Around the League: 2026 AHAC Elected Officials Workshops, Round One

As one might say when covering current events in Major League Baseball, let’s go “around the league” to see what housing topics came to the forefront during the first round of 2026 regional workshops for locally elected officials serving on AHACs.

• Six regions, one common thread: land use tools are at the forefront. Community Land Trusts (CLTs), density bonus programs, and publicly owned land disposition policies all came up as ways localities are creating deeper affordability.

• Condominium assessments and SHIP eligibility arose as a policy issue for multiple jurisdictions. Specifically, the question is whether SHIP funds may be used to repair common areas of condominiums.

  • Our guidance: SHIP funding is generally not well-suited to assist income-eligible homeowners with condominium assessments unless a foreclosure proceeding is imminent. If there is an active foreclosure, assessments may be paid under a SHIP foreclosure prevention strategy, provided the local government has included such a strategy in its Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP). However, SHIP funds are restricted to benefiting income-eligible households, but condominium assessments typically fund repairs or improvements to the building as a whole which benefit all unit owners, including those who may exceed SHIP income limits. The only workaround would be to prorate the SHIP payment to reflect only the income-eligible homeowners’ proportional share of costs attributable to their specific unit. And in doing that, the SHIP payment would likely be too small to be meaningful. For homeowners struggling to pay condo assessments, local general revenue or other locally sourced funds without federal or state restrictions are a more practical and flexible option.

• Starting July 1, the Live Local Act’s land use mandate expanded to land owned by cities, counties, and school districts — a change multiple jurisdictions are mulling as an opportunity to leverage public land for affordable housing as impactfully as possible. This state-level policy change can allow localities to move faster on affordable housing initiatives through Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and ground leasing on land they already own, without needing to rezone or amend a comprehensive plan.

Jurisdictions: Bay County, Panama City, Escambia County, Pensacola, Jackson County, Leon County, Tallahassee, Okaloosa County, Santa Rosa County, Walton County, Columbia County, Levy County, Suwanee County, Collier County, Kissimmee.

• Panama City has been working diligently to draft a Land Disposition Policy for Affordable Housing for utilizing the city’s undeveloped infill lots.

• Leon County detailed its gap financing program, which blends general funds, SHIP dollars, and funding from the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality.

• Columbia County is moving forward on Sweetwater Apartments, a highly anticipated 48-unit affordable multifamily housing community (all units will serve at or below 60% AMI). The development received funds from Lake City and Columbia County, along with a LIHTC award from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. The project will also be certified to meet innovative FORTIFIED Roof design standards.

• Collier County shared a model we commonly cite as a strong local housing policy: leveraging county-owned land to require long-term affordability commitments through a 99-year land lease on new rental housing.

Jurisdictions: Nassau County, Duval County, St. Johns County, Brevard County, Ocala, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Titusville, Palm Coast, Volusia County, Daytona Beach, Deltona, Alachua County, Gainesville, Clay County, Putnam County, Walton County, Escambia County, Pensacola, Clearwater, Coral Springs, Miami, Miramar.

• On homelessness: Daytona Beach pointed to First Step Shelter as a resource.

• On Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs): Clearwater, Miramar, and Palm Bay reported success with their recent ADU ordinances.

Jurisdictions: Citrus County, Hernando County, Lake County, Sumter County, Seminole County, Orange County, Orlando, Osceola, Kissimmee, Polk County, Lakeland, Winter Haven, DeSoto County, Marion County, Tampa

• Hernando County Housing and Supportive Services held their Hernando Helps Family Development Fair on May 30.

• Orange County highlighted its eviction prevention program, EPIC (Eviction Prevention in the Community).

• On purchase assistance, the group discussed building lender-facing portal systems to keep homebuyers, realtors, mortgage brokers, and title companies in sync during the funding process. Polk County’s Residential Housing Assistance Program was cited as a lender-oriented example, alongside Orange County’s Down Payment Assistance Program.

• Tampa shared a ribbon cutting for new cottage development to address homelessness.

• Polk County is bringing new construction services in-house to bring down costs.

• Lakeland floated a new idea: a homestead line of credit program to help low- and moderate-income households secure financing.

• On ADUs, the group discussed easing impact and mobility fees through selective waivers and size-tiered fee structures, with Orange County and Sarasota County cited as examples.

• Sarasota also has an active downtown density bonus program worth watching, covering both mixed-use corridors and downtown districts, along with a new public-facing affordable housing tracking tool.

Jurisdictions: Charlotte County, Hillsborough County, Lee County, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Manatee County, Bradenton, Pinellas County, Clearwater, Sarasota County, Sarasota, Pasco County.

