Some Jacksonville City Council members are hoping a proposed affordable housing plan will mean more jobs and energy efficient homes in the city.
“I’m excited” were the first words out of Councilman Reggie Gaffney’s mouth after the Wednesday meeting.
He met with other city housing partners and Kairos, the Michigan-based developer that wants to transform his district on the Eastside, just outside of Jacksonville’s Springfield.
Kairos, which has created low-cost housing projects in Africa, will start by building three models on properties donated by the city. The only problem, city ordinances don't allow donations to some developers, said Councilman Bill Gulliford who was also in the meeting.
“For instance, we excluded people from outside the area to be able to come in and do something like this — that was pretty dumb,” Gulliford said.
The city has more than 400 properties that it can donated to be turned into affordable housing. They end up on the donation list when owners stop paying taxes or they’re foreclosed. About two months ago, Council passed a bill allowing for more types of developers to acquire the properties, but not ones like out-of-state Karios.
Gulliford said he and Gaffney are submitting a bill to waive some of those rules, and may try to vote the bill in as an emergency next Tuesday, meaning instead of taking three weeks for a vote, it will take one.
According to Kairos’s website, the homes are built in a factory and assembled onsite.
And Gulliford said locals can be hired to assemble them. He added the projects will create jobs especially for young people.
“It’s pretty basic as far as putting them together, it doesn’t take a lot of skill and it doesn’t take a lot of training to do,” he said.
Karios representatives said the houses are designed to keep energy costs down too.
Gulliford said on top of allowing the development, he’d like to create a mortgage assistance program to help homeowners stay in place during hard times.
“What’s the first thing they do? They stop paying their mortgage because they’re choosing between paying a mortgage or buying food for their kids,” he said. “So then they get back on their feet two months later, they’re already three months behind on their mortgage payment, the bank won’t work with them and they foreclose.”
At-large Councilman John Crescimbeni said he’d also like to sponsor a bill to waive some of the donation rules to get the ball rolling on the housing project.
