Overcoming North Florida's Housing Crisis

[thelakelander]

Join the American Planning Association (APA) Florida First Coast Section on Wednesday, April 26, for a free panel session focusing on housing issues facing the Northeast Florida region and an opportunity to see the inside of LaVilla's historic Masonic Temple building.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/overcoming-north-floridas-housing-crisis/

[Florida Power And Light]

No doubt new Land Use and Zone Designation in order:
PTBJDI; Poor Taste But Just Do It
HSU; Human Storage Units
GII(NC) Growth Is Inevitable ( Existing Citizens Have No Clue)
TMW; Too Many Whites
TMB; Too Many Blacks
SOFR; State Of Florida Oversight Relinquished
PRANT; Pay Rapt Attention Not This
TIOTWSIiS (LA) Throw it on The Wall See If It Sticks ( Limited Application)
DD(R 1.0001 R73.558) Done Deal - reserved for the two prominent attorneys typically associated with Duval County FL Substantial Land Use And Zone Application ( Request)

[Jax_Developer]

^Our new Comprehensive Plan does not address any Land Use or Zoning changes that apply towards affordable housing so it'll take several years or decades before anything is implemented on the city level. Sad.

I've said it before, but there should be density incentives for income-controlled dwellings. Virtually every large US city with housing affordability issues has this policy implemented.

[jaxlongtimer]

Seems to me a strong solution is high density housing, being that should generate the most affordable and fastest growth in housing units.  This density should be focused on infill in the urban core, not only because it is compatible with urban living and existing density (to address NIMBY concerns) but because the urban core has the best opportunity to provide walkable communities, adding another layer of affordability with "transit."  Imagine the savings derived from ditching an automobile for most purposes  .

I believe the State is complicit in the affordable housing shortage due to development friendly Florida encouraging urban sprawl that allows developers to easily plow down virgin forests and farmland to access "cheap" land with few impediments.  This will do little to solve an affordable housing crisis due to much lower density and the expense of being automobile dependent, likely over ever increasing distances.  If we had disciplined growth management, i.e. did more to prevent rezoning of farmland and forests into subdivisions, it would be more attractive to build increased density in urban cores than sprawl in exurban areas further and further out. 

Too add, we are effectively subsidizing urban sprawl far more than affordable housing by building roads, utilities, other infrastructure, schools and other governmental support functions at only a fraction of the cost to developers who benefit from same.  If that same investment was made in the urban core to level the playing field for building affordable housing, I believe this problem would be much less of an issue.

[Captain Zissou]

Too add, we are effectively subsidizing urban sprawl far more than affordable housing by building roads, utilities, other infrastructure, schools and other governmental support functions at only a fraction of the cost to developers who benefit from same.  If that same investment was made in the urban core to level the playing field for building affordable housing, I believe this problem would be much less of an issue.

I've been saying this for a while.  The Jacksonville area is growing by 20,000+ people a year.  If you put 20% of those in the downtown and urban core neighborhoods in mid-high density housing, you'd transform our downtown in less than 2 years.  Instead, we are clear cutting forests and farms to put people in cookie cutter houses where the garage door takes up 70% of the front façade and you need to get in your car to do anything.  Incentivize urban housing over sprawl and you'll transform this city in short order.

[Charles Hunter]

Article from Jax Today about work in NW Jax to alleviate homelessness.

This spring, [Rebecca] Williams’ company, Fruit of Barren Trees, held a groundbreaking for the $23 million redevelopment of Moncrief Park that included purchasing a vacant building to transform into its headquarters.

The company seeks to help meet Jacksonville’s desperate need for affordable housing by acquiring vacant lots and developing them into homes that “bring dignity and quality to this area” for people who earn less than the area median income ($58,263 last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau). A nonprofit arm, Fruit of Barren Trees Pipeline, will focus on affordable housing, workforce development and environmental justice to ensure minority communities are no longer left behind.

...

