House wants to spend less on Hometown Heroes, affordable housing grants

The Florida House touted budgeting for the Hometown Heroes Program. However, a review of line items shows that the lower chamber wants to spend far less than the Florida Senate on the effort.

The House proposed a $50 million budget for Hometown Heroes, while the Senate allocated $150 million.

As part of the Live Local Act, the program was recently expanded from helping first responders and other public employees to assisting any qualified first-time home buyers by providing loans to assist with down payments, closing costs and new mortgages.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has frequently touted the program’s success, which is entering its fourth year. When he announced his proposed budget for the 2025-’26 fiscal year, he included $100 million for the program while extending it to all members of the Florida State Guard.

The House proposed budget touted the program as part of $285 million for affordable housing efforts. However, the budget also cuts overall spending on housing by $99 million from the current budget year.

Much of the affordable housing spending outlined specifically in the House’s proposed budget is earmarked for local efforts, such as $471,000 budgeted for the Community Land Trust to use on affordable housing in Northwest Florida or $1.5 million for strategic infrastructure to support multi-use affordable housing in Miami-Dade County.

But there is $71.2 million in the budget for the Florida Housing Finance Corporation to use on affordable housing grants and other assistance.

By comparison, the Senate budget currently includes about $221.2 million for grants similar to those of the state agency.

DeSantis’ budget called for spending about $506.2 million on affordable housing through all programs run by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.

Overall, the House has called for less spending in its budget than the Governor or Senate. Both chambers of the Legislature released budget proposals this week.