter approval last fall for a county affordable housing trust fund. Through the trust fund, local government can develop programs and solutions to close the housing-income gap and make housing more accessible.

As we look for additional opportunities, city government also must ensure that affordable housing developments fit within the character and integrity of the surrounding neighborhoods. This has been the commitment of this commission for the past two years and will remain our promise going forward.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season and that all find time to be with their family and friends. If you have a chance, the city again will be hosting its fabulous anchor-drop on New Year’s Eve as part of the Downtown Countdown in Himmarshee Village. Here’s to a prosperous 2020. 

Sincerely,


Dean
Mayor Trantalis and Santa kick off the holiday season at Light Up Lauderdale in Esplanade Park.
Mayor Trantalis hands out holiday gift cards to residents of downtown's Wisdom Village apartments.
Mayor Trantalis and city officials give our Bahamian neighbors of hurricane-stricken Marsh Harbour the gift of a Fort Lauderdale fire engine.
Mayor Trantalis welcomes Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
Mayor Trantalis doubles as a waiter to raise money for the Broward Partnership for the Homeless at its annual breakfast.
Mayor Trantalis joins the congregation of Mt. Olivet Seventh-day Adventist Church to celebrate its Adopt-A-Street initiative.
Mayor Trantalis welcomes children to the Veterans Day ceremony at the Sandy Nininger statue.
Mayor Trantalis passes out turkeys at the Sanctuary Church's annual grocery and turkey giveaway.
Mayor Trantalis welcomes conference attendees of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators to Fort Lauderdale.
Mayor Trantalis joins Nadine Smith and members of the City Commission to congratulate the work of Equality Florida.
Mayor Trantalis participates in the Push-Ups for Pets event to help raise money for the Pet Project of South Florida.
Mayor Trantalis recognizes residents for improving their property at the 41st annual Community Appearance Awards.
Mayor Trantalis counts down to Light Up the Beach with the help of elementary school students.
Mayor Trantalis commemorates World AIDS Day with the team of the World AIDS Museum.
Mayor Trantalis welcomes the annual conference of the Restoration World Outreach Ministries.
Mayor Trantalis speaks to the Master Brokers Forum on the future of Fort Lauderdale's beach.