COCONUT CREEK, FL – For many families in South Florida, including those in Coconut Creek, the number of homes they can afford has fallen to levels not seen in almost a decade.

That’s according to a recent report by National Association Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

It’s a problem the five candidates in the Coconut Creek election on Tuesday want local government to address.

SIGNUPSCRIPT

They said there are no simple solutions in resolving the pandemic real estate boom that created the current affordable housing crisis in the region.

Here’s what candidates said they would do, if elected, regarding affordable housing in the city.

District A Race**BULLSEYE

Incumbent City Commissioner Becky Tooley told TAPinto Coconut Creek she wants to set aside workforce housing units in the Mainstreet Coconut Creek development planned in the middle of the city just south of Promenade at Coconut Creek on Lyons Road toward Seminole Casino Coconut Creek on State Road 7.

Tooley also said she would keep supporting the city’s efforts to lobby for insurance reforms to lower the costs of owning a home.

She added, as a city resident for 38 years, she, too, is having a hard time paying insurance costs and has even contemplated moving after her term is up, if re-elected, outside the region.**STANDARD

“Right now, I’m asking myself: do I let my insurance go or do I dip into my own retirement” to pay for housing expenses, Tooley said.

Her opponent, Jeffrey Wasserman, told TAPinto Coconut Creek that he wants Coconut Creek to find grants to cover closing costs for city staff, teachers, nurses, and first-responders who are looking to buy homes in the city.

He said he also hopes city officials can research other ways to help first-time homeowners as well as graduates of Monarch High School and Coconut Creek High School buy homes in Coconut Creek.**BULLSEYE

“This is how you bring that old-school feeling to Coconut Creek,” he said. “We need to invest in people and help them.”

District D Race

Commissioner John Brodie said, if elected, he hopes to use his position to push state legislators to rein in insurance costs that are driving up the costs of living.

He told TAPinto Coconut Creek that he, too, wants Coconut Creek to find grants to help homeowners in need stay in their homes, much like the city did for businesses during the toughest days of the pandemic.

“Right now we’re in a strange spot because post-pandemic money has run out, and now people need to get back to work and start paying for what they own, including their homes,” said Brodie, who was appointed to his seat in April to finish out the term of Lou Sarbone who resigned after he was found living in Fort Myers.

His challenger Nancy Fry echoed others in wanting Coconut Creek to find additional money to help residents stay in their homes, especially when it comes to rentals.

“We need to alleviate these rising rates so folks can afford to stay in the homes they are in now and avoid being priced out and having to move to other cities,” Fry told TAPinto Coconut Creek.

She said the city, in particular, should support a housing down-payment assistance program to help residents buy homes or stay in their homes.

“We know that homebuying is an integral part of building wealth and maintaining family financing,” she said.

She also wants Coconut Creek to encourage Habitat for Humanity of Broward to build homes in the city for the working-class.

Another challenger for the seat, Alfred Delgado, said in a recent Coral Springs Coconut Creek Regional Chamber of Commerce forum that the Mainstreet Coconut Creek project needs to include housing for first-responders and teachers.

He added Coconut Creek already has housing assistance programs, but the city needs to promote them better in the community.

In addition, Delgado said city leaders need to find a way to put vacant homes back on the market.

As an example, he said, there’s a home owned by Zillow in his Coconut Creek neighborhood that is sitting vacant.

“It’s unfortunate,” Delgado said during the forum. “People want to live in the neighborhood. It’s a nice neighborhood.”

Read more about March 14 election here:

Coconut Creek March 14 Election: Candidates’ Positions on Plans for Retail, Residential, and Commercial Development Known as Mainstreet

Coconut Creek Election on March 14: Understanding Charter Amendment

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