NEWS

Community Lift Institute Wins First Nonprofit Pitch Competition at FHC’s Conference

Held at the recently concluded Annual Home Matters Conference, Florida Housing Coalition held its first Nonprofit Pitch Competition. Selected by a panel of judges, the Tallahasee based Community Lift Institute won the $1K award to explore innovative development and business solutions addressing racial equity in housing. Community Lift Institute is a grassroots alliance of black contractors, investors, and developers WORKING TOGETHER to advocate for initiatives that focus on supporting industry and investment that LIFTS  neighbors and neighborhoods, eliminate racial and socio-economic gaps in home and community ownership, and works in partnership with neighborhood and community associations in historically disinvested neighborhoods to transform blighted properties into useful spaces.

“The solution we advocate to achieve equitable housing development is simple- activate, empower, and invest in the capacity of black builders to build and support homeownership in their communities. In June 2021, Community Lift Institute convened a launch of this initiative with over 100 black contractors, developers, and investors in attendance.” 

With NLIHC Grant Florida Housing Coalition Aims to Help 32 Local Governments Deploy ERAP Funds

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) is leading a national effort to assist local governments to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars provided through the U.S. Treasury Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) to help tenants, especially the most marginalized populations, facing evictions due to COVID. The Florida Housing Coalition is thrilled to have been chosen as a NLIHC state partner to carry out this work in Florida though the NLIHC’s Ending Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) project. With this grant, the Coalition will facilitate information-sharing and best practices workshops and provide technical assistance to the 32 local governments in Florida that administer ERAP funds. If you are a local government staff member or nonprofit working to deploy ERAP or otherwise working to facilitate the ERAP program within these 32 local governments, please email glazer@flhousing.org with ERAP in the subject line. The next workshop is October 14th at 1:30p.m. RSVP

New Guidebook Helps AHAC’s & Local Government Staff

The Florida Housing Coalition is proud to announce the release of a new guidebook essential for Affordable Housing Advisory Committees (AHAC). Regulatory reform and a program of incentives are powerful tools for attracting private-sector development of affordable housing.  Every city and county that receives funding from the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program is statutorily required to assemble an AHAC for this purpose. The core requirement of the AHAC is to recommend housing strategies to incentivize the production of affordable housing. This newly revised guidebook addresses the AHAC process from forming the committee, through submitting its report, to annually evaluating implementation.  It provides information on the specific incentive strategies that the AHAC is required to consider.  It also provides examples from AHAC Reports and offers best practices for engaging in policy discussions and developing implementation strategies. View and download this publication here. 

This publication is ideal for:

• AHAC Members
• Local Government Planning Staff
• SHIP Administrators
• Local Government Administrators and Elected Officials
• Affordable Housing Stakeholders

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