HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Wednesday, Hillsborough County leaders will discuss the rising price of living in paradise.
The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners will discuss changes to affordable housing.
The board has three new members, so commissioners want to get on the same page about these changes.
Commissioner Harry Cohen said, “Now that we have three new members, it's really necessary that before these things get finalized to take a step back and allow these board members to get up to speed and weigh in on whether or not they want to go in the same direction that the former board was going in.”
He said now they’ve taken it back to a workshop today to see if the new members want to go in the same direction that the previous board was headed.
One thing they are working to figure out Wednesday is what makes someone eligible for affordable housing. Commissioner Cohen explained people who earn between 80 and 120% of the average median income for the county are generally eligible.
The previous board wanted to lower those numbers.
“The former board was interested in lowering that threshold in order to make sure that the affordable housing credits targeted the poorest people in the community and the people that are most in need,” Commissioner Cohen said.
The counterargument to that is if those numbers are too low, it won’t benefit the developer who builds that housing. This could mean fewer builders choosing to work in Hillsborough County.
The new board will discuss if they want to move forward with those changes.
“Somewhere, there’s a sweet spot in there. Where you’re helping the right people but allowing the developer to be made whole on the project, that’s really what we're talking about here is where that number could be,” Cohen said.
Commissioners will not vote or write up any ordinances at Wednesday's meeting, it's just the beginning of figuring out where the new board stands on this topic. Once they figure that out, then they will move forward with implementing any changes.
You can read more about the commissioners' workshop here.