St. Pete’s 10-Year Affordable Housing Plan is a Hot Pile of 💩. Here’s Why.

St. Pete Protesters Demand Rent Control Out Front of City Hall

In the summer of 2019, then-St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman laid out a housing affordability plan set to begin the following year. The plan is expected to impact around 7,000 households through $60 million in spending over the course of a decade, improving and expanding both new and existing affordable housing options within the city. However, upon closer inspection, the plan is nothing more than a trickle-down, corporate handout scheme with progressive trappings. Here are 5 big reasons why St. Pete’s 10-year housing plan needs to be thrown out and redesigned completely.

1. The Plan’s Nexus Study was Conducted by Real Estate Developers

Imagine if the city commissioned a public health study to be conducted by a cigarette company, or an environmental study conducted by big oil. Allowing real estate developers to craft policy which is supposed to combat gentrification is as stupid as letting an arsonist tell you how to put out a fire. Unsurprisingly, the city’s Nexus Study focuses exclusively on ways the city can increase developer profits & subsidies in order to make housing more affordable. The report completely overlooks the complicity of the private sector in the rapid onslaught of gentrification, and fails to explore things like public ownership and market controls as options for preserving housing affordability.

2. The Plan Doesn’t Prioritize Black Families, the Poor or Those Currently Homeless

The plan is geared toward a wide range of households, including those earning up to 120% of the Area Median Income (AMI), or $99,000 a year. However, only a tiny number of renter households on the higher end of this spectrum are considered “cost burdened”, meaning they pay over 30% of their income on rent. By comparison, a whopping 69% of renter households in St. Pete who earn $41,000 a year or less (<50% AMI) pay over half of their income on rent. Yet, only a quarter of the new rental units funded through the plan so far have been aimed at families making this lower level of income. What’s worse is the metric for calculating the area median income is tied to inflation, meaning it increases every year regardless of whether your wages have gone up. Many families who need help the most make too little to qualify for units subsidized through the plan. In addition, the AMI for Black renters in St. Pete is 33% less than the average, meaning these families are at an even greater disadvantage of obtaining housing through the plan. In a city where the vestiges of Jim Crow have persisted well into the 21st century, the affordable housing plan is nothing more than an extension of the St. Pete’s racist status quo.

3. Affordable Housing Only Stays That Way for a Limited Number of Years

Affordable housing requirements attached to most city funding allows the owner to jack rents up to market rate in as little as 15-30 years after it’s built. That means the $60 million of taxpayer cash being poured into the pockets of wealthy developers & landlords doesn’t result in a permanent return for our investment. When the affordability requirements inevitably expire, the city must bribe the owner with another big wad of cash so residents won’t lose their homes.

4. Lack of Public Ownership and Accountability Lead to Slum Conditions

Despite public funds being poured into units built under the plan, everything will remain privately owned and operated, usually by a big for-profit developer and/or corporate landlord. In order to maintain profits, these private owners will skirt tenant safety and comfort, leading to slum-like conditions. In St. Pete, the city recently cut child-care services in order to dump $1.4 million into the pockets of the new owner of the Citrus Grove Apartments in Bethel Heights. For decades, residents there have faced deplorable conditions, like no hot water, rodents, electrical hazards and more. The property has changed ownership at least 3 different times since 2012, with the most recent being this past October when it was sold to a massive California-based corporate landlord who owns over 25,000 rental units across the country. Instead of the city government buying the property outright to ensure good living conditions for tenants, they've decided instead to throw more money at private ownership in hopes that this time things will be different for the residents at Citrus Grove. Yet without public ownership, we've been shown time and again that there is no way to hold landlords accountable.

5. It Comes Nowhere Near Meeting St. Pete's Housing Needs

In St. Pete, there are just over 20,000 renter households who pay more than 30% of their income on rent. Only 829 new rental units have received funding through the plan so far, the vast majority of which have not even been built yet. This amounts to around 4% of the need. It’s clear that building our way out of the housing emergency is not the solution. Of the 7,000 “affordable” homes expected to be built or preserved through the plan, nearly half come from the city backing down from threatening to steal homes with outstanding code violations from working-class homeowners, something that should have never been happening in the first place.

