Help Create a Lock Box for Affordable Housing

Broward County must find a way to solve its deepening affordable housing crisis before it’s too late.

Taking into consideration South Florida’s low wages and high cost of housing, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies named our metropolitan region the most cost-burdened in the nation.

A household is considered cost-burdened when 30 percent or more of its total monthly income is spent on housing. Under this definition, a whopping 58 percent of Broward residents are cost burdened. In fact, a Broward resident would need a minimum hourly wage of $24.10 to reasonably afford a two-bedroom rental unit at current market rates.

These rising costs are wreaking havoc on Broward County’s working families and households, severely hampering their ability to pay for basic necessities, such as food, healthcare, transportation, and childcare. With a current deficit of over 70,000 rental units in Broward County and 64 new households moving to Broward each day, we must all work together to create innovative, local solutions for this intractable crisis.

As luck would have it, help is on the way in the form of an amendment to the Broward County Charter. On November 6, voters will have the opportunity to vote on the creation of a Broward County Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

The purpose of the trust fund—which is NOT a tax increase—is to provide a dedicated fund for the Broward County Commission to use to create and sustain affordable housing opportunities for renters and homeowners throughout Broward, including our workforce, seniors, veterans, individuals with special needs, youth aging out of foster care, and homeless.

Establishing the trust fund ensures that all monies earmarked for affordable housing stay in a “lock box” and must be used exclusively for the purpose of securing affordable housing. The trust fund would also allow the county to more easily leverage other sources of funding from businesses, municipalities, and non-profits, as well as grants and donations.

Affordable housing affects all of us. Teachers, nurses, medical technicians, bank tellers, construction workers, administrative assistants, cashiers, hairdressers, mechanics, and retail salespersons — every one of these professions and many more are economically and socially harmed by the unavailability of affordable housing.

The dramatic need for affordable housing also directly affects economic development and the business community’s ability to recruit and retain talented employees. Our residents clamor for communities in which they can “live, work, and play,” but the current state of our housing market makes this dream largely illusory.

With Broward County’s average home price of $330,000 and median household income of $60,900, the owner affordability gap — the difference between the selling price and what the average household can afford without being cost-burdened— is approximately $145,000. If housing prices continue to outpace the wages of most occupations in Broward County, these gaps will only continue to grow and our citizens and business community will continue to suffer.

The affordable housing crisis can’t be tackled by only one segment of the community. It takes a strong coalition of nonprofits, the business community, municipalities, and advocates like you to solve the affordable housing crisis for thousands of Broward County’s renters and homeowners. Let your voice be heard! On November 6, vote YES to create the Broward County Affordable Housing Trust Fund!

To learn more about the ‘Affordable Housing (Affects): You. Me. Us.’ Campaign, please visit www.browardhousingtrust.com.