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NEIGHBORHOOD ENHANCEMENT

HOUSING ELEMENT

PRINCIPLES

• The City shall strive to ensure that housing opportunities are available for people of all ages, incomes, and abilities, allowing everyone to live in quality neighborhoods regardless of circumstances and special needs;
• Promote a range of attainable housing types supportive of a variety of incomes, including very low, low, and moderate income persons;
• Support quality development and revitalization that promotes energy efficient and climate adaptive design and construction methods; and
• Promote a live, work, play environment and accessibility to supporting services and amenities throughout all neighborhoods within Fort Lauderdale.

2020 Advance Fort Lauderdale Comprehensive Plan 11/17/2020

HOUSING ELEMENT

GOALS, POLICIES, AND EVALUATION MEASURES

GOAL 1: The Comprehensive Plan shall support the provision of adequate sites for future housing, including affordable workforce housing, housing for low-income, very low-income, and moderate-income families, mobile homes, and group home facilities and foster care facilities, with supporting infrastructure and public facilities.

OBJECTIVE HS 1.1: Aspirational Goals

The City shall aspire to meet the increasing need for affordable housing for existing and future Fort Lauderdale residents.

POLICY HS 1.1.1: The City of Fort Lauderdale, in an effort to meet current and future residential need, shall establish programs to provide, encourage, or enable low and moderate income households to obtain or maintain affordable housing that supports the demand created by economic growth.

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POLICY HS 1.1.1a: The City shall set and annually re-evaluate long-term affordable housing aspirational goals and short-term strategic goals, which shall serve as the basis for its affordable and attainable housing planning and guide the development of applicable programs designed to meet the City’s evolving housing needs.

POLICY HS 1.1.1b: The City shall utilize HUD and SHIP income evaluations as a basis for goalsetting and determine households that meet low and moderate income criteria, with the annual update to AMI data serving as benchmarking for goal updates.

POLICY HS 1.1.1c: The City shall, as part of its setting of affordable and attainable housing goals, include considerations and evaluations of workforce housing needs and goals.

POLICY HS 1.1.1d: As part of an annual evaluation, the City shall review and, at minimum, annually revise strategic policies, financing, and action steps necessary to achieve these affordable housing aspirational goals.

POLICY HS 1.1.1e: The City of Fort Lauderdale recognizes that equity and livability includes access to quality of life amenities such as broadband internet. The City shall regularly evaluate, incorporate into its consolidated planning processes evaluation of broadband internet access needs of housing units in low and moderate income neighborhoods, and include, as needed, policies and community infrastructure partnerships and investment to enhance equitable outcomes for Fort Lauderdale residents.

POLICY HS 1.1.2: The City shall maintain a database and report annually on available affordable housing and needs, including information on demographics, available funding and other resources, and grant opportunities.

POLICY HS 1.1.2a: As part of the annual report, the City shall assess how the use of funds addresses the priorities and specific objectives for local attainable and affordable housing, giving special attention to the highest priority activities identified.

HOUSING ELEMENT

POLICY HS 1.1.2b: The annual report shall include the progress the jurisdiction has made in carrying out its strategic plan and its action plan and shall include a comparison of the proposed versus actual outcomes for each outcome measure for the priorities and specific objectives. If applicable, there should be an evaluation on why progress was not made toward meeting goals and objectives, with adjustments to strategic action items.

POLICY HS 1.1.2c: In conjunction with economic development efforts such as workforce development, the City shall as part of its annual reporting evaluate the effect of student debt on housing attainment in the City.

POLICY HS 1.1.3: The City of Fort Lauderdale shall strive to achieve a reduction of housing and transportation costs such that, by 2035, the Housing and Transportation Index represents 45% of household income.

OBJECTIVE HS 1.2: Affordable Housing Administration

Administer programs for the creation of affordable homeownership and rental housing for very low, low and moderate income residents and maintenance of existing affordable housing, including structural and aesthetic improvements and the elimination of substandard dwelling conditions.