The longer the city drags it's feet in implementing solutions that have the greatest effect on the majority renters -- such as rent control and right to counsel -- the longer families will continue to be forced onto the streets and out of our community altogether. The city wants you to believe they're doing the best they can, but that's not true. They're doing the best they can for big real estate, developers and landlords, not us.

The solution to all of this is simple: we need funding for housing, a hell of a lot more. And when the government invests this public money into housing, it should be under public control and ownership. The city already owns and operates a 76-unit apartment complex just outside of downtown called the Jamestown Apartments, and could easily allocate new funding to begin buying up apartment buildings across the city to expand this city-owned enterprise. Apartments with numerous code complaints could be expropriated through eminent domain to drive slumlords out of our city for good. Hundreds of good paying, union jobs would be created, with an end goal of guaranteed housing for all residents. However, Mayor Welch and certain members of city council are reluctant to do so because this would harm the profits of their political donors. They would rather continue to coddle slumlords and force people to cram in with family, live in cars and sleep out on the streets instead of putting together a housing plan which puts people over profits.

It's important we don't allow these disgusting displays of corruption cause us to become jaded. Knowledge is a weapon, and the more we know, the better equipped we are to fight back!

**The developers have public relations teams working round the clock to crank out fake news and information surrounding the causes and "solutions" to the housing crisis sweeping our city. That's why it's vital that you share information like this with family, co-workers and neighbors. If you enjoy the information we're providing you, please consider a donation:

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St. Pete HLUT Committee Obstructs Tenant Protections...Again!

This morning, by a vote of 3-1 the Housing, Land Use & Transit committee voted to obstruct an ordinance which would require landlords to give 6 months notice for notice of rent increase, instead opting for a mere 60 days for those on year leases, and 21 days for those with monthly agreements. Despite receiving 180 emails in support, council members Gabbard, Driscoll & Montanari sided with corporate interests and the city’s tiny landlord minority over the needs of tens of thousands of St. Pete tenants.

Committee Chair Brandi Gabbard, former chair for the Pinellas REALTORS® & current trustee for the Pinellas REALTOR® Foundation, spouted off inaccurate statistics & disingenuous industry talking points, claiming that tenants would actually be harmed by a stronger protection. The Pinellas chapter which Gabbard belongs to is an offshoot of National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), a radical special interest group which views nearly all tenant protections, including rent control, as infringements on the right to property & profit. The group’s website states that “any restrictions placed on a property owner…reduces freedoms inherent in our society.” The REALTORS® were responsible for suing to overturn the moratorium on evictions last summer, which has resulted in countless families being made homeless in the midst of the ongoing, deadly COVID pandemic, and is the 2nd biggest lobbying organization in DC, having spent over $700 million on these efforts since 1998.

The NAR often evokes the plight of so-called “mom & pop” landlords as a cover for their corporate agenda. Indeed, the vast majority of the country’s rental stock is owned by corporations, a number that has only grown during decades of NAR influence on policy. Regardless of size, any hardship facing landlords comes nowhere near that of tenants. For perspective, there are estimated to be around 10 million landlords in the US, compared to 109 million people living in renter households. Around 70% of households earning income from rental properties make $90k or more annually, compared to renter households who have a median annual income of $42k.

Today’s vote is not a loss. Every time politicians shamelessly expose themselves as servants of the corporate class, it only draws more support into our camp and bolsters our fight for an economy that serves the needs of ALL people. We will continue to fight like hell before this ordinance reaches full council for a final vote. From city hall, to the door of every slumlord & into the streets – we have a city to win, we have a world to win!

✊All power to the tenants! 🔥

✊All power to the workers!🔥

✊All power to the people!🔥

Gentrification Investigations: Is Airbnb Driving Up The Rents?

Through services like Airbnb & VRBO, short-term rentals are changing the landscape of housing in cities across the world, allowing for the home next door, spare bedrooms, an old camper & entire apartment buildings to be transformed into DIY hotels. While this has proven to be a lucrative investment for some, others associate the rise of Airbnb with increased gentrification & skyrocketing rents. Recent studies from Carnegie Mellon & another featured in the Harvard Business Review reinforce these concerns.

It’s known as the Airbnb effect and here’s how it works. Investors who rent property are generally afforded much more flexibility and profit than they would get from serving long-term tenants. As residential properties are converted into short-term rentals, the options available to tenants seeking permanent housing decreases. Without market controls & policy to guarantee the human right to housing, conniving landlords use the reduction in available long-term rental supply as a justification to gouge tenants & maximize profits, causing rents to rise dramatically.