• Elected officials mentioned that statewide policies can often target income levels that are near market rates — underscoring why SHIP and locally created tools, like affordable housing trust funds, matter for reaching deeper affordability at local discretion.

• Charlotte County’s Housing Opportunities Made Easier program came up as a model for making local affordable housing incentives more predictable for builders through a clear decision-making framework.

• Also discussed: employer-assisted housing and creating local funding sources for housing that don’t depend on federal disaster relief dollars.

Jurisdictions: Plantation, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Indian River County, Martin County, Palm Beach County, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Wellington, West Palm Beach, St. Lucie County, Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, Coral Springs, Broward County, Highlands County

• Conversations for Region 5 centered on the power of land use tools and local funding for affordable housing: local affordable housing trust funds, density bonus programs, disposition of public land for affordable housing, and partnerships with Community Land Trusts.

Jurisdictions: Davie, Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Lauderhill, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, Miami-Dade County, Hialeah, Homestead, Miami, Miami Beach, Monroe County, Largo

• Davie is putting roughly $524,000 in SHIP funds toward a Community Land Trust this program year, with the goal of establishing a local inventory of permanently affordable single-family homes. The town’s own affordable housing trust fund, currently sitting around $682,000, is earmarked for the same CLT model paired with a nonprofit builder to keep units affordable in perpetuity.

• Fort Lauderdale recently participated in a ribbon cutting for BBI Village, 20 townhomes being built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Broward. The city is also pursuing infill housing on 7 city-owned sites.

• Lauderhill discussed the redevelopment of a long-shuttered 300-acre golf course into a master planned community comprising 888 units.

• Largo’s city-wide ADU allowance is broader than most: it applies to single-family, duplex, triplex, and quadplex lots, plus small townhomes — and even some commercial, retail, and office-zoned properties. Largo’s policies are worth a look for any jurisdiction trying to expand where ADUs are allowed beyond the standard single-family zone.

• Hollywood’s AHAC made a recommendation to staff in its 2025 Annual Report to explore new ways to increase funding for the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

• Miami Beach is in the early stages of exploring its own affordable housing trust fund, a conversation worth tracking.

With this round of AHAC elected officials’ workshops in the books, we want to express our sincere thanks to all locally elected officials and their designees who took the time and effort to thoughtfully engage in these discussions. If you represent one of the SHIP jurisdictions mentioned in this article and want to add any additional updates or provide any clarifications, let us know!

Check back in the fall for another update after the second round of workshops.

Many who work in housing and community development in Florida are familiar with House Bill 1339 (2020), the omnibus housing legislation of the 2020 legislative session that ushered in a list of changes to state law that would serve as a precursor for how Florida would look to tackle housing affordability in the years to follow. Notably, it gave cities and counties the option to allow the development of affordable housing, as defined in s. 420.0004, on any parcel zoned for residential, industrial, or commercial use (sound familiar?).

Less widely known is how the bill reshaped Affordable Housing Advisory Committees (AHACs), the locally appointed bodies responsible for overseeing the strategies and affordable housing incentives of jurisdictions participating in Florida’s SHIP program. Beyond requiring that AHACs submit annual (rather than triennial) reports to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC) and amending the list of affordable housing strategies AHACs are required to consider, House Bill 1339 required that:

• Each AHAC include one locally elected official from each participating SHIP county or municipality; and

• Those elected officials, or their locally elected designee, attend biannual regional workshops on affordable housing best practices convened under the state’s Affordable Housing Catalyst Program.

In our role as the non-profit entity providing statewide training and technical assistance for the state’s Affordable Housing Catalyst Program (run by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, the Florida Housing Coalition has had the unique opportunity to facilitate these biannual workshops for locally elected officials. We view them as a valuable space for locally elected officials to share ideas and have open dialogue with peers in other communities on shared housing issues. Florida’s SHIP jurisdictions are divided into 6 geographic regions for logistical purposes (some jurisdictions attend workshops outside their home region to accommodate scheduling), and highlights from each region is listed above.

While our team shares relevant policy and budget updates from the legislative session and answers technical questions as they arise, our primary goal is to foster thoughtful conversation among locally elected officials. Hearing directly from officials across Florida about what’s working in their communities expands what we know about emerging local housing strategies — which is why we’re starting to share these updates with our broader network at the close of each round of workshops.

We thank the Florida Legislature and the Florida Housing Finance Corporation for supporting the Affordable Housing Catalyst Program. The Affordable Housing Catalyst Program helps local governments and nonprofits across Florida build and preserve affordable housing through robust training and technical assistance. It ensures that public dollars for housing are spent efficiently, programs are run correctly, and more Floridians have access to safe, affordable homes.