by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
Twenty six percent of the room was filled with non-profit workers. The same percentage said they made more than $125,000 annually, and 43 percent of the room said they owned their home for 3-10 years, according to audience response systems. And all of the people in the St. Augustine Ballroom in the St. Johns County Convention Center gathered for the same reason last week — to find a solution to affordable workforce housing.
For the past nine years, St. Johns County and the Northeast Florida Regional Council have gathered pertinent parties from Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns counties to discuss a different topic each year.
This year, it’s affordable housing.
More than 600 people heard from more than 25 speakers on the issue that included defining the problem in the Northeast Florida region, sharing success stories, providing the best practices — that would later serve as a springboard for NFRC Affordable Workforce Housing Task Force and would ultimately implement regional approaches — and regional responses to solve the issue.
“It’s a concerted effort between all the non-profits, government agencies and builders to curb the flow and try to provide housing,” said builder J.D. Collins. “These people are the makeup of our society. When it gets to the point where only the wealthy can afford a home, something has got to give.”
Here are some numbers from the summit, according to Dr. James Nicholas, an economist and professor emeritus of urban and regional planning at the University of Florida.
• Economically active households are those with one or more persons in the labor force. The average economically active household makes $47,438 annually and that household income can afford a $159,934 house. However, the average sales price of an existing home in Northeast Florida is $213,500.
• Sixty-one percent of those average households earn less than $47,000 per year — on average they earn $31,000. That means those people can afford a $106,615 home — less than half of what the average house costs.
• The average economically active household needs to earn $62,276 a year in order to afford the “average” home.
“The market is responding to demand and that’s the problem,” said Nicholas. “There’s no way that it’s local demand driven. It lies in the non-local demand and it’s the local residents who are squeezed out of the market.”
Nicholas said the No. 1 need in a community is workers, which are the largest cost. The No. 1 economic development issue is affordable housing. With a high rate of turnover in the workforce, locals are further squeezed out of the housing market.
The external demands of vacation, retirement and investment properties further compound the strain for land to have affordable workforce housing, according to Nicholas.
Brian Teeple is the chief executive officer of NEFRC. He said this issue is not unique to Florida.
“It’s in California, Washington, D.C. and Long Island. And these are all similar in that they’re desirable places to live,” said Teeple. “They don’t have this problem in Duluth (Minn.)”
Jacksonville was represented by Housing and Neighborhoods Department Director Kerri Stewart. She said Jacksonville gets more money than the other counties because of its size and the dedication of Florida Housing Authority monies and the Affordable Housing Task Force introduced by former City Council President Kevin Hyde in May.
She said the board has the process of getting federal and state grant monies down to a science. However, those organizations work on their own schedule and make it difficult for the task force to move quickly.
“But it does work,” she said. “We’ve established the funding cycle and we know the amount of money we need, but now we have to decide what we can do as a task force.”
Jacksonville’s task force is working with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to help identify and design infill housing. The task force is also looking to preserve older housing. As the housing stock ages, the task force has realized that rehab projects need to grow. And the task force is getting offers from the private sector, according to Stewart.
“They’re coming to us. They’d like to set aside funding for affordable housing,” she said. “They’re asking us, ‘What can you do? What can we do?’ We’re looking for ways to react.”