JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Duval County Democrats on Tuesday blasted Gov. Ron DeSantis over housing issues across Florida.
The lawmakers, along with Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried, went after DeSantis on issues like home insurance problems and affordable housing.
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News4JAX asked the group about the problems of the lack of housing and the stories the I-TEAM has done about deplorable conditions in some apartment complexes.
“You also want people to live somewhere where they feel like they actually matter. And a lot of times in Section 8 housing when there is no way transferring over from development to HUD back over to landlords,” Nikki Fried, Florida Democratic Party Chair, said. “Do you know who gets lost in the translation? The people that are living there.”
Fried and other Democrats on hand blamed DeSantis and what they call his “lack of leadership” in ignoring the state and concentrating on his presidential campaign.
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Jacksonville City Councilman Jimmy Peluso said as the city looks for solutions to affordable housing issues, the Republican supermajority in the state capital has taken many of them away.
“It’s only up to us now on the local level to find real solutions,” he said, adding he would like to see more public housing. “We cannot rely on Tallahassee. It’s such a shame”
News4JAX reached out to the governor’s office for comment, but as of Tuesday afternoon, it did not respond.