County announces new Housing Program Manager

Officials with the Santa Rosa County Community Planning, Zoning and Development Division proudly announce the addition of Janice Boone to their staff in the position of Housing Program Manager.

Among her duties, a top priority is for Boone to provide staff support to the recently formed Santa Rosa Housing Coalition, a private/public partnership created through the Santa Rosa County Housing Plan to identify barriers to quality workforce housing and develop recommendations for overcoming those barriers, including a land-density bonus for affordable housing developments which was recently approved by the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners.

According to Boone, who has years of community development banking experience, dealing primarily with affordable housing, "Our focus right now is to work with coalition members, which include local lenders, builders, realtors, and employers, to identify county housing issues and create ways to solve them. We're also addressing other local housing issues, including transitional housing, and next week the groundbreaking for one of three phases of a 226-unit, workforce housing project made possible by Hurricane Housing Recovery Program funding will be held. I'm excited at the potential we have to make a difference in quality of the lives of our residents by ensuring we have an appealing variety of housing alternatives."

Bill Gandy, Chairman of the Santa Rosa County Housing Coalition and President of the Santa Rosa Professional Educators, expresses confidence in the efforts to address housing issues, "We're going to be able to help all our residents, including our everyday heroes like our teachers, soldiers and sheriff's deputies, afford quality homes."

The public is encouraged to attend the next Santa Rosa County Housing Coalition meeting scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 7th at the Public Services Media Room, located at 6051 Old Bagdad Hwy. in Milton.

Please contact Boone at 981- 7075 or janiceb@co.santarosa. fl.us with any questions about county housing issues or this meeting.