- Are local employees underpaid, overworked, working two and three jobs?
- Are local employees mostly non-union, without collective bargaining, working for labor-baiters and monopolists like hotelier KANTI PATEL?
- Are there union-busting employers paying ditch-digger wages in tourism industries, to workers paid in cash, under the table, without withholding of Social Security taxes? Yep.
- Is the phrase "workforce" a relatively new word, invented circa 1947, picked up by union-busting House of Representatives led by disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who did not like the word "labor" in committee and subcommittee titles? Yep.
- But the dupey"development" reporter, developer fanboy STUART KORFHAGE, at the haughty hedge fund owned St. Augustine Record insults our intelligence in publishing article after article without confronting the low wage problem, instead talking about "workforce housing" or "affordable housing," which is as rare as hen's teeth around here in Paradise.
We need Living Wage laws -- city and county ordinances requiring that government employees, government contactor employees and government franchisee employees be paid $15 per hour.
Othewise, the dull Republican local politicians, government officials and reporters prattling on about "affordable housing" are manipulating you.
Just Whistlin' "Dixie."
From St. Augustine Record:
By Stuart Korfhage
Posted May 18, 2019 at 8:50 PM
Updated May 18, 2019 at 8:50 PM
St. Augustine Record (in Sunday, May 19, 2019 print edition)
One of the undisputed top issues in the county right now is the dearth of affordable housing. The subject elicits a lot of discussions from the St. Johns County Commission on down.
But is there any progress being made?
On any large scale, not really. Yet.
The Commission recently listened to proposals from county staff about what actions might be taken to solve, at least partially, the problem. Among the recommended solutions were increasing allowable density and creating a new zoning category for affordable housing projects.
However, it was just a preliminary discussion, and no definitive action was taken at the May 7 meeting.
In fact, a proposal from the St. Johns County Continuum of Care for a 600-home affordable housing project was brought to the Commission in August 2018. Despite some support, it’s not any closer to reality now than it was last summer.
“I think we need to move forward and implement that pilot project,” Commissioner Henry Dean said at the May 7 Commission meeting.
However, there are still questions among the commissioners about exactly how much the county would end up paying for the project by waiving or subsidizing fees. This Commission is usually reticent to commit to large expenditures without a new source of revenue.
“It’s a fine line,” Commissioner Paul Waldron said. “I tell people all the time: I want affordable housing. Well, how much of your tax dollars do you want to spend on affordable housing? Because it’s going to come back to, somebody has to pay for it whether it’s the schools, roads (etc.).”
The process of trying to develop a plan can be frustrating, especially when it’s a problem that needs a solution yesterday.
Bill Lazar, executive director of the St. Johns Housing Partnership, deals with the issue at the ground level. He said he’s been glad to see the Commission take affordable housing seriously as his organization and a few others chip away at the dilemma.
“I don’t think even the commissioners sometimes think about the diverse needs across the affordable housing spectrum,” Lazar said. “I think we’re finally seeing sort of the next step to how do we put these resources into play, what can we do and when is it going to create some new affordable housing? That’s the big challenge we have.”
Lazar and others have been happy to see more “workforce” housing approved for the county recently, and the city project proposed by the Broudy family also seems to fit that category.
But Lazar also pointed out that townhomes at market prices aimed to serve those households making $60,000-$80,000 per year aren’t going to fill the only need in the county.
Aside from the few projects by the St. Johns Housing Partnership and Habitat for Humanity, there still aren’t many options for those lower-income families.
“The two-(earner) family income might get up into that $60,000-$80,000 range, but it leaves the single parents in the dust,” Lazar said. “We’ve got to figure out how to get rents in the $500-600 a-month-range or lower, and you don’t just need regulatory relief. You’re going to have to have some kind of financial subsidy.”
Habitat for Humanity of St. Augustine/St. Johns County is trying to make a dent in the lack of housing for lower-income families, but they currently build about six homes a year. The goal is to get up to about 20.
Malinda Everson, executive director of the local Habitat office, said her organization can only help a certain segment of the population because it doesn’t provide rentals.
“I think it can’t come soon enough. The progress is slow,” she said of the county’s affordable housing solutions. “The need is endless. We have people come in here and there’s a lot of stories. Some of them are so overcrowded and living in just horrible, dangerous housing.”
One policy/code decision that could spur the building of more affordable housing is allowing more density than is currently allowed — 13 units per acres in the highest-density zoning categories.
Adjusting that number would allow multi-family developers more opportunities to bring a profitable project to the market that wouldn’t have to be “luxury” rentals.
“The 13-unit-per-net-acre density is a real issue for market rate, workforce housing in the county,” land use attorney Tom Ingram said at the May 7 Commission meeting. “I do work all over the place. They (multi-family developers) are not coming here. I think it’s essential to the well being of a community that your service workers, firemen, teachers have a place.
“Density solves a variety of issues, including in the environmental protection and demand on resources like roads and vehicle miles traveled.”
Altering that density rule could be helpful in the long run. But the one consensus among everyone looking for answers is that some kind of action must be taken. Otherwise, an already tight labor market could end up getting even tighter.
“It’s just my opinion: Nothing’s free but I think there’s a cost to not providing affordable housing to this county,” Dean said. “I can tell you there are businesses that cannot find good workers because we have a shortage because they have to travel from different communities to get here.”
Added Lazar: “If I’m making $30,000 a year and I’m spending half of my money on housing and I’m trying to stretch $15,000 over 12 months, that’s a real challenge.
“Those are the folks that are part of our workforce that we’re either going to help stabilize or I think we’re going to lose them.”
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