Regional Affordable Housing Summit highlights creative housing solutions

Orange County’s Regional Affordable Housing Summit Highlights Creative Housing Solutions

Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs hosted the inaugural Regional Affordable Housing Summit on October 20th at the Orange County Convention Center. Planners, developers and local government leaders from across the region gathered to explore affordable housing solutions for Central Florida, including strategies, tools and best practices being implemented throughout Florida and across the country.

“It’s imperative that throughout our region, we explore a variety of available housing options to encourage a more inclusive housing market conducive to sustainable communities,” Mayor Jacobs said. “This Regional Affordable Housing Summit tackles a wide variety of issues and solutions, and will be followed by a number of topic -specific workshops in 2017. Particularly, as our economy continues to flourish, it is vital that we take action to help support our citizens through the creation of a robust housing marketplace."

The goal of the summit is to utilize the community’s collective experience and knowledge to create a regional approach to address affordable housing needs.

The Summit featured the State of Regional Housing Outlook and two panel discussions.

The lineup of speakers included housing-industry experts from Atlantic Housing Partners, Florida Housing Coalition, Florida Housing Finance Corporation, Pinnacle Housing Group, Palm Beach County Planning Division, RCLCO Real Estate Advisors, University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness and the University of Florida Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.

Orange County Planning Manager Alberto Vargas, and Orange County Housing and Community Development Manager Mitchell Glasser, moderated the panel discussions.