A coalition of faith congregations gathered Monday night to celebrate a hard-fought victory: nearly $5 million restored to Jacksonville's budget to launch an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The money almost didn't make it into the city's coffers at all, and now the group behind the celebration says the real fight — making the fund permanent — is just getting started.
ICARE, which describes itself as a coalition of faith congregations across Jacksonville, held the gathering to mark what it calls a major win for affordable housing, according to News4JAX. Mayor Donna Deegan originally included the trust fund dollars in her budget proposal, but the funding was voted down in committee at one point before being restored after residents and supporters showed up at City Hall, the station reported.
The Rev. Avie Kearney said the organization spent months gathering input from congregations across the city and kept hearing the same message: housing costs are squeezing working families and seniors alike. That grassroots pressure campaign is part of why ICARE is urging supporters to stay engaged rather than treat the budget restoration as the finish line.
What the Money Is Supposed to Do
The trust fund is designed to be a long-term pool of money supporting programs that help residents stay housed, including down-payment assistance and help for homeowners facing major repairs. But the fund still needs to be formally codified, and attendees at Monday night's gathering called for clear rules governing how the money can be used going forward.
That push for codification is why ICARE said it planned to attend Jacksonville's City Council meeting on Tuesday and encouraged supporters to show up and advocate for locking the fund into law. Council members were expected to discuss legislation proposed by the mayor to officially create the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and outline revenue streams to help it grow, per the same News4JAX account.
A Separate Fight Over How the Money Gets Spent
The push for codification follows a related skirmish over how the fund's dollars should be used. Council had also considered redirecting a large portion of the trust fund toward a single affordable housing development, according to JAX Today, but that proposed redirection was rejected and the dollars remained intact. JAX Today reports council is now expected to consider Ordinance 2026-0858, which would codify the trust fund and establish oversight for the program.
The stakes behind the political wrangling are significant. The city's affordable housing director has said Jacksonville needs 47,000 additional rental units for renters earning 50% or less of the area's median income, the outlet reported.
How We Got Here
This isn't the first time the trust fund has survived a close call. City Council passed Mayor Deegan's roughly $2 billion budget in an 18-1 vote in September, a plan that included an amendment restoring the same $4.9 million to the trust fund after weeks of public concern over a proposed cut, with the restored money specifically earmarked for down-payment assistance, per News4JAX's earlier coverage of the budget vote.
Deegan had already signaled months earlier that she intended to keep fighting for the fund. Back in April, she said her administration would try again to insert funding for a permanent affordable housing trust fund into its budget proposal, according to JAX Today. That same report noted council had voted 18-0 in March to authorize a $5 million, 20-year development loan for the $56.5 million Campbell Cove project, expected to add 240 apartments.
