December 11, 2015 | Palm Beach Post Blog
By: Jeff Ostrowsk
Palm Beach County’s property market has bounced back from the Great Recession, but there’s a dark side to robust price increases and a tight rental market.
“We have a housing crisis,” said Jaimie Ross, head of the Florida Housing Coalition, a nonprofit based in Tallahassee.
During a presentation Friday to Palm Beach County officials, Ross said stagnant wages and rising prices have left behind low-income workers. Fully 72,000 low-income households in Palm Beach County spend more than half their income on housing, the Florida Housing Coalition’s Home Matters report said.
“Those folks are so vulnerable,” Ross said. “You’re one missed paycheck, you’re one car accident, you’re one unforeseen bill away from homelessness.”
While Palm Beach County’s job market has improved markedly, Ross said many of the jobs are for positions such as waiters and waitresses, janitors and cleaners, security guards and nursing assistants, all of which pay median wages of less than $12 an hour.
“People are working, but the wages are stagnant,” Ross said.
By the Florida Housing Coalition’s calculations, supporting a family of four in Palm Beach County requires a wage of $27.22 an hour.
Meanwhile, rents are rising even as renters’ ability to pay stays the same.
Blog last accessed here on December 16, 2015.