What to Watch in the “Last” Week of the 2026 Regular Legislative Session
It’s almost time for that post-Session nap. (Or is it?)
The title and subtitle already gave away the vibe here in Tallahassee. Barring a last-second miracle, the 60-day legislative session won’t end on time, and we’re set to go into overtime for the second year in a row. But just because the Legislature’s time is likely to be extended doesn’t mean all unpassed state policy gets an extended life.
Except for the budget and whatever else the Legislature wants to continue working on in a resolution extending regular session or a special session call, bills will still die this Friday, March 13—the scheduled last day of the 2026 Regular Legislative Session. Housing bills not passed by this Friday and not included in a Concurrent Resolution extending Regular Session or a special session call will head to their legislative grave.
Here are the main housing funding efforts and policy initiatives I’m following that are still alive in the sunset of session.
Housing Bills
Live Local 4.0, ADUs, YIGBY, Florida Fair Housing Act, & More (HB 1389)
This is the bill I’m most closely following in this final week.
The Senate laid their bill (SB 1548) on the table last Friday meaning HB 1389 is the official vehicle moving forward. The House first passed the bill last Wednesday and the Senate passed it late Friday, but with a strike-all amendment setting up the chambers for its final negotiation this week. Hopefully, the two sides will agree to pass something rather than letting disagreements kill the bill entirely.
Where the House and Senate Agree:
Live Local Land Use Mandate
Both chambers agree on language that:
Expands eligibility to property owned by a county, city, or school district
Prevents localities from restricting height through other dimensional means, such as setbacks or stepbacks
Clarify that farms/farm operations are not commercial or industrial uses
Allows a Live Local project to consist of “an assemblage of parcels” under common ownership/control separate by no more than 15 feet of land and limited to public pedestrian access (expires July 1, 2028)
Exempts areas subject to land development regulations, in existence before July 1, 2026, that are intended to “retain the open character of land” such as open space districts; areas of critical state concern; and any portion of property encumbered by a recorded conservation easement
Florida Fair Housing Act
Both chambers have identical (and good) language on the Florida Fair Housing Act. This language would do two key things. First, it would clarify that sovereign immunity is waived if a governmental entity violates the Florida Fair Housing Act. This clarification is needed given a recent Fourth District Court of Appeals case that found sovereign immunity wasn’t expressly waived by the current statute.
Second, the bill clarifies that it’s illegal to discriminate against affordable housing in land use decisions. Since 2000, the Florida Fair Housing Act has prohibited discrimination in land use decisions based on the “source of financing” of a project (such as if a project received Low Income Housing Tax Credits), and HB 1389 would further clarify that this prohibition means localities can’t treat affordable housing developments differently than market-rate homes.
Density Bonuses for Affordable Housing for Military Families and More OPPAGA Reports
Both chambers agree on language allowing local governments to provide density bonuses to landowners that donate land for the purpose of assisting the local government in providing affordable homes, including housing that is affordable for military families receiving the basic allowance for housing. They also agree on directing OPPAGA to study the efficacy of using mezzanine financing for constructing owner-occupied housing and the potential of tiny homes in meeting affordability needs.
Where the House and Senate Do Not Agree:
Accessory Dwelling Units – The Dreaded Short-Term Rental Debate
The original ADU bills (SB 48 and HB 313) are no more. HB 1389 is the current vehicle for state ADU law amendments.
The House and Senate agree on the basic framework. Both chambers agree on requiring every local government to allow accessory dwelling units by-right in any area zoned for single-family homes by December 1, 2026. Both also agree to prohibit localities from requiring that the property owner reside in the primary home, mandating parking requirements in certain cases, and imposing discretionary review standards to approve an ADU.
The House and Senate still don’t agree on whether and how localities should be able to regulate short-term rentals. The Senate’s strike-all amendment copy/pasted SB 48 which allows localities to prohibit new ADUs from being rented for less than 1 month. The House still wants nothing to do with regulating ADUs as STRs.
