It’s getting tougher for Broward County families to find a rent they can afford.
The number of households paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent has increased 16 percent in the past four years, rising to 147,000 families, said Ralph Stone, the county’s director of housing finance and community redevelopment.
Over the same time, the number of households that can afford the median-priced single-family home in Broward — currently $355,000 — has dropped from 20 percent four years ago to 12.7 percent now, Stone said.
The worsening numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise when 54 percent of workers in the county are in low-wage, service-sector positions, he said.
The new figures come from the latest countywide housing needs assessment being conducted for the county by Florida International University, he said. The report is expected to be released within the next few weeks, he told county commissioners at their annual retreat Friday at Tree Tops Park in Davie.
Creating more affordable housing has been a county priority for years, with voters approving the creation of an affordable housing trust fund in November. Commissioners, who have set aside $11 million over the past two years for such efforts, were considering how to quickly get money into the new fund.
A disillusioned Commissioner Michael Udine questioned whether the county’s programs were having any effect and whether a different approach was needed.
“It almost seems like we’re spending ‘x’ number of dollars every year to really do nothing. The problem’s getting worse and worse,” Udine said.
But Stone said the money the county has spent has had “a significant impact” by providing developers with “gap financing” that makes it worth their while to build the lower-cost housing. The county funds are being used to create more than 600 rental units, he said.
“We’re getting very good leverage effects,” Stone said.
Commissioners agreed to meet again within the next few months to hold a workshop on what approaches are needed moving forward.
“This is not about any one solution,” Commissioner Nan Rich said. Infill housing, developer incentives, higher impact fees and zoning changes are just some of the possibilities, she said.
Norm Foster, director of the county’s office of management and budget, told commissioners early projections show the county is in good shape as it begins planning its next budget to take effect Oct. 1.
The county should see an extra $59.2 million in revenues available in the new budget, an increase of 5.2 percent, if it keeps the property tax rate the same. The county also has a built-in cushion in this year’s budget — $22 million it set aside to absorb an expected drop in property taxes if voters had approved a constitutional amendment in November to increase the state’s homestead exemption.
The amendment did not get the required 60 percent approval to become law, so there is no concern about a property tax drop.
Foster and County Administrator Bertha Henry warned that while the economy has been doing well, there have been ominous blips on the county’s radar.
The county’s sales tax revenues, which had been rising steadily since the end of the Great Recession, were down in each of the last three months of 2018, compared to the same period a year earlier, Foster said. Also, while the unemployment rate is low, the percentage of people actively working or looking for work is lower than during previous economic expansions.
“We have a huge number individuals in our community that have just dropped out,” Henry said. “That means they’re not participating in our economy. That’s never a good thing.”
lbarszewski@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4556 or Twitter @lbarszewski