Florida League of Cities Publishes Affordable Housing Article by HGS’s Powell

The 2006 growth management issue of “Quality Cities”, the magazine of the Florida League of Cities, includes an article by Hopping Green & Sams’ David Powell concerning the crisis in affordable housing around the state.

Entitled “The Affordable-Housing Challenge for Florida’s Next Governor,” Powell’s article argues that state leadership is needed to bring about a comprehensive fiscal and regulatory strategy to address Florida’s affordable housing crunch.

 “Those who toil in the growth-management fields know that affordable housing has long been the principal short-coming for Florida’s programs for regulating development,” Powell says. “Since their inception, these programs have emphasized protecting environmentally sensitive lands for our weekend enjoyment and ensuring that we don’t sit too long in traffic during our evening commutes.”

Urban areas all across the state are confronting a serious affordable housing shortage due to real estate values dramatically increasing in recent years far faster than household income.  This phenomenon has put home ownership beyond the reach of many families that could afford a median-priced home just a few years ago.

What is needed is a statewide strategy “for everyone to contribute to a solution that is calculated to address this problem effectively.”   The next Governor should elevate the visibility of this issue and set the stage for a coordinated policy response by pulling together a broad cross-section of public and private constituencies concerned about affordable housing.

The coalition that won enactment of the William E. Sadowski Act in 1993 is an important model for such a strategy.