Tallahassee, FL - Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) is proud to share this year’s housing achievements under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, our partners in the Florida Legislature, and the Florida Housing Board of Directors.
“Our work at Florida Housing has always been centered around the mission of providing safe, quality, and affordable housing to all Floridians,” said Trey Price, Executive Director of Florida Housing Finance Corporation. “This year Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature appropriated $363 million to housing initiatives, the largest allocation of funding in nearly 15 years. We are extremely grateful for this commitment and proud to share how our team continues to use the resources entrusted to us to provide Floridians with new and innovative solutions for affordable housing.”
2022 Legislative Session:
For the fourth year in a row, Governor Ron DeSantis recommended full funding for the state’s affordable housing trust funds, with a total appropriation of $263 million. This year Florida Housing also received $100 million to establish the Hometown Heroes Housing program, providing down payment and closing cost assistance to eligible frontline community workers looking to purchase a home in Florida.
Florida Housing’s state appropriation for the 2022-2023 fiscal year:
- Local Government Housing Trust Fund - $209 million
- State Housing Trust Fund - $53 million
- Hometown Heroes Housing Program - $100
Florida Housing is also proud to share the passing of the Corporation’s bill, SB 196 sponsored by Senator Anna Maria Rodriguez and HB 137 by Representative Rick Roth.
This bill reduces unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles by designating Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) directly as the state fiscal agency to make determinations in connection with the issuance of Florida Housing bonds. This change will prevent delays in closing real estate transactions by providing a more streamlined, predictable, and effective delivery of affordable housing in bond-financed transactions – ultimately helping to deliver more certainty for the development of affordable housing options.
Special Session:
In a Special Legislative Session at the end of the year, Governor DeSantis signed a disaster recovery bill allocating $150 million to Florida Housing to assist families in counties impacted by Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole. Of this amount, $90 million will be directed towards the Rental Recovery Loan Program (RRLP) to help repair and build new affordable rental units in the impacted areas, and $60 million will fund the Hurricane Housing Recovery Program (HHRP). HHRP funds may go towards hurricane recovery purposes such as repair and replacement of housing; acquisition of building materials for home repair and construction; and housing reentry assistance, and assistance paying home insurance deductibles. Funds are expected to be available in January 2023.
Homeownership Accomplishments:
- Assisted 5,103 families in purchasing their first home through Florida Housing’s Homebuyer Loan Program by providing more than $1.2 billion in first mortgage assistance (the second highest amount in program history), and a total of nearly $60 million in down payment and closing cost assistance.
- Launched the Hometown Heroes Housing program on June 1 to help eligible frontline community workers such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, educators, healthcare professionals, and active military or veterans purchase a home in Florida.
- To date, the Hometown Heroes program has provided 3,145 homeowners with more than $46 million in first mortgage down payment and closing cost assistance, thereby supporting more than $905 million in home loan transactions.
- The HOME program, which provides non-amortizing, low-interest rate loans to developers of affordable housing, provided nearly $32 million in HOME loans to finance the construction of 148 affordable units for Florida families.
- The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) allows states to use federal funds to serve the extremely low-income (ELI) population of households at or below 30% AMI. In 2022 Florida Housing closed four NHTF loans, and an additional 2 are scheduled to close in December 2022, for a total of $6,913,053 in funding and 30 ELI units.
- In partnership with the Department of Economic Opportunity’s (DEO) Rebuild Florida program, Florida Housing closed on six Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) loans, providing $30,663,489.42 in funds for a total of 359 units.
- The Homeownership Pool (HOP) Program assists developers by matching qualified homebuyers with down payment assistance on a first-come, first-served basis. This year 75 borrowers have participated with a total of $1,916,438 in down payment assistance provided.
Multifamily/Rental Housing Development:
- Awarded 83 developments with funding to build or rehabilitate affordable rental housing for families throughout the state, for a total of 10,958 units.
- Funding for these developments totaled $340,876,050 in Florida Housing administered loans/bonds/grants and $145,382,317 in annual housing credit allocations.
State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program:
- Based on the 2022 closeout report for funding first provided in fiscal year 2019/2020, more than $45.6 million was disbursed by Florida Housing to local governments statewide. It was used to assist more than 3,200 households with rehabilitation, emergency repairs, down payment assistance, homeownership counseling, new construction, down payment and closing cost assistance, impact fees and mortgage buy-downs.
- Florida Housing also disbursed $5 million in SHIP disaster funds to the six hardest hit counties in Southwest Florida to assist Floridians with insurance deductible payments related to damage from Hurricane Ian.
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Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) was created by the state Legislature more than 40 years ago to serve as the state’s housing finance agency (HFA) that administers state and federal resources to help provide affordable homeownership and rental housing options for the citizens of Florida.