Florida

Maxwell Frost has made housing issues a key part of his platform and campaign message. He committed to support legislation that would lead to housing abundance and affordability in cities like Orlando, such as incentives for local governments to reform exclusionary zoning laws, federal funding for 12 million affordable housing units in the United States over the next decade, and federal investments in public transit.

State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith has been a vocal advocate for constituents who are being priced out due to our region’s dire lack of housing, proposing that Florida declare a state of emergency regarding the affordability crisis. He also championed House Bill 6075, which would have given Orange County the flexibility to use revenue from the tourist development tax for investments in affordable housing and public transit to benefit workers in the tourism industry.

State Representative Anna Eskamani has demonstrated a deep knowledge and understanding of the housing crisis in her Orlando district and beyond. She recently introduced House Bill 6075 in the Florida House of Representatives, which would have given counties like Orange the flexibility to use revenue from the tourist development tax for investments in affordable housing and public transit to benefit workers in the tourism industry.

County Commission Chair Kimberly Overman has demonstrated through her leadership on the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners that she is a steadfast housing advocate who is willing to fight for funding and reforms that create more homes in our community close to jobs and transportation, while preserving the environment and building on tenant protections county-wide. She is a policy expert who knows how to effectively legislate and build consensus around solutions to our housing crisis.

Our community is one of the most dangerous in the country for pedestrians and cyclists, with transportation costs being almost twice as high as the national average. By investing in transportation infrastructure through the All For Transportation plan, Tampa and Hillsborough County will be able to create more opportunities for transit oriented development, enact reforms such as reduced parking minimums, and make land use reform more feasible county-wide. This referendum is a critical step towards creating more housing as we transition our car-centric urban neighborhoods into people-centric neighborhoods.

Funding bus, train, bike and pedestrian infrastructure is essential if we are going to reach our goal of building enough housing density in Orlando’s urban core—with an emphasis on transit-oriented development—to address our housing affordability crisis. The proposed penny tax is projected to generate $600 million per year, 45 percent of which will be allocated to the LYNX bus and SunRail transit systems, nearly doubling their combined budgets and giving our region’s growing population better opportunity to travel from home to work or recreation without a car.