{"id":11722,"date":"2025-06-24T21:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11722\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T21:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T21:12:08","slug":"city-council-considers-3m-for-affordable-housing-as-part-of-downtown-jacksonville-development-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11722\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council considers $3M for Affordable Housing as part of Downtown Jacksonville development proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A major funding proposal aimed at revitalizing Jacksonville\u2019s riverfront may also deliver a boost to affordable housing, if city leaders can agree on the details.<\/p>\n

The City Council is set to vote Tuesday on a $45 million package that would incentivize residential development in downtown Jacksonville. A late amendment to the bill carves out $3 million for affordable housing countywide, a figure that could potentially triple through philanthropic matching funds.<\/p>\n

The legislation identifies key areas for development, including the former site of the Duval County Courthouse and the Berkman Plaza. Under the current proposal, $30 million would go toward incentives for downtown residential projects, with an additional $12 million earmarked for workforce development initiatives.<\/p>\n

A new proposal would carve out $3 million from a massive development fund and that pot of money could triple with the right match. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to see affordable housing downtown,\u201d said Lysandra and Deborah, local students walking through one of the targeted green spaces. \u201cI think it\u2019s something that\u2019s very important to be able to give the majority of the people access to, because like, affording housing with minimum wage is, like, not viable at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council member Matt Carlucci, who represents At-Large Group 4, was the first to propose setting aside funds specifically for affordable housing through the city\u2019s housing trust fund. His original push for a $9 million allocation didn\u2019t pass, but it set the stage for further negotiations.<\/p>\n

Councilman Ken Amaro later proposed a $5 million set-aside<\/a>, which was reduced to $3 million last week by the council\u2019s Finance Committee after an amendment from Councilman Raul Arias.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it was a no-brainer,\u201d Carlucci said. \u201cThere\u2019s an old saying: I\u2019d rather shoot for the moon and hit the barn than shoot for the barn and blow my foot off. So I shot for $9 million and got $3 million. At least I didn\u2019t blow my foot off.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the bill passes, questions remain about how the $3 million will be used \u2014 whether it will go into the affordable housing trust fund or support one-off housing projects across Duval County. Furthermore, the entire $45 million package will be placed into a reserve account, meaning a future two-thirds council vote would be needed to actually spend any of the funds.<\/p>\n

Still, Affordable Housing Director for the City of Jacksonville Joshua Hicks said it\u2019s a step in the right direction. <\/p>\n

\u201cAddressing housing affordability takes all of us working together,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cThis proposed $3 million for affordable housing by the City Council shows the kind of collaboration we need to accelerate the progress \u2013 while recognizing this is just the start. It\u2019s why Mayor Donna Deegan has made housing affordability a top priority of her Administration since day one.” Hicks is hopeful these resources can be used to create a robust affordable housing development fund in the months ahead and said the city needs every dollar they can get to address the crisis head-on by increasing our housing supply. \u201cThis funding will give us additional resources to move faster \u2013 to break ground, build homes, and bring needed relief to residents across Jacksonville struggling with rising housing costs. It\u2019s a good thing for our entire community,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n

The council will vote on the proposal Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A major funding proposal aimed at revitalizing Jacksonville\u2019s riverfront may also deliver a boost to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[852,5229,8314,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-11722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-duval-county","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114740405641115531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}