Orlando leaders address ways to keep housing affordable
Writer: Chérie Lynn Canada
June 2024 — Greater Orlando faces a significant challenge alongside the entire state of Florida: the need for affordable housing. The region’s population surge, driven by job opportunities and attractive living conditions, has strained the housing market, making affordability a critical issue. Fortunately, Orlando’s housing market has been slowing down, with a recent report by Redfin ranking Orlando as the No. 4 fastest-cooling housing market in the United States.
The cooldown has been attributed to a construction boom and significantly higher insurance costs. According to a Redfin survey, 70% of homeowners in Florida have seen home insurance costs rise recently, meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has indicated “above-normal hurricane activity” could be in store this season along the Atlantic coast.
City and county leaders in Greater Orlando still recognize a continued need to address affordable housing concerns and are actively discussing strategies to address it. Below, some of the regions top leaders share the challenges associated with growth and initiatives underway to provide more paths to homeownership.
Buddy Dyer, Mayor, City of Orlando
Transportation and adequate housing are our two most significant challenges. We receive anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 new residents to the Central Florida area every week, which presents the challenge to accommodate that growth and ensure the quality of life that residents enjoy and new residents expect. We need more housing stock. The lack of those stocks touches affordable housing and the upper-end sector of the housing scale. On one hand, homelessness has been exacerbated because of the lack of affordable housing. On the other hand, a house that cost $500,000 a few years ago now costs $800,000 to $1 million.
One of the few benefits that came from the COVID-19 pandemic was the federal funding that the city received. We allocated $58 million to affordable housing and homelessness initiatives. Most of that money went into the service providers that support the homeless. For instance, we invested $6 million in the Christian Services Center to help it open its first services center. That center will provide homeless individuals with hygiene, showers, and clothes-washing services, match people with jobs, and offer them job training, such as interviewing.
Jerry Demings, Mayor, Orange County
We are a growing community. Florida is the fastest-growing state in the Union. An investment in multimodal solutions within our community is needed for the entire region to move people around efficiently. Brightline trains began running within our community and connecting Miami to Orlando last September. High-speed commuter rail connecting is an emerging mode of transportation. Not only do we want to take advantage of that connectivity, but Brightline also wants to connect Orlando to Tampa through high-speed commuter rail. If it is successful, it will make Orlando a mega metropolitan community with the Tampa Bay MSA, Orlando-Orange County, Seminole County, and the Osceola County MSA. That will create a lot of opportunities for our community.
Additionally, since Brightline ends at the Orlando International Airport today to connect it with the tourist corridor in the International Drive area, that connectivity will provide our workforce with a more efficient, reliable, convenient, and affordable way to get to and from work. We are also excited about the Sunshine Corridor. It will connect Orlando International Airport to the International Drive as well as to perhaps the Disney area and move a lot of people around. Many of our workers will have another alternative for transportation. We cannot solve the housing crisis and the challenge of housing affordability without also solving our transportation challenges.
Antranette Forbes, Economic Development Director, City of Saint Cloud
Under Housing and Urban Development (HUD), there is a fund set up for entitlement cities that must go to low-income residents and areas. As an entitlement city, St. Cloud receives Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to enable this work, along with support from the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP). We also partnered with the county to help the city with housing renovation and down payment assistance. Additionally, our partnership with Habitat for Humanity has initiated a roofing program for low-income residents who qualify. St. Cloud is very strategic about taking care of the community in terms of business and residence. That means recognizing parts of our cities that need more assistance and having excellent partners to collaborate in supporting them.
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