- October 24, 2024
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Flagler County staff are working to help rehabilitate eight local families' homes through the State Housing Initiatives Partnership program, known as SHIP, so far this year.
“Fair housing builds the strength of our community by giving each one of us a fair shot at finding our place here in the community to think, to build and to dream for our futures.”
— DEVRIE PARADOWSKI, housing program coordinator, Flagler County
The program is returning for the 2022 fiscal year after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed state funding for it for the 2021 fiscal year. The county expects to receive about $1 million this year.
"We have done walkthroughs already — we've gotten the bids out to contractors — to fix homes for people, because that creates longterm affordable housing, builds wealth and it also contributes to our local economy," Flagler County Housing Program Coordinator Devrie Paradowski said at an April 4 County Commission meeting.
Most SHIP money must be used to promote homeownership, rather than on rental assistance.
Last year's veto, Paradowski said, wasn't the first time a veto happened, "but it should be the last time that it's going to happen, because the funding is now recurring funding."
"We're going to be seeing more funds than we've seen in the past decade, because instead of sweeping some of those funds into the state's general revenue, we're going to be seeing a little bit more of that funding than we're used to seeing," she said.
In the 2021 calendar year, county staff closed on four homes and hardened another nine; in 2020, they'd helped make 20 people new homeowners, assisted 25 people affected by COVID-19, helped prevent foreclosures on three homes and helped keep four people from becoming homeless, according to Paradowski's presentation. The county's housing staff are managing approximately 180 home loans, she said.
A 2021 study by the Economic Consulting Group, Paradowski said, found a 40% return on investment for every dollar spent from the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund, which funds the SHIP program.
"This benefits the state, but it also benefits us locally when we're using these funds here in our community," Paradowski said.
County commissioner Andy Dance asked about the housing assistance program's difficulty in finding contractors for construction work.
"It's been a struggle ... but we have had some some bids come through," Paradowski said. "But we're going to have to keep going. We're in a position to need more contractors to bid on these jobs as they go out."
