Hillsborough commission votes to move forward with repeal of HOPE ordinance after heated affordable-housing debate

The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday voted 5–2 to direct the county attorney to prepare an ordinance repealing Ordinance 19-19, the HOPE Affordable Housing Trust Fund mandate, and to schedule the required public hearing for the repeal.

The decision followed more than an hour of public comment from clergy, nonprofit leaders and residents who urged the board to preserve the trust fund and its roughly $10 million annual allocation, and a lengthy discussion among commissioners about whether the county should reallocate some future funds to public safety and fire-rescue needs.

Supporters of the HOPE fund said the local program leverages state and federal dollars to produce affordable units and that cutting the allocation would undermine years of progress. “Taxpayers are paying an average of $21,000 per person per year for each homeless person with mental illness and or addictions,” said Dr. Lee Barks, co-chair of HOPE’s Affordable Housing, Mental Health and Addictions combined committee, arguing for maintaining local funding. Several other speakers — including clergy and organizers representing HOPE — said the fund had helped create more than 1,100 affordable units since its founding and warned that reductions would worsen homelessness and strain other services.

Commissioner Chris Bowles, who introduced the motion to move forward with repeal, framed his proposal around public-safety priorities. “I won't apologize for supporting our first responders,” Bowles said during debate, arguing the county must consider firefighting, emergency-response and sheriff staffing shortfalls that he and others said are underfunded. Bowles and other commissioners noted a large federal Community Development Block Grant allocation the county expects — figures discussed at the meeting put a projected allocation at roughly $709 million, of which he said about 56 percent (approximately $397 million) would be required to support affordable housing over the next six years — and argued the near-term federal funding stream should reduce the county’s obligation to lock in a local annual allotment.

County staff and other commissioners pushed back on the idea that the board was abandoning affordable housing. Commissioner Donna Cameron Cepeda and others highlighted that the board has used HOPE allocations flexibly in prior budgets and that staff routinely weights local priorities when preparing the recommended budget. County Attorney Christine Beck told commissioners that repealing the ordinance would require the board to receive an implementing ordinance and hold a public hearing; staff said that could be scheduled as soon as the second meeting in June in keeping with standard ordinance repeal procedures.

The board recorded the motion to direct the county attorney to draft a repeal ordinance and schedule the hearing as carried 5–2; Commissioners Harry Cohen and Gwen Myers voted no. The formal repeal will proceed through the county’s ordinance process, which includes a public hearing before final adoption.

What the vote does and what it does not: the board’s action is a directive to draft and schedule a repeal. It does not itself repeal the ordinance, reallocate funds, or change the county’s adopted budget. Those steps would require subsequent board action at future meetings and during the annual budget process.

The board’s next budget cycle begins this summer. County staff told commissioners they would bring options during the budget process — including potential millage-swap options that could free general-fund dollars for fire-rescue and sheriff needs — and would present the draft repeal ordinance for public hearing as directed. The board’s vote sets up a separate public process and does not immediately redirect any existing appropriations for affordable housing.