This State of Florida legislative session ended in May and as of June 15, the final budget was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. There were a few bills signed into law that may harm our neighbors ability to have a safe place to call home and one significant housing bill that may provide more affordable housing. Additionally, we are following pending federal legislation that can have significant impacts on our neighbors experiencing homelessness and poverty.
Florida Legislation:
HB7/SB300 Pregnancy and Parenting Support
This legislation prevents pregnancy termination after 6 weeks of gestation as determined by the patient's last menstrual period. On the surface this may not seem related to a person’s ability to have a safe place to call home, yet the landmark Turnaway Study suggests differently. The Turnaway Study followed 1,000 women seeking to terminate pregnancy over 5 years to compare trajectories between those provided care and those denied care. Three key findings suggest denying healthcare affected a birthing person's ability to have a safe place to call home. Namely:
- Women who were turned away and went on to give birth experienced an increase in household poverty lasting at least four years relative to those who received an abortion
- Years after an abortion denial, women were more likely to not have enough money to cover basic living expenses like food, housing and transportation.
- Being denied an abortion lowered a woman’s credit score, increased a woman’s amount of debt and increased the number of their negative public financial records, such as bankruptcies and evictions.
The passage of this legislation may see an increase in family poverty, utilization of social benefit programs (ie. SNAP benefits, TANF benefits, WIC) and could increase family homelessness.
This legislation criminalizes Floridians who shelter, support, and provide transportation to undocumented immigrants. This includes those who have overstayed their visa or who have lived in Florida for decades with U.S. born children. This legislation prohibits public funding for community IDs, requires hospitals to inquire about immigration status, and strengthens the E-Verify system allowing FDLE to conduct random business checks to ensure compliance. One of the most alarming aspects of this legislation is the transportation provision, which can lead to, at minimum, a third degree felony to persons transporting an undocumented person into the state of Florida. This third degree felony can result in up to 5 years in prison and an up to $5,000 fine per person.
Individuals with felony convictions aren’t protected under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, at a minimum may be subject to waiting five years before being able to receive any federal housing assistance. According to the Prison Policy Institute, returning citizens are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population. This immigration bill harms our neighbors without documentation and puts their family members at risk for homelessness if they are charged with a felony for transporting them across state lines.
This legislation appropriated $711 million for housing projects through Florida Housing Finance Corporation. This funding helps shore up the programs historically damaged by Sadowski Fund raids (SHIP and SAIL) while also providing continuing funding for the Hometown Heroes Program. In addition to increased funding, a new tax credit incentives and a tax donation program is intended to incentivize affordable development. Finally, this legislation provides local zoning exemptions, preempting local zoning restrictions, allowing commercial and industrial zoned areas to be used for affordable housing developments.
While the financial investments are significant, they do not make up for the years of Sadowski Housing Trust Fund raids. Additionally, the tax-credit model for development largely shuts out new nonprofit developers and have very flexible affordability requirements, typically for 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). Especially in Central Florida, our largest gap in inventory is for those making 50% of the AMI or less and these tax based incentives still do not allow a developer to be profitable when catering to those income levels. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Orlando Metro region has a deficit of over 147,000 units for individuals making less than 50% of the AMI.
These investments into affordable housing have an opportunity to be significant and Hope Partnership would like to see this focus on affordable housing continue in future legislative sessions, ideally for the working families making $43,032 or less a year.
Federal Legislation:
Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
Also known as the Debt Ceiling Compromise, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 effectively suspended the debt limit until January 2025. In order to reach this compromise, certain spending cuts and limitations were included in the bill. Notably:
Expanded work requirements to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Currently, able-bodied adults without dependents between age 18-49 can only receive SNAP benefits for three months out of every three years unless they work or participate in other activities at least 20 hours a week. The new deal expands that mandate to include individuals between the ages of 18 and 54 in phases until 2025. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 250,000 persons between the ages of 50 and 54 would likely lose SNAP benefits under the new rules. However, the CBO also estimates this would expand enrollment to approximately 78,000 more people.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Currently, states require those receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participate in work-related activities such as employment, training, job search assistance and community service programs. States have been able to adjust their workforce participation rates by limiting the number of families receiving payments. In the debt ceiling bill, the work requirements are tightened by limiting the ability for States to adjust these rates–which means they will need to ensure a greater share of families are working to meet the mandate. Low-Income families would feel this change most, losing their cash assistance if they are unable to work because of illness or other barriers.
As of June 20, 2023 the House Appropriations Committee has approved topline spending numbers for each of the spending bills which will cut next year’s federal spending to FY 2022 levels. Specifically, the proposal will cut funding for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs by more than 25% or over $22.12 billion. This large of a cut can:
- Remove rental assistance for almost 1 million households nationwide. Disproportionately affecting households of color, people with disabilities and older adults.
- Current public housing residents would experience deferred housing maintenance.
- Nearly 100,000 people experiencing homelessness would no longer receive teh assistance they need to find and maintain stable housing.
The Farm Bill, which is separate from Agriculture Appropriations, is renewed every five years and contains specific provisions around programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is the single largest piece of legislation for food and farming. This year’s reauthorization has the opportunity to:
- Expand SNAP access for returning citizens, eliminate work requirements for qualifying college students and replace existing programs with SNAP in Puerto Rico and other US territories.
- Increase support for produce specific SNAP benefits and add fresh produce in the Commodity Supplemental Food Assistance Program (CSFP),
- Increase funding for agricultural research to address the threat to food security by climate change.
While this list is not a comprehensive list of provisions, it details a few of the key improvements that will affect our neighbors experiencing homelessness and poverty’s ability to have a safe place to call home. Food security is a critical component to staying stably housed and as food costs rise federal support and assistance is necessary for those living paycheck to paycheck to meet their basic needs.
