JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mayor Donna Deegan is asking the Jacksonville City Council to approve $11 million for affordable housing and homelessness initiatives in the city’s proposed budget, marking a significant increase after affordable housing funding was largely scaled back during the past two budget cycles.
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The proposal includes $6.3 million dedicated to affordable housing programs, with the largest share, $4.9 million, used to launch Jacksonville’s first Affordable Housing Fund. The remaining funding would support homelessness services and housing-related initiatives.
The money would help pay for:
- Down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
- Incentives for developers to build affordable housing.
- Utility connection costs for new developments helping keep rents lower.
$1,000,000 is proposed to fund the city’s emergency rental assistance and eviction diversion program. According to the city, the program has helped more than 650 families avoid eviction over the past two and a half years.
Another $400,000 would fund heirs’ property assistance through LISC Jacksonville, helping families preserve inherited homes and prevent properties from being lost or sold outside the family.
City leaders say the investment is intended to increase affordable housing, help more residents become homeowners, prevent evictions and create a long-term funding source to address Jacksonville’s housing shortage.
Affordable Housing Director Joshua Hicks said Thursday that the city faces a shortage of 47,000 affordable housing units.
“This budget about what can we do today to address the problems of tomorrow,” Hicks told News4JAX. “The problems tomorrow is generating the supply that we need to ensure that we’re building enough affordable housing to compliment the workforce and market rate housing that we are building.”
The proposed trust fund would be seeded with $4.9 million this year and is designed to become a permanent source of local housing dollars rather than relying solely on annual budget negotiations.
Filling the workforce housing gap
One of the most anticipated pieces of the proposal is the return of Jacksonville’s locally funded down payment assistance program.
The program was last funded during the 2023-24 budget but was not included after most of the city’s affordable housing funding requests were cut in last year’s budget. In 2025, the City Council ultimately approved just $900,000 for affordable housing initiatives.
Without local funding, the city has relied on its federally funded down payment assistance program, which is limited to households earning 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) or below. That currently equals $60,880 annually for one person or $86,960 for a family of four.
Eligible buyers can receive up to $25,000 in assistance through the federal program, which serves roughly 100 to 150 households each year. Participants are also required to complete home maintenance and financial education courses.
Because federal rules cap eligibility at 80% AMI, many working residents earn too much to qualify but still cannot afford to buy a home.
The mayor’s proposal would fill that gap by creating a locally funded program for households earning 81% to 120% of the Area Median Income, which is about $61,000 to $91,320 annually for one person or $94,000 to $140,880 for a family of four.
The proposed program would provide up to $15,000 in down payment assistance to eligible first-time homebuyers and is expected to help another 100 to 125 households if the City Council approves the proposed $1.5 million allocation. Participants would also complete homeownership education before purchasing a home.
“Down payment assistance program, rental assistance programs, and other eviction diversion programs allows people to stay housed who are currently in financial need,” Hicks said. “That’s vitally important."
Hicks said the goal is to help teachers, nurses, police officers and other working professionals who make too much for federal assistance but still struggle to afford today’s housing market.
He also said increasing homeownership benefits the broader housing market by helping renters transition into ownership, freeing up rental units while allowing families to build long-term wealth through homeownership.
Looking beyond one budget cycle
The proposed trust fund also represents a different approach than previous affordable housing proposals.
Two years ago, a proposed $10 million affordable housing fund failed to win City Council approval. Last year, most of the administration’s affordable housing request was removed from the budget.
This year, the Deegan administration is proposing both the funding and companion legislation to formally establish the trust fund, with the long-term goal of creating recurring revenue that would continue supporting affordable housing beyond future budget cycles.
If approved, Jacksonville would join several Florida communities, including Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County that already operate affordable housing trust funds. Housing advocates say those dedicated funds provide stable, long-term local funding to build and preserve affordable housing rather than depending on annual budget decisions.
The City Council will consider the proposal during this year’s budget hearings.