Homestead CRA adopts $13.5 million FY2026 budget; board pauses Homestead Live and reallocates $550,000 to infrastructure

The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) of the City of Homestead adopted its fiscal year 2026 budget Tuesday, approving a plan that programs roughly $13.5 million in tax-increment and other funds for downtown redevelopment, capital projects and incentives.

The measure, carried by a roll-call vote, funds capital projects and incentives including a $1.5 million allocation for the Triangle project’s water and sewer and utility undergrounding obligations, $500,000 for the Chrome Marketplace project, support for land acquisitions and stormwater and “pocket park” improvements in the Southwest neighborhood, and a carryover of about $1.5 million in capital projects with public works.

The budget also preserves recurring CRA commitments: about $350,000 in debt service, annual public safety and landscape-maintenance allocations, and roughly $1.2 million in total employee costs. The CRA set aside $260,000 to support business relocation and expansion incentives and programmed new incentive types including a tax-increment rebate for larger redevelopment projects, a commercial hardship and emergency repair grant for small downtown businesses, a landscape and façade improvement program, and an increase in the CRA down-payment assistance maximum to $30,000 to match a city program.

Why it matters: The CRA budget directs private and public investment in downtown Homestead and adjacent neighborhoods. Board members flagged an urgent infrastructure…