Florida law doesn't allow local cities & counties to ban short-term rentals outright, or regulate their duration or frequency of use. However, local ordinances which existed prior to 2011 are grandfathered in, which is why vacation rentals are generally prohibited in most residential areas of St. Pete without a costly & cumbersome special overlay approval. St. Pete residents are limited to renting out their property for short-term use no more than 3 times in a year if the duration of the guest’s stay is under a month. Anecdotal accounts indicate that enforcement is somewhat lax and unlikely to occur unless a violator is reported to codes by a neighbor.

To be clear, the focus of this article is not directed at working-class homeowners or tenants setting up part of their own living space as an Airbnb to help pay the mortgage or keep the lights on. Our focus is on the corporations & wealthy investors who are snapping up properties which would otherwise be serving the long-term housing needs of locals, and converting them into vacation homes for rich tourists.

Here is a snapshot of a few of the short-term rentals popping up across the Sunshine City & the profiteers fueling our housing crisis locally:

Location: 1608 Preston St S

Property Acquired: 2021

Zoning: NT-1, short-term rentals prohibited

This Airbnb in Midtown St. Pete is an asset of local mortgage lender Ryan J. Speltz, a self-described #kickbuttmortgageguy and recent transplant to St. Pete. Nestled in a historically working class Black neighborhood, Mr. Speltz seems to have no scruples about contributing to the rapid gentrification happening here. This zip code, 33712, has seen one of the highest rates of eviction during the pandemic, a decreasing Black population & has one of the highest housing vacancy rates in the entire city, with over a quarter of homes sitting vacant for part or all of the year.

Location: 3601 6th Ave N

Property Acquired: 2021

Zoning: NT-2, short-term rentals prohibited

This 5 bedroom home in the Central Oak Park neighborhood is advertised to sleep up to 20 people. The home is listed on VRBO by Vacation Rentals of Florida LLC, a company which operates at least 34 short-term rentals across Hillsborough and Pinellas county according to their website. The deed to the home belongs to Mark Christen, an Orangeville, California real estate investor.

Location: 537 5th St N

Property Acquired: 2020

Zoning: NT-4, short-term rentals prohibited

This multi-unit property in historic Uptown is owned & managed by Hey Vacay, a south Tampa-based vacation rental company which operates a handful of other properties in St. Pete & St. Pete Beach, including a single family home located at 4453 2nd Ave N. According to his LinkedIn, company President Shaun Carcary has been a landlord for over 25 years and recently began converting some of his properties into short-term rentals. He boasts about “family business principles” and his dedication to “improving our community” although it’s unclear how restricting long-term housing from the market improves anything except the profits of Carcary, his fellow landlords & real estate investors.

Location: 459 31st Ave N

Property Acquired: 2021

Zoning: NT-2, short-term rentals prohibited

According to property records, this VRBO was purchased by an individual named Ahmad Shaker in 2021. Another home needlessly withheld from the market while thousands of working class families in St. Pete struggle to find and afford a place to live. It must be a fairly lucrative investment considering Shaker lives in a $3 million waterfront mansion on Snell Isle, according to property records.

Location: 610 8th St N

Property Acquired: 2021

Zoning: NT-2, short term rentals prohibited

This parcel contains a main house and a separate structure containing two apartments. Both rear apartments are currently listed on VRBO. The property is an acquisition of Carlos Mazariegos, a disgraced pharmacist who was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2019 for ripping off taxpayers through a kickback scheme involving TRICARE. He owns another VRBO a couple blocks away at 519 Grove Street as well. While he may no longer have the feds on his back, he may soon have the St. Petersburg codes department to contend with if he's operating short-term rentals in parts of the city where they're prohibited.

Location: 3604 7th Ave N

Property Acquired: 2022

Zoning: NT-2, short-term rentals prohibited

This single family home is listed by HotelierYo LLC, a company recently founded by Francis C. Dewolf IV, the 20-something year old son of a Sarasota-area millionaire merchant banker. It is unclear what other properties the company owns, but based on the single review on VRBO which complains of unresponsive owners & poor quality of service, it appears this side-hustle may not be quite passive enough of an income for young Dewolf.