“What we are trying to do is change the narrative of what’s affordable,” Williams says of her company’s floor plans, which include Spanish bungalows, Tudor or cottage offerings. “We want to think about our lived experiences. All of us need somewhere affordable to live. Instead, there is this stigma that affordable housing is only for people in poverty.”

https://jaxtoday.org/2023/05/01/jax-native-believes-affordable-housing-effort-in-northwest-will-bear-fruit/

[Charles Hunter]

From the same Jax Today, an article from the Business Journal about the Sulzbacher Center.

Not 'just a shelter,' Sulzbacher making progress on expanding its mission
The nonprofit homelessness services provider is moving forward on plans for Enterprise Village and relocating from Downtown, CEO Cindy Funkhouser says.

Sulzbacher is leaving the shelter business.

Cindy Funkhouser, president and CEO of the nonprofit homelessness services provider, said the Jacksonville group is commonly seen as “just a shelter.”

But it has been expanding its housing and social services for years.

It also is continuing its plan to relocate from Downtown, where it has been since 1995.
...

he most visible sign of its efforts to leave is the $21 million Sulzbacher Village, which opened in Brentwood nearly five years ago.

That community is at 5455 Springfield Blvd., where the organization provides transitional housing and services to women and families experiencing homelessness.

Sulzbacher Village was Step 1.

Sulzbacher Enterprise Village for homeless men is Step 2.
A rendering of Sulzbacher Enterprise Village. The proposed $46 million project is on about 17 acres in Northwest Jacksonville.
File image

The proposed $46 million project on about 17 acres in Northwest Jacksonville continues the group’s effort to provide housing, social services and jobs to the homeless.

“We want to build affordable housing because that’s the answer to homelessness. We’re not looking to build another shelter,“ Funkhouser said.

Sulzbacher hopes to break ground by year-end 2023 on the start of the three-phase project on Walgreen Road west of Interstate 95 and east of Brentwood Golf Course.

The first phase of Enterprise Village is housing: 100 studio and one-bedroom units and 80 temporary emergency units.

The second is a center for job skills training for residents and the community, and a community health clinic.

The third is an on-site manufacturing facility for the people Sulzbacher serves.
...
Sulzbacher will maintain a Downtown presence, but not as a shelter.

Sulzbacher is planning how it will continue to contribute to meals with partner agencies in the urban core, and to reestablish the Urban Rest Stop now at the Downtown campus.

The Urban Rest Stop is a joint venture of Sulzbacher and the Mental Health Resource Center that provides services to the homeless such as showers, laundry, mail service, lunch and dinner, health care and employment assistance.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2023/apr/28/sulzbacher-leaving-the-shelter-business/

[thelakelander]

Too add, we are effectively subsidizing urban sprawl far more than affordable housing by building roads, utilities, other infrastructure, schools and other governmental support functions at only a fraction of the cost to developers who benefit from same.  If that same investment was made in the urban core to level the playing field for building affordable housing, I believe this problem would be much less of an issue.

I've been saying this for a while.  The Jacksonville area is growing by 20,000+ people a year.  If you put 20% of those in the downtown and urban core neighborhoods in mid-high density housing, you'd transform our downtown in less than 2 years.  Instead, we are clear cutting forests and farms to put people in cookie cutter houses where the garage door takes up 70% of the front façade and you need to get in your car to do anything.  Incentivize urban housing over sprawl and you'll transform this city in short order.

These are the neighborhoods were ADUs are already allowed and housing products like missing middle and small shotgun single family dwellings are the historic building product. Not everyone needs a 1500 to 2000sf house. There are ways to explore more market rate affordable housing opportunities within the urban core, which could also help stabilize some neighborhoods economically. Much of it involves modifying public policies that prohibit or hamper these types of products from being developed. At the end of the day, an 800 sq house on a 25' wide lot is likely 50% cheaper than a 1,600sf house on a 50' lot. So why not make it easier to create smaller products?

