St. Pete City Council marks $34 million from feds for affordable housing

Less than a month after over a hundred St. Pete residents stood outside city hall demanding rent control and a housing state of emergency, it seems like the city’s leadership might actually be listening.

No, rent control isn’t being implemented. No, the city hasn’t declared even a symbolic housing state of emergency.

But during last Thursday’s city council meeting, council voted to allot additional funds from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) towards affordable housing. Of the city’s $45.4 million in ARP funds, $34.303 million will now go to some form of affordable housing, with $11.1 million going towards health and social equity.

“If you go outside and talk to working people here, it’s clear housing is the number one issue,” Karla Correa with the St. Pete Tenant’s Union told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “This is a win for the people, because we wouldn’t have gotten that money had it not been for the sustained public pressure.” Previous recommendations for investments from ARP funds towards infrastructure, public health and safety, economic recovery and resiliency allocations were reduced from over $18 million to zero.

“I do think it’s fair to say this absolutely has come from the fact that a community is begging for help right now,” Councilmember Richie Floyd told CL.

When the city first asked residents for input on how to spend the $45 million in ARP funds, the allotment for housing was a little over $15 million. By December of last year, that figure had increased another $5 million to over $20 million towards housing.

“Back when this began last year, hundreds of residents came out and said housing, housing, housing,” Aaron Dietrich with the People’s Council of St. Pete added. “It’s really encouraging to see the city’s original offer more than double. I think it’s a testament to the pressure, to the need, to see that money allocated where the people said they wanted it to go.”

In addition to the increased funds for affordable housing, St. Pete City Council is also considering how to create a right to legal counsel program for tenants. Floyd introduced the new business item last Thursday, recommending that tenants get a guaranteed right to legal council, especially for those facing eviction. His item was referred to the Youth and Family Services Committee for discussion.

“How fast will the staff be ready to have that discussion? It just depends,” Floyd said. “The committee meets next week, and I imagine we’ll probably talk about it there, get feedback, and then talk about it one more time in committee before it goes to the whole council for a vote.”

Floyd says guaranteed right to counsel is “very much possible,” unlike the legal risks outlined in the presentation last month on the possibility of rent control.

“There’s nothing stopping us from doing it legally,” Floyd said. “What we’re trying to do now is design a program we can put up for a vote. And it’s not as straightforward as you’d think.”

It’s possible the program could be funded with the ARP funds set aside for housing, too.

New York City was the first in the nation to implement a right-to-counsel program for tenants in 2017. Expanded in 2020, in response to COVID-19, the initiative provides free legal services, including representation, to tenants facing eviction in housing court. In New York City’s Report on Fiscal Year Four (2021) of the Implementation of Universal Access to Legal Services, data showed “the overwhelming majority of tenants who have city-funded legal representation are successful in their legal proceedings, with 84% of households represented by a RTC lawyer able to remain in their homes.” According to the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, since New York City’s RTC program for tenants began in 2017, at least 21 other states or municipalities have some form of RTC for tenants underway or already in place.

“A woman with the tenant’s union got a lawyer through Gulf Coast Legal Services and that lawyer was able to tie up her eviction in the courts for six months,” Correa said. “She was able to find a new place, and now she’s safely housed. Versus if you don’t have a lawyer, that eviction can fly through the courts in less than a month.”

Floyd says he wants to see the right to counsel for as many people as possible, not just in situations where an eviction is underway. He says he has a comprehensive approach to tackling the housing issue, which also focuses on enforcing and retooling those laws already in place.

“We can give tenants a leg up in this battle where they have a little bit more power to make sure landlords are actually operating correctly,” Floyd said. “The state doesn’t let us make our laws that much stronger, but there’s nothing stopping us from actually enforcing the laws that we already have. I don’t believe we’re doing an adequate job of that right now.”

In 2019, St. Pete City Council passed the Tenant’s Bill of Rights, which spelled out rights to renters protected by the city. Last year, some of those rights were expanded to include increasing notice of non-renewal to tenants from 15 days to 30 days. Another area of focus is how code enforcement in the city is operating right now and who’s being fined the most.

“The Codes department needs to step up and actually do their job,” Correa said. “Because as they operate now, it’s just to penalize Black homeowners in South St. Pete, and put liens on their properties for things like not cutting their grass.”

After the People’s Council’s mass demonstration last month, residents voted to escalate their actions to civil disobedience. Those involved proposed a tent city occupation outside city hall and dozens signed up to participate knowing arrests were possible, if not likely. Others volunteered to provide food and funds to those willing to risk everything to get the city’s attention. For now, the tent city escalation is on hold. And Mayor Ken Welch has asked to speak with delegates from the People’s Council this week to discuss other options for solving the housing crisis.

“We’re prepared to advise residents to call off the tent city if a process can be agreed upon that will allow them a direct say in how we address this emergency,” Dietrich told CL. “This isn’t a protest movement, it’s people committed to fighting for their community.”

Residents and organizers aren’t giving up on rent control or a housing state of emergency yet either, but there’s a greater goal in the distance: guaranteed housing for all.

A recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that nearly half of nationwide renters are cost burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on rent. According to the same report, the highest rates of those behind on rent were in the South, with Florida reporting over 15% of renters behind on rent.

“No one solution will fix this,” Dietrich said. “Imagine if we dealt with our water this way? We would have a water crisis.”

One major long-term solution? Public housing or what some are calling “social housing.”

“I would like the city to take it upon itself to build housing that’s maybe for co-op ownership, specifically mixed income public housing,” Floyd said. “Clearly the way we’ve done affordable housing, where we subsidize new development, is not taking a big enough bite out of the problem.”

The People’s Council hopes Mayor Welch will be open to their ideas when they meet on Friday.

“We want to help him build a legacy that could remake housing as an example for the entire country,” Dietrich said. “A housing plan that residents would be fighting for on your behalf. We can build that together.”

This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2022.