Location: 2508 Imlay Ct S

Property Acquired: 2021

Zoning: NT-1, short-term rentals prohibited

This 4 bedroom Airbnb in the Lake Maggiore Shore neighborhood “can easily fit 11 adults” according to the listing. The property is owned by Kidma Investment LLC, a Tampa-based company which operates several short-term rentals across Pinellas & Hillsborough counties including at least 2 other Airbnbs in St. Pete, located at 7581 17th Way N & 7596 16th St N.

Location: 1668 28th Ave N

Property Acquired: 2021

Zoning: NT-1, short-term rentals prohibited

This property contains two separate VRBOs, owned by Martinez Assets, LLC, a real estate firm founded by Chris Martinez. According to public records, the company owns a property in Clearwater as well. Another opportunist investor generating personal wealth at the expense of our community!

In addition, it appears that corporate landlords of two downtown luxury apartment buildings, the Vantage & the Wayland, are shelving dozens of units for use as short-term rentals through a company called Frontdesk. The zoning for both buildings allows these apartments to be used as vacation rentals, but if demand for long-term housing is through the roof, then why?

It's no surprise that Atlas Real Estate & DevMar Development, landlords of the Wayland and the Vantage respectively, are big players in the downtown St. Pete development game. Both would certainly benefit from deliberately withholding long-term housing from the market, not only as a justification for inflated rents, but to aid in propagating the disingenuous housing shortage narrative which is used as cover for industry deregulation & to sustain the onslaught of new high-end development.

We could also be witnessing a new process by which rental housing will be accessed in the future. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky believes services like his will eventually do away with long-term leases altogether, envisioning a world where people pay for rent "the way they pay for cable television, or for Netflix". The company has seen a recent surge in long-term stays totaling a month or more, accounting for 22% of stays booked through the service. In New York City, Airbnb listings have surpassed the number of apartments available for rent. It's not difficult to see where this could be headed.

In Florida, where protections for non-traditional leaseholders are scant, landlords have a greater legal advantage in these arrangements than with a long term tenant. Landlords don't need to provide a reason for terminating a month-to-month rental agreement, which can be severed in as little as 15 days. Premium rents are normally charged under the guise of tenant convenience & flexibility. The replacement of traditional rental agreements by services like Airbnb wouldn't mean the end of long-term tenancy; it would just mean less stability & less rights afforded to these tenants. While Mr. Chesky's dream of an Airbnb renter class may never fully materialize, it's a trend that housing justice activists everywhere should be keeping a close eye on.

In a capitalist economic system, the so-called "right" of investors, developers & landlords to profit off housing takes precedence over our right to actually be housed. This is why a whopping 19% of all homes & apartments across St. Pete sit vacant, or are used as lodging for rich tourists while people are forced to sleep on the sidewalk. This is why developers get our tax money to make "affordable" housing, and are then allowed to jack up the rents to market rate in as little as 15 years. This is why corporate special interest groups like the National Association of Realtors and the National Apartment Association dictate public policy & stymie basic protections for tenants. This is why tenants can be arrested and even killed by the police during evictions, but slumlords are allowed to exploit tenants with impunity. This is why no amount of new housing that is built under this system will ever guarantee a home for everybody. Don't be fooled.

Corporations & developers routinely bankroll public relations efforts and fake news to try and sell you on their bogus narratives. It's important to share articles like this one and educate your friends, family and neighbors about what's really happening in our community. Be sure to follow the St. Petersburg Tenants Union online for all the latest updates and ways to get involved. 

If you support our efforts to bring you this information, please consider a donation!

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Don’t listen to police Chief Hollow-heart, be sure to give your homeless neighbors cash, food or whatever else they may need if you’re able to. Instead of providing labor & resources to Big Charity, check out some of the amazing local mutual aid groups like Progressive People's Action of Pinellas and St. Pete Food Not Bombs to see how you can get involved.

Back in April, the ACLU of Florida sent Mayor Ken Welch & the city government a warning about the unconstitutionality of St. Pete's anti-panhandling law. 

This week, council member Ed Montanari doubled down on his support of the ordinance during the police department's quarterly report presentation, asking Chief Holloway if he’d directed more enforcement of the ordinance, to which the chief replied “Yes, sir”.  

Notice how the administration & some members of council are unwilling to move forward with rent control & other tenant protections due to legal challenges, but will happily take on the risk of lawsuits to defend an inhumane ordinance which turns our homeless neighbors into criminals for simply asking for a couple bucks. 

