'Live Local' aimed at expanding workforce housing in the state
By Dara Kam and Jim Turner
News Service of Florida: Former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo handed over the reins of the Senate to Wauchula Republican Ben Albritton after the November elections. But Passidomo, who is now chairwoman of the Rules Committee, has some unfinished business to resolve during her two remaining years in the Senate.
During an appearance on The News Service of Florida’s “Deeper Dive with Dara Kam” podcast Sunday, Passidomo said she isn’t happy that local officials are balking at one of her top priorities as president: a sweeping effort, dubbed “Live Local,” aimed at expanding workforce housing in the state.
The law, passed in 2023 and tweaked this year, included money for housing and rental programs, provided incentives for investment in affordable housing and encouraged mixed-use developments in struggling commercial areas. The plan drew criticism from some county officials and other groups because it prohibited local rent controls and pre-empted local government rules on zoning, density and building heights in certain circumstances.
Passidomo, a Naples Republican and real-estate lawyer, said she wants lawmakers to again revisit the program during the 2025 legislative session, which begins March 4.
“There’s constant issues arising where some local governments are trying to opt out, they don’t want to do it. And it’s really tragic because it’s more of a NIMBY-ism (Not In My Backyard) than anything else. They’re opting out. They’re saying, quote, well, we don’t need workforce housing,” Passidomo said. “We have to address it.”
Passidomo didn’t identify which counties were balking at the plan. But as an example, Pasco County commissioners in May voted to opt out of part of the law that would allow eligible apartment owners to get tax breaks in exchange for affordable rents, saying the breaks would have cost the county millions of dollars in lost revenue.
“When I thought of the concept, I naively thought that most local governments would embrace it. We had a lot of aspirational language in there. We had some pre-emption language, but most of it was aspiration that they would embrace it,” Passidomo said in the podcast episode, which will be released Sunday.
