Brendan Farrington
Here are some truths about living in Florida: Housing in many parts of the state is expensive, there’s no single solution to making it less expensive and the term “affordable” housing is misunderstood to the point where many people who don’t need it don’t want it in their neighborhoods.
All of these problems are difficult to overcome, which is why the Florida Policy Project gathered industry experts Wednesday for a daylong meeting to talk about solutions.
“There is not one silver bullet. There are only the lead ones and we’ve got to fire them all,” said Jeff Brandes, a former Republican state Senator and founder of the Florida Policy Project.
Part of the problem is there’s a misconception of affordable housing being for “poor” people. The definition of affordable housing is spending no more than 30% of your gross household income on housing costs, including utilities.
The median household income in Florida was $71,7111 in 2023, which means housing costs must be $1,793 dollars a month or below to be considered affordable, according to the U.S. Census. The problem is, the average housing cost with a mortgage was $1,860 and the average rent without utilities was $1,564. And the gap between income and housing costs has grown even more in the past two years.
So “affordable” is by no means cheap. The average Floridian, and not just the poorest of the poor, struggles with paying for a place to live and also paying for food, health care, clothes and other needs, let alone little luxuries in life.
“Everybody immediately goes to Section 8, or people that are going to live in that housing don’t look like me. We have to change the dialogue,” Brandes said about the term “affordable.”
The FPP summit touched on a wide range of issues, most of which will require action by policymakers on the local and state levels. Among the topics: shedding the stigma of manufactured homes, easing zoning restrictions that make it more difficult to build, encouraging assessor dwelling units (better known as mother-in-law suites or granny flats), and changing public attitudes about affordable housing.
“Most communities are dominated by homeowners and homeowners generally aren’t looking for more housing to be built. They have theirs. The restrictions make their housing more valuable,” said University of South Florida professor Elizabeth Strom. “Existing homeowners feel like they get the downsides of new development. They see loss from new stuff being built. They don’t see gain.”
And often times, those homeowners are the ones that have the ears of elected officials who are setting housing policy. That’s why messaging is important, said Patrick Slevin, a consultant who helps fight “Not In My Backyard” attitudes.
Existing homeowners hear about affordable housing projects and have fear of the unknown, he said.
“When people are left to their imagination and that fear of change, they’re going to go to the worst-case scenario,” Slevin said. “Tell the story of your project, tell the story of your company. That’s where you can raise the bar. “
One unusual factor in the current housing market is the demand for new homes is down because of higher interest rates. That usually means prices drop, but instead they continue to rise, said Domonic Purviance, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
“Housing today in America in most markets is as unaffordable as it’s ever been and there isn’t a whole lot of things on the horizon that would suggest that’s going to change,” he said.
The idea of smaller homes attached or on the same lot as existing single-family homes is growing in popularity around the country and many states are passing laws to encourage their development, especially as more adult children live with their parents longer or older residents struggle to find homes.
A bill that would have removed local government barriers for accessory development units died during the Legislative Session that ended earlier this month.
