Challenge Fund still on the drawing board

Back when he was a candidate, Mayor Bob Buckhorn said creating a Challenge Fund housing program was on his list of priorities for the first year.

It's a program with which Buckhorn has experience. Under former mayor Sandy Freedman, for whom Buckhorn worked as a special assistant, the Challenge Fund helped poor and middle-class residents buy homes by combining federal grants and conventional bank loans to provide low-cost financing.

But the program hasn't exactly come back to life during in the Buckhorn administration. The city has been without a housing director since the beginning of 2012. The city's manager of housing and community development, Sharon West, retired on Jan. 4, 2012, according to city officials. A search is underway to fill the job.

That critical post needs to be filled before a Challenge Fund can get off the ground, Buckhorn said in an interview with PolitiFact Florida.

"Until we get new leadership, we would be hard-pressed to initiate any new programs, although I am committed to doing that, because I think it's important,” Buckhorn said.

Buckhorn's campaign promise was to start the program in his first year, and he hasn't done that. Still, if a successful program eventually starts later, this promise could merit a more positive rating. Buckhorn said he intends to do that.

But with no housing director yet in place, the promise doesn't seem to have gone very far. For now, we rate it Stalled.