Past Event | October 18, 2017
Affordable to Whom? The Affordable Housing Crisis in South Florida
In South Florida, affordable housing has become a crisis, leading the nation in the highest wage-to-housing discrepancy gap. More than half of the South Florida workforce cannot afford to pay their rent, and are paying 30 percent or more of their income on housing alone.
The Sawdowski Act, created in 1991 to obtain a dedicated revenue source for Florida’s affordable housing programs, takes a portion of the documentary stamps when someone purchases real estate. The money is intended for affordable housing development projects. However, Broward County has only received a fraction of the money back that it has put in as lawmakers have swept statewide collected funds into the general state fund.
Though County government has recently taken the lead with the creation of a local dedicated funding source for housing, Broward County doesn’t have the resources to meet the demand of housing units needed at all income levels. Do we need more government intervention or does the private sector need to take the lead and provide housing options for their employees? What are we to do?