Our government is *supposed* to be “of the people, by the people, for the people”, so what’s really happening here? 

While massive inflation & an unprecedented housing emergency ravage working people in the Sunshine City, the politicians are bolstering the police to violently suppress the consequences of a failing economy instead of addressing the root of the problem by serving the needs of the people directly. Instead of providing housing, more good paying jobs with benefits & access to vital resources, the city would rather allow corporations & developers free rein to gentrify St. Pete while using the cops to strong-arm people who don’t fit in with this new playground for the rich. 

The truth is that if the city enacted rent control, strong tenant protections or a robust public housing program with a housing guarantee for all, this would directly threaten the profits of landlords & developers who maintain their stranglehold on our Democracy through huge campaign contributions. This is the reason these politicians continue to fail us, because they don’t actually serve or represent our interests as working people. It’s not a matter of Republican vs Democrat, morality or rationality — it is the needs of the corporate & business elite taking priority over the needs of the working class majority! 

However, the situation is NOT hopeless.

The power of tenants & workers united is stronger than any puppet politician or corporate parasite which stands in our way. We pay the rents, we work the jobs. Together we keep this city running & together we can shut it down! 

Let’s continue to struggle together, care for one another, organize & inspire each other! Let’s continue to educate our friends, family, neighbors & co-workers about what’s at stake and what it’s gonna take to permanently liberate all of us from the shackles of economic servitude & suffering. 

We have a city to win, we have a world to win! 

✊All power to the Tenants🔥

✊All power to the Homeless🔥

✊All power to the Workers🔥

✊All power to the People🔥

Be sure to join us for a protest to tell the city to FUND THE PEOPLE, NOT POLICE! 

📅WEDNESDAY, May 25th 

⏰6:00 PM 

📍City Hall, 175 5th St. N.

Fires Plague Corporate Assisted Living Facility, Apartment Complex in South Pinellas

This past weekend, a fire broke out at Noble Senior Living at St. Petersburg, located on 54th Ave. N. in Lealman. Though the fire was reportedly put out within minutes, a person was rushed to the hospital and ultimately died as a result of the blaze.

This comes on the heels of a 3-alarm fire earlier this month in Kenneth City at the Ashford Bayside Apartments, where dozens of tenants have been permanently displaced. It was reported that the fire alarm system there failed to sound. Miraculously, nobody was killed. Ashford Bayside is owned by Atlanta-based corporate landlord RADCO, who has filed 135 evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the most of any landlord in Pinellas county. During this same time, the company received nearly $7 million in fully forgivable, taxpayer-subsidized PPP loans designed for small businesses.

We’re here at Ashford Bayside after last night’s fire. The impact is devastating. Some tenants are being told that they will be rehoused in the complex if there’s space or elsewhere if not. The landlord has still not confirmed what started the fire. pic.twitter.com/MwkFU3BoTl

— St. Petersburg Tenants Union (@SPTenantsU) March 3, 2022

Although the official cause of both fires remains to be seen, these incidents should prompt a larger conversation in the community about housing safety, landlord accountability and the inherent failure of the private sector which puts profit before the lives of tenants.

Last night, a fire broke out at Noble Senior Living in Lealman killing one person. Though the cause is unknown, officials say it doesn’t appear suspicious. The 60/yo facility is owned by @CareTrustREIT, and operated by @NobleSeniorS.

🧵1/8https://t.co/HkQ8OL16xn

— St. Petersburg Tenants Union (@SPTenantsU) March 20, 2022

In the case of the Noble Senior Living fire this past weekend, both owner CareTrust REIT & operator Noble Senior Services have an abysmal health and safety record at numerous properties across the country, as noted in an investigation by HuffPost published last year. An REIT is a company which pools the capital of numerous investors, allowing them to profit without having to play any hands-on role or face any personal accountability to the tenants whose homes they maintain autocratic control over. These parasites don’t serve any sort of material function or perform any actual labor themselves. Instead, they partner with for-profit operators, who oversee day-to-day management of the facilities owned by the REIT. These operators cut corners in order to remain competitive and to maximize profits for their stakeholders.

