Broward County Officials Keen On Building Affordable Housing To Counter The Foreclosure Crisis

Broward County - Hollywood

Broward County officials are keen on building affordable housing to counter the foreclosure crisis. But the developers are balking. One of them is turning away a project that will see the building of the first single-family neighborhood in the last three decades. The officials however are firm in their resolve to see that the needs of the middle class are met with. This will tell on the long-term health of the county.

Foreclosures have been high in this region and the real estate market has consequently dropped drastically. But Michael Cernech Deputy City Manager feels that within ten to fifteen years the value of property will steadily increase and then “affordable housing is going to be more of an issue.”

The contract for building these houses had been awarded to Prestige Homes but the company thought the terms to be extortionist in nature and flatly said they can’t continue with it. Bruce Chait of the company said he could not sell the house at cheap rates because of various housing conditions. One was that the resident would have to live in it for fifteen years. The city officials said that this was essential to put a check on flipping by speculators.

In December Tamarac City Commission withdrew that clause. Cernech said, “We felt like we had ample affordable housing opportunities within the community and we really didn’t need any more.”

But the officials of Broward County were not easy to satisfy – they stuck to their point. Ilene Lieberman the Commissioner said, “Either they build the affordable housing or pay into. The downturn in the market is temporary. What we’ve done is make sure we have a variety of housing options, not just for today but the future.” She would not allow any exceptions because that would set off a precedent.

Chait on the other hand explained, “It’s impossible. Nobody will buy a house you have to keep 15 years. [Or] they want $1 million from us. Where are we going to get it from? We’re going to pass it on to the people, so the people who saved get penalized.”

The officials could correctly feel the pulse of the situation. Without affordable housing the people would be at a loss and nobody wanted erosion of popularity and vote banks. But given the financial condition it would be impossible for developers to sustain the work without immediate incentives.