Rebuilding The Bubble

Usually the WayneWho staff tries not to get involved with the crosstalk of comments that come in from our readers, but sometimes comments, and/or e-mails, deserve some open discussion. We receive many e-mails that point to problems and shenanigans going on in our community which we try to incorporate into our un-news articles in creative and interesting ways. While we work very hard to keep our articles entertaining, we pride ourselves on defending sound public policy. In the end our arguments on these policies are our opinions on issues that we believe affect our entire community. And so our article begins...

Over the weekend we received an e-mail from Tom Long from the Osceola County Landlords Association in reference to a comment that one of our readers left on our "We Were Wrong" un-news article. The comment was making a reference to another comment about the Senior Apartment Complex the county wants to build in BVL. It read as follows: "... Where is the Landlords association on this one. They were hell-bent to stop developer Jonathan Wolf and the Preserve or Signature Crossing short term apartments, so where are they on this issue. I have not seen a letter or an e-mail from Tom Long on it yet, so I have to wonder if they are sitting this one out?" Mr. Long decided to respond via e-mail to us instead of to the person who actually posed the question.
It reads as follows:
"Subject: regarding Steve's comments

I was not sitting this one out. I was the first and last person to speak at the BOCC workshop. In fact, I pointed out that $5 million could help with down payment and repair assistance on more than 100 bank owned homes. It's on the county website.

Now that $8 million will be used in that direction and they are looking at 250 homes. Since I have little luck stopping big money on Signature Crossing, I tried the back door approach for the remainder of the Federal money, with some success.

I have never opposed federal money to help house those of extreme low, very low, or low income levels. That means the rents must be restricted also.

As to Signature Crossing, Where is the outrage from WayneWho? Wolf was not cut from the $5 million funding, while other more worthwhile projects got rejected. Wolf has been allowed to lie to the state and county, while the wayne who blog has went silent. "

We guess that by 'silent' you mean that we have offered more coverage on the topic than any mainstream media outlet, or that we wrote articles against the project and worked to expose the crumbling levels of trust with the 'Education Foundation.' If that is what you mean by 'silent' then we would have to agree that we have been 'silent.' What we have tried to do is point to a larger problem in our community that we believe even the benevolent Landlords Association is complicit in. That is the idea that we should begin the reconstruction of the economic bubble that existed in our county just a few short years ago which burst in a big way. This bubble was built on the premise that growth would never end and that the interests of special interest groups devoted to growth are all that matter.

First let us state that we are not attacking Mr. Long or the Landlords Association. Mr. Long has done more due diligence on this issue of the Preserve/Signature Crossing than any elected official or our local media. He has offered honest facts about the deception of the project that little Jonny Wolf and the Education Foundation has held our community hostage with for more than two years. His problem is now that he has been marginalized by the elected officials he has become friendly with. (Remember our article about the frog and the scorpion...? They can't help themselves... It is their nature to stab you in the back for political gain.)

The mindset of our local and state level elected officials is that we must find ways to restart housing. In essence they want to recreate the housing bubble because it was inside this bubble that we were all so happy and nobody was yelling at them. Politicians loved this time because campaign contributions were plentiful and they could delegate the decision making process to Quasi-Governmental Agencies/Authorities. Hence if things went wrong, they could blame the agencies instead of taking the blame themselves. This is obvious when we look at the Expressway Authority, Orlando's Airport Authority, or even the different Visitors Bureaus in the area and their recent histories of shady dealings and wasteful spending. But it is not so obvious when we look at much larger State Legislator created organizations like the Florida Housing Finance Corporation which is nothing more than a Quasi-Governmental program that helped to create that housing bubble in Florida. If we had good elected officials, they would look at the frameworks that have created the ability for developers like Jonny Wolf to circumvent the will and needs of Osceola County when it comes to common sense growth, and demand an audit of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation to find out who was behind these loopholes. These types of agencies are controlled by the elected and unelected power barons of our state for the purpose of their own financial prosperity. Andrew Jackson once wrote "It is to be regretted when the rich and powerful, to often, bend the purpose of government to their narrow ends." And that is all that the Preserve/Signature Crossing project represents. It is a symbol of government waste and the concentration of privilege by those who can spread the most capital. And we were mad about AIG?

We will close this article with the trimmed down transcript of a letter from Jonny Wolf to the FHFC which we believe shows the true merits, feelings, and purpose behind the Preserve/Signature Crossing project and our community. You can read the complete letter here: http://www.floridahousing.org/FH-ImageWebDocs/Developers/SenateBill2A/PublicComments/Comment_-_2009-02-24_-_Jonathan_Wolf_-_St._Cloud_Preserve.pdf

The letter reads basically as follows:

"St Cloud Preserve, LLC
1275 Lake Heathrow Lane, Suite 115
Heathrow, Florida 32746

Tel: (407) 333-3233
Fax: (407) 353-3919

February 24, 2009

Stephen Auger, Executive Director
Florida Housing Finance Corporation
227 West Bronough Street, Suite 5000
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Re: The Preserve - CWHIP06-28

Dear Steve:

[Skipped first two paragraphs because of excessive ego stroking.]

The Preserve is a 120 unit rental community in Osceola County, one of the few counties in Florida that continues to see growth in School enrollments. With targeting to essential services personnel, including teachers, we know this community will fulfill a need for affordable housing for these service providers close to where they work.

The public/private partnerships we have set up provides for the Osceola County School District to own the land and the not-for-profit Foundation for Osceola Education to own the buildings. This structure not only provides safe affordable housing but also provides The Foundation with cash flow from the community to fund scholarship programs for Osceola County Students.

Osceola County has proven to be a difficult area in terms of getting the support of the local government in a effort to provide affordable communities. This is a county that has found a way to block any effort by developers to submit a viable application to FHFC for many years. As you may recall, FHFC took the unprecedented move to allow us to change the location of our site for this housing due to NINBY issues and city officials who were not prepared to override the opposition. We then came up against a like situation with the Board of county Commissioners, but were able to create a work-around with the approval of FHFC, whereby their contribution was made up from other sources, allowing the community to remain viable.

Our project is ready to move forward and can comply with the requirements for completing the credit underwriting within the time frame as specified with a view to commencing construction this summer.

Sincerely,

Jonathan L. Wolf
Managing Member"