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POLICY HS 1.2.1: Continue to utilize Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) State Housing Initiatives Program (SHIP) funds, and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to support:

• New construction of rental housing
• Owner-occupied home rehabilitation
• Special needs home rehabilitation
• Purchase assistance
• Impact fee mitigation
• Disaster repair and mitigation
• Demolition and reconstruction
• Rapid re-housing program

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POLICY HS 1.2.2: Continue to identify opportunities for nonprofit organizations to receive funding from the City’s federal allocations from the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) to acquire and/or renovate existing rental housing stock for occupancy by very-low, and low-income households.

HOUSING ELEMENT

POLICY HS 1.2.3: Continue to utilize Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for minor home repairs, public services and infrastructure improvements.

POLICY HS 1.2.4: Increase housing stability of persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families and reduce homelessness among such persons, thereby facilitating increased access to care through Housing Opportunities for Person with Aids program (HOPWA).

POLICY HS 1.2.5: Continue efforts for reducing and ending homelessness, especially chronically homeless individuals and families, families with children, veterans and their families, and unaccompanied youth, through coordination and support of the Broward County Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Program, the Homeless Collaborative, and a Housing First approach to homelessness, among other programs and policies as appropriate.

POLICY HS 1.2.6: The City shall regularly evaluate, support, and adopt policies, as well as engage outside agencies and private and non-profit partners to support programs that assist the homeless in making the transition to permanent housing and independent living, including addressing emergency shelter and transitional housing needs, shortening the period of time that individuals and families experience homelessness, facilitating access for homeless individuals and families to affordable housing units, and preventing individuals and families who were recently homeless from becoming homeless again.

POLICY HS 1.2.7: Continue to support Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority programs, including Section 8, housing choice voucher administration, homeownership programs, public housing construction and management, and self-sufficiency programs.

POLICY HS 1.2.8: Implement an inclusionary zoning ordinance to require construction of affordable housing with new residential construction in regional activity centers and along major transit corridors.

POLICY HS 1.2.9: Support the construction of diverse affordable housing types to include single-family detached, attached and duplex housing, multi-family and manufactured homes.

POLICY HS 1.2.10: Review ability to reduce transportation costs through location of affordable housing in proximity to transit.

POLICY HS 1.2.11: Review opportunities to use older and historic houses for affordable housing opportunities.

POLICY HS 1.2.12: Design mixed-income affordable housing programs that ensure the geographical distribution of affordable housing to discourage the over concentration of affordable housing units.

POLICY HS 1.2.13: Utilize job training, apprenticeships, internships, and job creation to improve the economic status of residents as a partial solution to affordable housing concerns.

POLICY HS 1.2.14: The City will continue to develop programs for workforce housing for households with up to 160% AMI.

HOUSING ELEMENT

OBJECTIVE HS 1.3: Incentivize Construction and Development of Affordable Housing

The City shall develop programs to incentivize the construction and development of affordable housing throughout the City.

POLICY HS 1.3.1: The City shall continue to review financial and other incentives to assist the private sector in the provision of affordable housing including, but not limited to:

• Decrease in property tax assessment
• Density bonuses
• Tax increment financing (TIF)
• Municipal land
• Redistributed CRA funds
• Application fee reductions
• Other financing that incentivizes the development of affordable and workforce housing

POLICY HS 1.3.2: The City shall expedite the processing of building permits for Affordable, Attainable and Workforce Housing Units.

POLICY HS 1.3.3: The City will designate an ombudsman to assist developers and builders of affordable housing to expedite the planning, zoning and permitting processes and procedures and to apply for eligible developer incentives.

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POLICY HS 1.3.4: Continue to allow reduced parking requirements for affordable housing.

POLICY HS 1.3.5: Continue to review the ULDR for amendments to incentivize creation of affordable housing.

POLICY HS 1.3.6: Review policies, procedures, ordinances, regulations or plans that would increase the cost of housing as required by Florida Statutes.

POLICY HS 1.3.7: The City shall continue to maintain an inventory of City owned property available for use as affordable housing as required by Florida Statutes.

POLICY HS 1.3.8: Continue to work with private and public sector partners to acquire vacant parcels and construct new single-family homes for very-low- income, and low income households that are first-time home buyers.

POLICY HS 1.3.9: Consider assembling city-owned vacant lots as available for affordable housing development.

POLICY HS 1.3.10: The City shall periodically evaluate minimum unit sizes in its ULDR to determine impact on the availability of affordable housing and amend regulations if needed to enhance local housing availability and affordability.

