The nonprofit Central Florida Foundation is forming a trust to raise money for affordable housing. The foundation announced today that it will partner with local banks, small businesses and philanthropic groups.
The Central Florida Regional Housing Trust aims to raise more than 100 million dollars by the end of 2020.
Central Florida Foundation President Mark Brewer says developers will use the money to build and renovate affordable housing units in Orange, Osceola, Lake and Seminole counties.
“So this fund is established to allow people in the community to actually play a role in solving the problem instead of depending only on the government or hoping it can be solved by the market.”
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Brewer says the trust aims to fund the building or renovation of 25,000 units in Central Florida over the next decade.
“This is impacting people's employees, it’s impacting their businesses, it impacts our talent pool. We have to be able to attract smart people here who want to work here. But if there’s no affordable housing for them then that creates problems.”
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The National Low Income Housing Coalition ranked the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area number one in the country when it came to a shortage of affordable housing.
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