A second chance? Jacksonville could invest in affordable housing fund

Changes to a proposal meant to incentivize riverfront residential development on Bay Street Downtown has revived talks among city leaders about the possibility of Jacksonville joining an affordable housing loan fund. 

An amendment to legislation filed by Joe Carlucci would set aside $3 million of the bill’s $45 million that could be used a city investment in a Jacksonville Affordable Housing Fund. The fund was launched last year by the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund, the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida and Northern Trust Company to provide gap financing for local affordable housing projects.” 

Officials in the mayor’s office and with the Community Foundation said the possible investment  came as “a little bit of a surprise,” since council removed $10 million in Mayor Donna Deegan’s 2024-25 city budget proposal meant to be the city’s buy-in to the fund.

A $10 million city investment at the time would have resulted in a 3-to-1 match from philanthropies, which would have created a $40 million fund to provide financial gap loans for affordable housing projects, according to Joshua Hicks, the city’s Affordable Housing Director. 

James Coggin, the Community Foundation’s senior director for grantmaking and impact investing, told Jacksonville Today that the nonprofit is “happy to be there if there’s an opportunity to partner with the city.” 

However, if the bill passes, it’s still unclear whether the money will ultimately be used to invest in the fund or to promote one-off affordable housing projects in Duval County.

“We really aren’t as far down the road as it may seem in some of these conversations. … We are not under the impression that that money is designated solely for us, nor were we planning around that money as we continue to work on the affordable housing fund with our partner. That is up to the City Council,” he said. 

“We are standing by and ready to be a good partner should there be an opportunity, but there is nothing that we’re planning on at this point.”

The $3 million for countywide affordable housing, as well as $12 million for workforce development programs, was a compromise between city lawmakers to not reserve the full $45 million for a few blocks of Downtown.

What’s in the bill

Carlucci’s legislation, Ordinance 2025-0385, was originally going to hold $45 million for residential development for a handful of properties along Bay Street. An aerial shot filed with the bill shows the former City Hall and courthouse sites now known as the Ford on Bay. 

The map also shows the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel and its parking garage, a city-owned surface parking lot parcel. 

The Berkman Plaza II site at 500 E. Bay St. was later added to the bill by three council committees to be eligible for the incentive dollars.

The money would come from excess funds in the city’s self-insurance account identified by the City Council Auditors Office. 

Council member Matt Carlucci was first to resurrect the conversation on the trust by trying to carve out $9 million in the bill to put toward the affordable housing trust during Monday’s Neighborhoods Community Services, Public Health and Safety Committee.

That move failed, but Ken Amaro, who represents Arlington, was able to persuade committee members to approve $5 million for affordable housing. That was later reduced to $3 million in the Finance Committee on Tuesday through an amendment by council member Raul Arias.

Arias’s change reserves $3 million “for activities including but not limited to countywide affordable housing.” His amendment also took $12 million “for activities including but not limited to countywide workforce development, improvements at Florida State College of Jacksonville, Jacksonville University Youth Sports project and the Downtown Preservation and Revitalization Program.” 

Before the full council’s vote on the bill, scheduled Tuesday night, $30 million remains for Downtown riverfront residential incentives.

The legislation unanimously passed the council Rules Committee and was approved in the Neighborhoods and Finance committees. The bill received no votes from Jimmy Peluso and Rory Diamond, respectively. 

Peluso, who represents Downtown, said he may change his vote by Tuesday night but is “a bit jittery” on how the money may be spent.   

Even if the bill passes, Council will have to take one more step before the money could be appropriated. The legislation puts the full $45 million in a reserve account that would require a future two-thirds vote from the council to use it.

How the fund works

After the City Council decided not to participate, the Community Foundation, DuPont and the Northern Trust moved forward with establishing the affordable housing fund without public participation through Self-Help Credit Union’s Venture’s Fund. That gets capital through loans and grants from foundations, religious organizations, corporations and government sources.

The fund will allow affordable housing nonprofits like the Jacksonville Community Land Trust, Ability Housing and others to apply for a loan to fill any gaps in their development financing.

Coggin said once the fund is ready, developers can apply and the fund manager will actively start seeking projects to finance.

“We’re not starting with a list of deals you would typically see in a (city) council bill. We’re starting with a pool of capital that is providing gap financing to low income housing tax credit projects, and once we have that capital assembled, we will have our loan administrator go out in the market and look for deals in which we can invest those funds,” he said.

Currently, most of the city’s funding for affordable housing comes from state and federal dollars approved through the Jacksonville Housing Finance Authority. Hicks said Deegan’s original $10 million proposal could have increased the number of affordable housing projects greenlit by the authority.

A $5 million investment in the fund, as proposed by Amaro, would have yielded a $15 million philanthropic match and could have generated 500 to 750 affordable housing units over the next 20 years, Hicks said. 

At the $3 million level, it’s unclear what kind of results the fund would yield for Jacksonville. 

“Ultiamtely, as the number gets lower, the fund’s going to do less. There’s a point where if you go to low, especially since it’s a 20-year fund, is it really worth it? I do not know that answer,” Hicks said.

The mayor’s office supports the $3 million for affordable housing in the bill. Hicks said if it doesn’t go toward the fund, the dollars can be used to incentivize a couple of housing projects around the county.

“Because we’ve all known that housing and housing affordability is a crisis here in Jacksonville and now with that latest poll by UNF, it’s on everyone’s radar. So what can we do to help, do a little bit more.”

Hick’s was referring to a University of North Florida poll released earlier this month that showed affordable housing as the most important problem facing Jacksonville with 25% of respondents ranking in No. 1, ahead of crime, education and transportation and infrastructure. 

“Poll or no poll, we know affordable housing is a big issue because we talk about it all the time,” Matt Carlucci, who was an early proponent of the fund, said Monday during the Neighborhoods Committee meeting. 

Workforce development 

Arias and some other council members say they hesitate to commit more money toward the fund without a detailed, project by project plan on how it will be spent.

 “(Affordable housing) I have no issue with it,” Arias said. “The problem is that affordable housing always gets love, right? However, workforce development, there’s never any conversation for workforce development.”

The nonprofit Downtown advocacy group Build up Downtown and the Northeast Florida Builders Association support the bill.

Jessie Spradley, NEFBA’s executive officer, told Jacksonville Today that the group plans to seek some assistance from the bill’s $12 million in workforce funding for its $5.5 million, 43,000-square-foot apprenticeship program training center currently under construction on Sunbeam Road. 

He says the center, which is expected to house 550 apprentices this fall, will have four lab spaces, 11 classrooms and a larger auditorium than its current space. 

“Two million dollars won’t move the needle for anything, but $15 million for workforce development, especially when FSCJ already has a solid plan of action, NEFBA has a plan of action, these will be dollars that will work right now,” Arias said.