As our Wis Benoit wrote a few weeks ago, the data shows that concerns over ADUs as short-term rentals are largely overblown, although certain areas may face higher prevalence of STRs than others.
Making YIGBY Mandatory (in Certain Cases)
You’ve seen us write and advocate over the past year for local governments to activate Florida’s new Yes-in-God’s-Backyard (YIGBY) law passed in last year’s SB 1730. This is a new optional tool where local governments can expedite affordable housing development on eligible land owned by religious institutions.
Well, now it might be mandatory in certain cases? The House wants to expand the Live Local land use mandate to include land owned by religious institutions that is greater than 3 acres which has contained a house of public worship for at least the last 5 years before the proposed development, regardless of underlying zoning. This would mean localities would have to allow multifamily and mixed-use affordable housing on eligible land owned by religious institutions, rather than having the local discretion to do so.
Repealing the Live Local Opt-Out (80-120% AMI Multifamily Middle Market Property Tax Exemption)
The House wants to repeal the Live Local policy passed in 2024 that allows eligible taxing authorities to opt out of the 80-120% AMI Multifamily Middle Market (MMM) property tax exemption. The Senate doesn’t want a straight repeal—in its tax package, it has proposed raising the bar on which taxing authorities can opt out. The Senate has proposed that instead of only looking at the most recently published Shimberg report for opt-out eligibility, a county has to have a surplus each of the three previous years of homes affordable and available to households up to 120% AMI for a taxing authority to be able to opt out.
Allowing Factory Built Homes Broadly (HB 803)
This language is still alive in HB 803 and would require local governments to allow factory-built homes where single-family detached homes are allowed. If it passes, it would:
Allow any “offsite constructed residential dwelling” to be permitted by-right in any zoning district where single-family detached homes are allowed
Prohibit local governments from treating offsite constructed homes differently or more restrictively than site-built homes in the same district
Allow local governments to apply generally applicable architectural, aesthetic, design, setback, height, or bulk standards to offsite constructed residential dwellings, provided such standards apply equally to site-built single-family dwellings permitted in the same district
Tax Package (HB 7031/SB 7046)
The House and Senate tax packages both have interesting provisions related to affordable housing. The House has the HB 311 bill creating a new Homebuyer Workforce Tax Credit, allowing businesses to apply for a Corporate Income Tax or Insurance Premium Tax Credit for providing purchase assistance to income-eligible employees (120% AMI or below). Employers would be eligible for up to a $5,000 tax credit per employee, capped at $500,000 per year per taxpayer. The House also has language amending the affordable housing property tax exemption for properties owned by the state, a new property tax assessment limitation for eligible mobile home parks, and up to a $500 sales tax refund for certain home hardening products on homesteaded properties with a just value of $700,000 or less.
The Senate’s only housing provision in the tax package deals with narrowing the rules for which taxing authorities can opt-out of the 80-120% AMI MMM property tax exemption.
Are They Going to Repeal the 20% Cap on Using SHIP for Factory Built Homes? (HB 267/SB 594)
I thought these identical bills were destined for passage based on their early movement, but my prediction skills are wrong again (see last year’s Rural Renaissance prediction for another failure)! This bill passed the Senate over a month ago, passed all three committees in the House, and has yet to pass the House.
Blue Ribbon Projects (HB 299/SB 354)
This controversial initiative was the subject of a somewhat heated debate in the Senate last Thursday and looks to be on life support. These bills would require administrative approval of “Blue Ribbon Projects”— developments of at least 15,000 contiguous acres where the majority is not located in a municipality, at least 60% must be reserve area as defined in the bill, and up to 40% may be development area that incorporates a variety of housing options, businesses, and walkability. The bill has somewhat of an affordable housing shoutout, although if the intent is to provide below-market-rate, deed-restricted housing, the language falls way short.
