Report shows need for local and state action
Herald Tribune | September 18, 2015
An important, 28-page report released this week can be summarized in two points:
1. Sarasota County doesn’t have enough affordable housing.
2. Many workers in Sarasota County don’t earn enough to pay for housing.
Some folks who read the report, or this editorial, might sarcastically state: “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
Nevertheless, the report — produced by the Florida Housing Coalition and commissioned by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation — provides information that underscores the scope of the problems and reinforces the need for multi-level solutions.
For context, consider that 43,127 low-income households in the county — 25 percent of all households — pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing, the maximum amount generally considered affordable. (In this case, low-income households earn no more than 80 percent of the area median income. A two-person household with earnings of $38,850 or less would be considered low-income; so would a four-person household with less than $48,550 in income.)
Worse, 18,460 very low-income households are “severely cost burdened,” meaning that they pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing. (Very-low income, two-person households earn $24,300 annually, or $30,350 for a four-member household.)
The housing-cost burdens for these households, and those with incomes not much higher, means that a substantial portion of the population struggles financially.
“These families are not obscure, unusual or anomalies,” said Jon Thaxton of the foundation. “They are common in our area, common to the tune of tens of thousands in Sarasota County.”
The report emphasizes that the prevalence of low-wage jobs compounds the effects of high housing costs. Four of the top 15 occupations (based on the number of jobs in each occupation) pay median wages below $10.77 per hour, according to the report. If two wage earners in a four-person household worked full time, every week of the year, at those wages, they would be considered low-income.
Obviously, there is a low-wage problem but overcoming it is a difficult, complex challenge not only in our region but in Florida and across the nation. That is one of the reasons for government and the community to intervene and subsidize housing costs or take steps to make market-rate housing less expensive.
The report offers several recommendations. The most notable is one the Herald-Tribune Editorial Board has called for repeatedly — full state funding of local and state housing-trust funds. Florida is supposed to use a portion of the state documentary stamp tax on deeds to put revenue in those funds. But during the recession, funding was virtually eliminated and legislators continue to divert doc tax money to general government. Bad policy.
The federal government should also recommit to providing adequate funds for private-housing vouchers and public-housing units for low-income Floridians. Thousands of households need that support, but housing-authority waiting lists are incredibly long.
Changes in local land-use planning and incentives could help spur the private sector to build or rehabilitate less-costly housing. But experience shows that such changes are politically difficult to enact and that incentive programs only work when they are enforced. Nevertheless, these strategies should be on the table.
Thaxton, a former county commissioner, proposed a good idea in a letter to the County Commission. He noted that the comprehensive plan, which the county is reviewing, has at least 18 policies that are supposed to promote and produce affordable housing. He asked the commissioners to produce a data-oriented report that answers a vital question: Have those policies resulted in affordable housing?
The answer to that question should, at the least, guide local government’s response to the affordable housing challenge.
A print-ready PDF of this article can be accessed here.
Article last accessed September 22, 2015 here.