TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Housing Coalition last week released its 2024 Home Matters Report that compares average income and affordable housing units by county. The report underscores what county administrators have known for a long time: The gap between income and housing costs is growing in Florida.
According to the report, a Highlands County resident working at minimum wage has to have almost 2.6 full-time jobs to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment. That’s 104 hours of work a week when there are only 168 hours in a week.
The study shows Highlands, Hardee and Polk counties in 2010 had a combined homeless population of 4,220; that number fell to 1,071 homeless in 2016, and in 2021, the most recent year of the statistics, the three counties showed a homeless population of 650.
The federal McKinney-Vento Act defines students living in a motel, a shelter, a car, campgrounds, abandoned buildings, bus or train stations as homeless. Though the Florida Homeless Coalition says it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact number of homeless at a moment in time, the Highlands County School System counted 446 homeless students in 2022, up from 374 from the 2021 school year.
The report indicates that Florida has seen a 122% increase in students identified as homeless in the last decade – and many of them live in Central Florida.
The homeless study, which was released this week, shows that in 2021, Highlands County had 1,502 rental units considered available and affordable. However, rising apartment rents and mobile home lot rents are greatly reducing affordable units in Highlands County. However, Highlands County – through the work of Habitat for Humanity and the County Commission’s Willie Downs Villas – has added more than 50 units this year.
In comparison, in 2021 Glades County had 78 affordable housing units, Hendry County had 703, and Polk County, 7,721 such units.
The study also compares, by county, how much salary one needs to rent a one-bedroom apartment.
According to the homeless study, a Highlands County resident in 2022 had to make at least $19.36 an hour full-time before they could rent a one-bedroom apartment. A resident has to make $41.91 an hour full-time to afford a mortgage for a three-bedroom, two-bath house.
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