& More
And more! Not much has actually passed with a week left to go in the housing world. Bills still alive that I’m following include:
SB 1602/HB 1481: new pilot program for homeless veterans in Broward, Escambia, Hillsborough, and Santa Rosa Counties, subject to legislative appropriation.
SB 840/SB 218: Any proposed rollbacks to last year’s SB 180
SB 208/HB 399: Incorporating “objective design standards” in certain compatibility decisions for housing
HB 1001/SB 1134: The DEI bill. We’re closely following how this could affect local housing programs.
SB 824/HB 1147: Inventories of unimproved land owned by school districts – could be great for advocacy on using school district land for affordable homes!
HB 979/SB 1434: Preemptions in three counties on using brownfields and similar environmentally contaminated properties for housing
Housing Funding
As I shared in my last legislative update (and on our Sadowski Affiliates webinars – be sure to register for more housing updates!), SHIP and SAIL are set to be fully funded as both chambers proposed $165.5 million for SHIP and $70.7 million for SAIL in their FY 26-27 budget proposals. That is huge. After two decades of the Legislature sweeping over $2 billion of Sadowski Trust Funds away from affordable housing initiatives, SHIP and SAIL will be fully funded for the sixth consecutive year.
But, SHIP and SAIL (and funding for core homelessness programs such as Challenge Grants) are the only areas of housing funding where the two chambers are in agreement so far.
Funding for Live Local SAIL Program
House: $0 / Senate: $150,000,000
This is the biggest difference between the House and Senate budgets that’ll need to be resolved in the final budget negotiations. The Senate wants to continue to support this good affordable rental housing program created in the Live Local Act while the House does not.
In the little over two years since the program went online, over 7,000 affordable rental homes are being assisted with these dollars with nearly 90% of those homes serving households at or below 80% AMI, with the majority serving below 60% AMI households.
Here is a nice graphic from FHC’s Ryan McKinless showing that income breakdown for homes assisted by the Live Local SAIL Program.
Other Differences
Other housing funding differences include:
Hometown Hero Housing Program – House proposed $50 million; Senate proposed $75 million
Extra General Revenue for SHIP – Senate proposed an additional $18.8 million for the SHIP program to keep larger counties whole should the Rural Renaissance pass. The House does not include this extra GR.
Multifamily Rental Housing Preservation in Rural Areas – Senate proposes $30 million to preserve USDA multifamily housing in rural communities
All the member projects!
Property Taxes
Still got nothing. Any big proposals are going to happen in a special session or not at all.
What is Dead May Never Die (Shoutout to My Game of Thrones Fans)
Many bills are already dead (RIP). The two that died in the last week or so that will be back next year are the Florida Starter Homes Act (SB 948/HB 1143) and the TOD Bill (HB 1183/SB 1342) which I have written about previously.
The Starter Homes Act, which would have allowed residential lots to be as small as 1,200 square feet when connected to water and sewer, allowed these lots to have up to a quadplex on them, and allowed administrative lot splits, is one I expect could gain more momentum in the 2027 Session. It got a hearing in both chambers this session and more supporters along the way.
I’d rather see lot size, lot split, and middle housing policies happen organically at the local level, targeted to places close to urban cores, jobs, and community amenities. And if the filing of this bill (and committee hearings) leads more local governments to adopt these policies on their own this year, terrific! But the time it takes for local policies to flourish isn't on our side. Florida desperately needs more starter homes, especially for young families and lower-income households that can’t buy a home in today’s market.
I hope that if this bill picks up steam next year, there’s ample room for nuance to target a broad statewide starter home policy in a way that gets more housing options built while also making sure those options are in places resilient to environmental risks, have strong infrastructure, and reduce auto dependency.
What’s Next?
Well, hopefully by next week at this time we’ll have some resolution on things! Once session is wrapped up, we’ll do a legislative debrief webinar covering all the bills in depth and how they impact builders, advocates, local governments, and policymakers.