POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Affordable Housing on the Horizon

On Jan. 3, Bay County launched its new housing program to expand and fast-track access to available, affordable housing dollars to residents throughout the county.

“We’ve certainly seen a lot of growth since Hurricane Michael, and now, more than ever, affordable housing is a critical need,” Bay County Commissioner Doug Moore said. “We are confident that our program will be of tremendous benefit to those citizens who still have needs and will streamline their application process while also expanding opportunities for assistance available to the public.”

Some $30 million in Hurricane Housing Recovery Program funding allotted to Bay County by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation after Hurricane Michael is available through the program to assist

low- and moderate-income families with purchase assistance, housing rehabilitation, home replacement, disaster assistance, emergency repair assistance, foreclosure prevention, and mortgage assistance. Another approximately $6 million is available to Bay County through the State Housing Initiatives Partnership program (SHIP).

“This is a transformational amount of money and must benefit those still in need as swiftly as we can possibly get it into our community,” Moore said.

“The assistance is available to qualified residents in Bay County, though Panama City Residences are asked to go through the city’s SHIP program,” Program Manager Tammy Harris said. “Our aim here is to move people through this program quickly. Our motto is ‘first applied, first qualified, first served.’”

She noted that factors such as household income, family size, and supporting documentation provided by the applicant help determine whether a candidate is eligible for assistance, and everyone’s circumstances are different.

“We really strive to do the qualification upfront,” Harris said. “When someone calls, we want to walk them through the application process and be as flexible and beneficial to the applicants as possible.”

The goal, she said, is to avoid having clients languish in a queue, and the new program will include multiple caseworkers focused on customer service. “Resources can expand and contract as necessary to ensure the folks move through the process quickly,” said Harris.

The program also aims to partner lenders, developers, and real estate professionals to potential clients so that they may use the program to broker results.

“We are looking to fast track people who come in and are ready to go in a system that will move people through quickly,” Bay County Manager Bob Majka said.

Bay County’s new program is an evolution of the ReHouse Bay program. To learn more about the program or determine if you may be eligible, visit rehousebay.org or call the Bay County Housing Program at (850) 215-2479.

BAY BIZ / WINTER 2022