Palm Beach County takes next step with $200 million in affordable housing funds

A batch of developers have applied for shot at a portion of the $200 million pool of funds set aside for affordable housing in Palm Beach County as hundreds of new affordable housing units may come into the pipeline.

County Commissioners this week approved funding for three projects that would pull from the bond:

— Calusa Point II, an affordable 168-unit multifamily housing project in Belle Glade, which requested about $7.56 million.

— Community Land Trust, which would bring four single-family villages with two units each for eight total units in various sites across Lake Worth Beach. The project requested more than $1.6 million from the housing bond for the single-family villas, which would be sold at $185,000 per unit.

— Residences at Marina Village, an affordable 148-unit multifamily housing project in Riviera Beach. About $4.7 million was requested.

This combined nearly $14 million would be a fraction of the total bond, leaving room for other projects to possibly step forward in the future. The money has not been distributed yet.

In November 2022, county residents approved the $200 million bond, which invoked a bidding process for interested developers to submit proposals to the county for assistance in the construction of affordable units.

“The voters approved to basically tax themselves,” said Jonathan Brown, the county’s Housing and Economic Development Director, in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

People can expect to see that tax kick in next year, county officials said during a meeting on Tuesday.

For now, the county is determining how much money it should allocate to potential projects.

Developers “can do a mixed-income project, or they can do a project that’s solely affordable or solely workforce,” Brown said. “They can do a mixed-use, if they want to do commercial on the bottom and affordable or workforce or market rate on the top, they can do that as well.”

Construction for these projects is slated to begin in 2025, specifically in July and August. If a project has not started construction within one year after receiving the final stamp of approval, the county may rescind and reclaim the awarded funds, according to county documents.

These projects were “conceptually approved,” Brown said, which is the first step.

But other projects requesting bond funds were also not approved during Tuesday’s meeting, with commissioners worrying they may not be “truly affordable.”

Commissioner Marci Woodward said “the world has drastically changed” since residents voted on the bond a little less than two years ago, as evidenced by factors such as soaring interest rates.

The commissioners agreed they would like to alter the proposed parameters about who the projects would serve, a measure determined by area median income, or AMI. This is the midpoint income distribution in a certain region; half of the households in that specific region make less than the median, and the other half of the households make more than the median income.

For example, one project that may undergo modifications is a 195-unit multifamily project in Lake Worth Beach, where 156 of the units would serve people at or below 120% of the county’s AMI, and 39 of the units would serve those at or below 60% of the AMI. This project was requesting about $17.2 million from the housing bond.

An individual making $81,840 or less would be at or below 120% of the AMI. A family of four would be considered at or below 120% of the AMI if the household income was $116,880 or less, according to 2023 income limits in Palm Beach County.

Someone at or below 60% of the AMI brings in far less — a family of four would fall into this category if the household brought in $58,440 or less.

The commissioners want to see that none of the projects assist individuals or families who exceed 110% of the AMI, Brown said. An individual at 110% of the AMI makes $75,020, while a family of four makes $107,140.

“They asked basically for the developers to go back and re-look at their proposals and see if they can lower the rental rates,” Brown said. “We’re going to work with those developers and see what they can do and re-present it to the board.”

Commissioner Sara Baxter said the county needs to be stretching the bond dollars as far as possible.

“If we are spending taxpayer dollars saying that we’re going to have a affordable living, we really need affordable living,” she said during the meeting.

Brown said the commissioners also want to make sure the bond is not the largest lender for the project by keeping the county investment at no more than 15% of the total cost of the project.

More than a dozen people came forward to speak about the projects, many urging the commission to move forward with the conceptual approval.

Ronald Davis, the president and founder of the Mosnar Group, a real estate development and strategic management consulting firm in West Palm Beach, said the developers were simply responding to what the county was seeking, so it would be unfair to penalize them if the county wants to change the rules.

“As it’s been a new initiative, you didn’t have the opportunity to measure out and create rules and caps and everything, and that’s understandable,” he said during the meeting. “But at the same token, these developers have put forth a great deal of effort and expense to try to assist and support the county’s affordable and workforce housing needs.”

The county will discuss these projects again in June.