The Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Voted 4-1 to increase the down payment assistance (DPA) provided for affordable housing from $20,000 to $40,000.

At their meeting on Tues. Aug. 13, CRA Board Members voted 4-1 to increase the DPA as to keep up with construction costs and interest rates for affordable housing. Commissioner Carol Gillespie offered the only “no” vote.

Launched in 2021, The DPA program, according to the city memo, is “designed to attract homebuyers who meet the qualifier of 120% or below in Area Median Income.” Since its inception, the program has provided assistance totaling $190,000 to nine first-time homeowners.

“When the program was launched in 2021, the maximum amount provided was $15,000,” City Manager James Slaton wrote. “However, due to the increase in construction costs and interest rates, the CRA had to raise the amount to $20,000.”

The $40,000 DPA funding will assist the first-time homeowner of Keystone Challenge Fund’s latest affordable home located at 610 Dr. J. A. Wiltshire Ave. Lake Wales had partnered with the Keystone Challenge Fund to provide affordable housing within the community.

Through this partnership, Lake Wales has been “substantiallyimproving” the northwest neighborhood through a combination of funding from private and public sources and even the homeowners themselves.

Slaton claimed that the DPA increase was necessary to match the increase in construction costs and interest rates: “This $40,000 will reduce the amount that prospective purchasers will finance keeping the home affordable to them.”

CRA Board Member Carol Gillespie asked how the program will benefit current residents, seeing how the buyers for the affordable housing are mostly not from the city.

“If they [current residents] are competing with other people to buy new homes in the area, that is a negative,” she said. “I believe the people in this area deserve an advantage rather than a disadvantage.”

CRA Board Member Keith Thompson rebuffed her comment, claiming that anyone who lives in or moves to the city is a resident worthy of assistance, regardless of how long they live there.

“If someone moves to Lake Wales, I do not care if they have been here for a day or 56 years: they are now part of us,” he said. “I think we have to be careful about only helping people from Lake Wales. How far along the lineage do you want to go on that? I think it strikes me very odd and I do not want to become a town with people moving here feeling they are not part of the town. I do not want the CRA to reinforce that [attitude].”

He asserted that passing a motion to determine who can and cannot purchase a home within the city was an affront to the concept of the “free market.” Furthermore, he claimed that new residents moving to the city would improve property values for current residents.

“It is called the free market for a reason,” he said. “The idea you want the government involved is absurd. We cannot get involved in deciding who gets to purchase a home in Lake Wales, Florida. I think we will open ourselves up to legal jeopardy in that regard, and it is baffling.”