[Jax_Developer]

Too add, we are effectively subsidizing urban sprawl far more than affordable housing by building roads, utilities, other infrastructure, schools and other governmental support functions at only a fraction of the cost to developers who benefit from same.  If that same investment was made in the urban core to level the playing field for building affordable housing, I believe this problem would be much less of an issue.

I've been saying this for a while.  The Jacksonville area is growing by 20,000+ people a year.  If you put 20% of those in the downtown and urban core neighborhoods in mid-high density housing, you'd transform our downtown in less than 2 years.  Instead, we are clear cutting forests and farms to put people in cookie cutter houses where the garage door takes up 70% of the front façade and you need to get in your car to do anything.  Incentivize urban housing over sprawl and you'll transform this city in short order.

These are the neighborhoods were ADUs are already allowed and housing products like missing middle and small shotgun single family dwellings are the historic building product. Not everyone needs a 1500 to 2000sf house. There are ways to explore more market rate affordable housing opportunities within the urban core, which could also help stabilize some neighborhoods economically. Much of it involves modifying public policies that prohibit or hamper these types of products from being developed. At the end of the day, an 800 sq house on a 25' wide lot is likely 50% cheaper than a 1,600sf house on a 50' lot. So why not make it easier to create smaller products?

Although the building material does roughly add up that way, the labor & land costs don't. Unless there is scale.. which doesn't usually exist in an urban environment. The same number of trades will still need to make trips to every site. (The blessing and curse of specialization.) Most of the Urban Core as we define it, does allow for 25' SFH lots within the RMD zoning. However the cost to produce homes of this nature are usually not in the effort of the highest & best use to make it short. Meaning you are getting the gov't involved somehow to make it happen.

The idea of a density incentive to stimulate affordable units allows for projects at scale, to benefit in the cost to produce and often times beneficially impact the Pro Forma. There should be an alternative focus given to how we can implement policy that improves the highest & best use for developers while also providing a social benefit by growing the pool of affordable housing units. We can, in the process, somewhat blend or alter the current practice of doing affordable housing only projects, which has in the past contributed to blight several years to decades down the road. Some cities even ban this practice. But St. Pete is a great example of a city offering a density bonus to all new residential projects, meeting predefined criteria.

[thelakelander]

Nothing wrong with a density incentive to stimulate affordable units in some cases. To get there (increase supply of affordable rentals and owner occupied units), we'll need to implement a diverse amount of solutions and really hone in focus on implementing the low hanging fruit options (i.e. heirs property, slowing down tax auctions on properties owned by vulnerable residents, etc.). Just about everything begins with a need to modify public policies.

[SirJax]

…
These are the neighborhoods were ADUs are already allowed and housing products like missing middle and small shotgun single family dwellings are the historic building product. Not everyone needs a 1500 to 2000sf house. There are ways to explore more market rate affordable housing opportunities within the urban core, which could also help stabilize some neighborhoods economically. Much of it involves modifying public policies that prohibit or hamper these types of products from being developed. At the end of the day, an 800 sq house on a 25' wide lot is likely 50% cheaper than a 1,600sf house on a 50' lot. So why not make it easier to create smaller products?

It’s not just small SFRs that aren’t being built. Even under-2000 sq ft. multi-family construction is highly lacking. There was a rash of that type of of housing (i.e., condos and townhouses) built in the run-up to the late 2000s housing bubble but since then, while there has been an enormous volume of multi-family units built in the Jax metro (especially in the Southside), the vast majority of it has been for rent rather than for sale.

[thelakelander]

Yes. I'm involved with an infill multifamily project that will add around 50-to-60 for-sale townhouse units, just outside of downtown, on the west side of I-95. We can use new housing, all across the board, as well as save and reuse what's already here. Personally, I'm still finding sweet spots around creating opportunity via public policy modification to allow for market products that our policies limit or prohibit.

[Florida Power And Light]

Most of us here have no idea what “ high density” has already been committed to.