Noble Senior Services, who CareTrust contracts with here in Florida as well as in several other states, has come under scrutiny for a variety of incidents, including attacks against residents, unsanitary healthcare practices, mold, pests and electrical hazards. In March 2021, a tenant at the same facility which caught fire this weekend was raped by another resident there. At a Noble facility in Pensacola last year, a tenant was reportedly beaten to death. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a Noble facility received 29 citations stemming from 60 complaints alleging resident neglect. One allegation included a nurse cleaning the wound on a resident’s finger with a poorly sterilized box cutter, leaving it looking like “raw hamburger meat”.

 
What makes this more egregious is that both CareTrust and Noble Senior Services receive huge amounts of taxpayer money. As reported by the HuffPost: “CareTrust reported that in 2020, its 200-plus facilities received more than $150 million in various forms of federal COVID-19 aid, including aid from a $100 billion fund established by the CARES Act for health care providers that lost revenue or incurred costs because of the pandemic''. According to their website, Noble Senior Services benefits from the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) as well as other unspecified “government programs”.

The invisible hand of the free market not only fails to guarantee safe housing for all people but the profit motive actually makes housing less safe, especially for the working class. The corporate dictators who control our living spaces will never voluntarily sacrifice massive profit growth, which is gained at the expense of our human rights. When these parasites are heavily subsidized on the taxpayer dime, like RADCO, CareTrust and Noble Senior Services, it becomes clear that the whole system is a complete racket. Housing justice will never be possible unless we fight to make this basic need one that is Democratically controlled by the people, and eliminate the role of useless profiteers who are literally killing us and keeping us poor.

Rent Control Isn't Doomed. We're Only Getting Started.

by organizer Jack Wallace

Graphic From Karen Lieberman on Facebook

A symbolic “statement of belief” was voted down 3-1 by the members of St. Pete’s City Council’s Housing Committee. They voted against symbolic recognition of the housing emergency we are facing in our city. The loudest objectors in the room were city attorney Joseph Patner (who serves at the pleasure of Ken Welch), and councilpersons Brandi Gabbard and Gina Driscoll. Why would these politicians, who claim to be so concerned about this crisis, seek to stop such an effective measure like rent control? I would suggest one to look at the campaign contributions to these three politicians from the last election cycle. Brandi Gabbard accepted $18,619 (44% of her total campaign donations) from real estate/development-related donors last election. Gina Driscoll took $66,551 (31% of total). Ken Welch accepted $491,150 or 39% of total. 

In another country, we see this as corruption, in St. Pete, it’s politics as usual. We know these politicians don’t want to impact their powerful friend’s profits and vote accordingly.

Rent control is just a bandaid to stop the bleeding of working people in this city, who’ve seen rent increases of 24% on average over the past year. If this doesn’t constitute a crisis, what does? We know our goal of guaranteed housing for all will be just as difficult as the struggle for rent control, and we know that these politicians will accept our call if there is a mass movement of working people to demand they do so.

Join us as we double down on our demand!

📅 Thursday, Feb. 17th

⏰ 5:00 PM

📍 175 5th St. N., St. Pete City Hall

Visit peoplescouncilstpete.org to learn more.

Taxpayer Cash for Corporate Control: Affordable Housing is a Business Bailout

This past month, the city of St. Pete received an unsolicited offer from a real estate developer to purchase taxpayer-owned land in Midtown with plans to construct a 96-unit “affordable” apartment building. The apartments will only be leased to those making below the area median income, with rents capped as not to exceed 30% of a tenants annual income. As rents in St. Pete continue to soar at some of the highest rates in the country, this announcement appeared to be a positive headline amidst the daily deluge of news stories about skyrocketing rents, gentrification and tenant abuse. However, a closer look into the developers behind the proposal, and the process by which so-called “affordable” housing is produced, is something workers and tenants should be paying close attention to.

Former Carlisle Executives Mitch Rosenstein (top) and Oscar Sol (bottom)

The development on 18th Ave. S. was proposed by the Green Mills Group, a Ft. Lauderdale-based company who recently developed two multi-family apartment buildings here in St. Pete, Burlington Place and Burlington Post. The company’s founders, Mitchell Rosenstein and Oscar Sol, were former senior executives at another South Florida-based corporation, the Carlisle Development Group. That company, which was one of the largest affordable housing developers in the country during the mid-2000s, was part of a $36 million fraud scheme which resulted in federal charges brought against a number of those involved. Between 2007-2012, Carlisle executives were accused of submitting inflated construction costs at 14 development projects in order to obtain large government tax credits, then pocketing the excess cash. Rosenstein, director of finance for the company during this time, and Sol, who was senior vice president, left Carlisle in 2011 over an alleged pay dispute. The pair subsequently ratted to the FBI and struck a cooperation deal with the feds, according to the Miami Herald. No charges were ever filed against them. Seven others charged in the scheme would ultimately plead guilty, including Carlisle founder Lloyd Boggio and CEO Matthew Greer, who were both sentenced to prison.

