City Council delays affordable housing bill as advocates push for action

As protesters and advocates pushed for immediate emergency action, City Council granted itself more time to debate one of the only bills currently on the docket meant to alleviate the city’s housing crisis.

Tuesday night’s City Council meeting featured public comment fraught with frustration over rising rent prices and lack of workforce and affordable housing. Meanwhile, controversy surrounding the Keeping Our Families Together Act kept the council from passing the housing bill after previously expecting to sail through without issue.

“This bill … came out of committee with no opposition and was unanimous,” Councilman Kevin Carrico, chair of the Land Use and Zoning Committee, told the council. “However since that time, in the last week, we’ve heard a lot of concerns both from the public and even from inside our own offices in the office of general council, the planning department and others.”

Read the rest of this story at Jacksonville Today partner The Florida Times-Union.