Broward’s budget includes $25 million for housing assistance

COCONUT CREEK — Broward County’s $7.7 billion budget includes $25 million to build new affordable housing.
The county tax rate is unchanged, but if your property value goes up, it means higher taxes.   County resident John Andrade can’t help but think about how he is getting soaked by rising taxes.
He bought his condo two years ago and last year, he says his mortgage payments increased by nearly $5,000 a year.
Andrade is working harder than ever to stay afloat, “Sixty hours a week. It’s like a full time and part time job just to pay for everything,” he says. 
He won’t be seeing much relief, with his value continuing to rise. 
It’s discouraging news for Mary B., who has lived in Broward for 30 years.
“It’s stressful between taxes and the holidays around the corner, but what are you going to do?”
The county is offering some housing help for renters.Twenty-five million is set aside to build affordable units. That’s about 1,000 new units. 
Five hundred thousand dollars is budgeted to help people getting evicted and ten thousand people will be eligible for rental help.
Marie P. hopes to be one of them. She can barely live on her home health care salary and is paying $1,500 a month in rent. 
We asked her how she could afford to buy groceries and pay for everything else.
“You have to choose sometimes, but you must pay the rent or there’s a penalty,” she said.  
On another note, the county worked out a compromise with Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, who was looking for a substantial increase in his operations funding. 
The county is giving him an extra $84 million over last year, which will fund new emergency helicopters, after last year’s deadly rescue helicopter crash that claimed the life of a firefighter paramedic.