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, which Carlisle Development took advantage of, is the top source of public funding for so-called “affordable” housing in the United States. Founded during the Reagan years in 1986, the program was part of a years-long push to divest from federal public housing and shift toward private ownership of “affordable” housing. In this convoluted public-private partnership, tax credits are allocated to individual states annually, which are then distributed to developers in a competitive process through individual state housing finance agencies. Developers who are awarded these tax credits then sell them to investors to shore up cash for development projects. Despite $8 billion in tax money pumped into this program annually, the housing it produces remains in full control and ownership of unaccountable landlords who are only required to keep the rent low for a limited time. If more tax money is not funneled into corporate coffers, these owners are free to jack the rents up on tenants as high as they please.

The program requires landlords to keep rents at an affordable rate for a minimum of 30 years, although a loophole exists which can allow them to raise rents in as little as 15 years. It’s estimated that 143,456 affordable homes subsidized by the LIHTC program across the country have been lost since 1990. In addition, more than 387,000 LIHTC-subsidized homes are set to lose their 30 year affordability requirements by the end of the decade, and 1.2 million homes have already surpassed the 15 year early opt out mark. Expiring affordability requirements and the conversion of once-subsidized units to market rate has led to instances of massive rent hikes and tenant displacement, as noted by the LA Tenants Union, who has been organizing tenants at a formerly LIHTC subsidized property which saw a 200% rent increase upon expiration of it’s affordability requirement.

The program has also been criticized as lacking adequate oversight. In a 2017 interview then-U.S. assistant attorney Mark Sherwin, who helped prosecute the case against Carlisle Development, described the LIHTC in Florida as “a program of trust” and said “this program has been described as a subterranean ATM” of which “only the developers know the pin”. It should be noted that up until the federal investigation, Carlisle Development showed no signs of being a bad actor, having had an excellent reputation on paper and a history of projects delivered under budget. What’s more troubling is that since 1986, only 7 of the 56 state housing finance agencies who administer the program have been audited, which means it’s impossible to know the full extent of non-compliance, abuse and fraud within the program as a whole.

The taxpayer-owned property on 18th Ave. S. where Green Mills Group is seeking to develop "affordable" housing

For the Green Mills Group, along with their partners and investors all looking to get their beaks wet, the project on 18th Ave. S. is an excellent opportunity to expand profits and personal wealth on the taxpayer dime. Along with seeking to utilize the LIHTC program, Green Mills is also fishing for additional government cash from other sources including Penny for Pinellas, Florida SAIL, city funding and the American Rescue Plan to further subsidize their profits. The asking price for the 2.1 acres of taxpayer-owned land is $1 million, a virtual giveaway in one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. As part of their proposal, Green Mills is seeking a whopping $2.8 million profit payout, which amounts to 13% of the total cost of the project. Newly elected Mayor Ken Welch, who received a total of $8,500 in campaign contributions from Green Mills and two of their subsidiaries, will be in charge of choosing a proposal for the site before it is sent to city council for final approval.

Public wealth should be invested in housing. In fact, we should be investing a whole lot more. In return the public must retain full, Democratic control of what is produced, with permanent affordability being part of the deal at bare minimum. If we’re ever going to guarantee a safe, stable, unconditional roof over the head of everybody in the Sunshine City, and in cities across the country, we’re going to need to rein in the parasitic, profit-driven institutions which make this goal impossible. Landlords and other tyrants who deny us access to our basic needs, along with politicians who enable them, are enemies of the hard working people who make up the backbone of our community. Their power is an illusion. Without our labor, strength and minds – our collective consent – these crooks wouldn’t profit off another meal served, another trip driven, another rent check paid or another home built. The choice is ours to make together: will we continue to accept the scraps we’re given, or seize the freedom we’re owed?