POLICY HS 1.3.11: A studio housing unit or efficiency housing unit, no greater than 500 square feet in size may be counted as 0.5 dwelling units for residential density calculations.

HOUSING ELEMENT

POLICY HS 1.3.12: The City shall regularly evaluate accessory dwelling unit regulations as a tool to promote affordable and attainable housing in areas of the City where zoned for single family use as appropriate. Where permitted, the City shall set specific standards and conditions regarding the design, size and occupancy, among other conditions as necessary, to ensure quality development and maintenance of neighborhood standards as appropriate.

POLICY HS 1.3.13: The City shall regularly evaluate Fort Lauderdale’s housing stock to determine if there is a lack of middle options in terms of scale and density to encourage naturally occurring affordable housing such as duplexes, townhouses, and cluster developments that fit seamlessly into low-rise neighborhoods, the support walkability, locally-serving retail, and public transportation options, and update the land regulations, including neighborhood design criteria as needed.

OBJECTIVE HS 1.4: Housing for Vulnerable Communities

The City shall continue to ensure equity in affordable housing programs and provide for underserved and vulnerable populations.

POLICY HS 1.4.1: City affordable housing policies will consider the needs of the very low, low, and moderate income senior and special needs population.

POLICY HS 1.4.2: Continue to assess regulation of the placement of group homes by addressing maximum densities and the number of group homes and foster care facilities allowed within a geographically defined area.

POLICY HS 1.4.3: The City shall provide assurance for replacement housing for the relocation of persons within community redevelopment areas who are temporarily or permanently displaced due to redevelopment, as required by Florida State Statutes.

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POLICY HS 1.4.4: The City shall incorporate into its affordable housing planning programs designed to assist low-income individuals and families in avoiding becoming homeless, including rapid re-housing and transitional housing programs.

POLICY HS 1.4.5: Mobile home parks and manufactured homes shall be allowed on appropriately zoned sites and in accordance the ULDR.

GOAL 2: Be a community of strong, beautiful and healthy neighborhoods.

OBJECTIVE HS 2.1: Neighborhood Livability

Preserve and revitalize the livability and sense of place of Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods.

POLICY HS 2.1.1: Develop and implement neighborhood design guidelines based on the unique characteristics of neighborhoods.

HOUSING ELEMENT

POLICY HS 2.1.2: Continue to utilize intensity and density standards as provided in the Future Land Use Element to preserve existing single-family uses.

POLICY HS 2.1.3: The City shall maintain a list and develop a program for historically significant assets in the City which may be utilized for housing.

POLICY HS 2.1.3a: Encourage the conservation and reuse of historic residential resources based on the cultural and historic significance to the City.

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POLICY HS 2.1.4: Promote energy efficiency, use of alternative energy, water conservation and climate adaptation methods in the construction and rehabilitation of new and existing buildings.

POLICY HS 2.1.5: Incorporate Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) to ensure that issues of community safety and crime prevention are adequately considered in land use, development and redevelopment activities to aid the integration of safety and security concerns throughout the development review process for all residential projects.

POLICY HS 2.1.6: Ensure that planning and land use still provides for healthy neighborhoods including easy accessibility to food, locally determined needs for goods and services and amenities that encourage physical activity.

POLICY HS 2.1.7: Through the Community Enhancement and Compliance Division, collaborate residential neighbors to foster the preservation and revitalization of our neighborhoods, prevent blight, and educate our neighbors on property maintenance standards.

POLICY HS 2.1.8: Ensure that planning for livable neighborhoods includes considerations of quality of life amenities such as broadband internet access.

OBJECTIVE HS 2.2: Ensuring Emergency Shelter and Temporary Housing

Develop an emergency and longer-term transitional housing strategy to provide emergency shelter that offers safe, secure, time-limited housing with varying degrees of support services, for individuals and families to reside while they prepare to return to or move into new permanent housing.

POLICY HS 2.2.1: Assure the availability of suitable emergency shelters and temporary housing, for very low, low- and moderate-income populations when displacement occurs due to natural disaster.

POLICY HS 2.2.2: The City shall review regulations to permit temporary trailers as temporary housing after a declared natural disaster on single family lots.