Marathon Mayor Ginger Snead wants to see the $100,000 stored away in the city's affordable housing fund put to a more immediate use.

Its highest use, she says, would be funding a home buyer assistance program, the parameters of which she unveiled at Tuesday night's Marathon City Council meeting. The program would help loan out money to bolster down payments for home buyers, a move that Snead believes will help move some of the empty housing stock in town.

"We have a lot of houses on the market that are sitting there," Snead said. "We need to increase our affordable housing supply."

When development and real estate prices skyrocketed in the early part of the decade, local governments spent a good amount of time, effort and money on preserving affordable housing in order to maintain a sustainable workforce in the Keys. The recent economic slump has brought market rate home prices down to a more affordable level, but many people are still unable to save up enough funds to purchase them.

Fellow council members appeared to approve of the idea, but had their own tweaks they wanted to see made before the actual ordinance was drawn up and put to a vote.

Vice Mayor Mike Cinque did not want to see the homes bought with this program have an affordable housing deed restriction put on them. Such a restriction would cap the amount of profit that could be made when the house is sold.

"A lot of people won't loan money on a deed restricted property," Cinque said. "The 30 year [deed restricted] term I think is kind of excessive.

Ramsay did not want to see the program limited to first time home buyers, which was the designation Snead gave the draft ordinance.

"Possibly we should call it something more," Ramsay said, adding that he though low income families in general should be able to make use of the program.

Ramsay also did not want the city to get into the banking business with the assistance loans. It was suggested that the city could use the Middle Keys Community Land Trust, an organization that supports affordable housing and handles activities like vetting potential home buyers, to help the city manager with the processing of the funds.

There is a slim possibility the city could get a major infusion of money into its affordable housing fund by way of a development agreement. The property owners who wanted to redevelop the Key Colony Bay Hotel are still on the hook for $800,000, which is required to be paid to the city as part of a development agreement. Council members have already broached the idea of canceling that development agreement should the funds not come through.

A more refined version of the home buyer ordinance, and possible discussions with the owners of the Key Colony Bay Hotel, are expected to come before the council in the coming months.