I didn’t know exactly what to expect Wednesday when I stood in a room full of commissioners, legislators and other key personnel from the Treasure Coast’s four counties.
In the first 90 minutes, though, I was impressed with potential solutions presented for an array of common challenges faced by residents of Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin and Okeechobee counties.
History tells me, though, that getting 20 commissioners and others to agree on common problems is one thing. Having them execute solutions to resolve issues before they fester into crises is another matter.
Susan Adams, an Indian River County commissioner, deserves credit for spurring the group to focus on one of those crises all of us should relate to.
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The funny thing is, Adams, Okeechobee County Commissioner Terry Burroughs, state Reps. Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, and Toby Overdorf, R-Palm City, St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky and Martin County commissioners Ed Ciampi and Doug Smith all saw the challenge of affordable housing a little differently.
The cost of housing is something that affects all of us ― unless maybe you are well off enough to live here full time and not need property insurance.
The rest of us have been hammered by dramatically increasing homeowners insurance premiums and affected, to differing degrees, by increased governmental taxes and fees.
That’s if we’re lucky enough to own our own homes. Renters have been slammed by increases of as much as 50% in Miami. Landlords, after all, are not in the business of charity; they’ve made investments in property, and when their costs (insurance, taxes, maintenance, etc.) go up, so do renters’.
The dramatic rise in property values have been a factor, too. It was one thing for a longtime landlord to keep rent controlled. It’s more of a challenge for a new landlord who paid multiple times what the original owner paid for the property.
But we’re all affected in one way or another.
“The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in September was more than $400,000, up 13.8% from the previous year,” incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo wrote in a recent column.
“The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in September was more than $400,000, up 13.8% from the previous year,” incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo wrote in a recent column.
Passidomo has toured the state and announced she plans to introduce a series of initiatives ― some undetermined ― to make housing more affordable.
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I’m not sure any reform can help Ciampi’s mother-in-law. The Stuart commissioner said Wednesday she no longer needs a three-bedroom, two-bath house. But she can’t find an affordable home to downsize into. It’s cheaper to stay where she is.
That limits the market for residents like his daughter, with a master’s degree and a good job, who can’t afford to move into that 3/2 starter home.
Adams, who owns a restaurant in Fellsmere and is working with her United Way chapter on an affordable housing strategic plan, and Burroughs, from a rural county trying to attract more jobs, were more focused on the regular workforce. Adams talked about restaurant employees who had to couch surf or live in cars just to have roofs over their heads.
Trabulsy highlighted another population in need: seniors.
“They do not have the ability to earn any more,” she said, noting they are her highest priority. Many face the choice of paying for housing or things such as healthy food or medicine.
State Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Palm City, had an interesting take on battling the problem: He talked about a funding new high school in rural Indiantown and Treasure Coast-wide programs to provide more vocational training.
“If you have a decent job, you can afford a decent place to live,” Overdorf said, which, depending what his definition of “decent” is, seemed a little simplistic.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Port St. Lucie is $1,890 a month, according to zumper.com. Compare that to about $800 a month in 2014, according to zumper.com.
Ciampi noted many folks in Martin County used to not worry about affordability. They were OK with so many workers commuting from St. Lucie County.
“The concept we can just cavalierly have them live somewhere else is not an option,” he said, citing the dramatic home price increases in St. Lucie ― despite the massive building boom there.
In fact, things are so bad even companies hiring higher-paying workers, such as Cleveland Clinic and a boat manufacturer, told him many qualified job candidates won’t move here because they can’t find an affordable place to live.
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Smith cited another challenge I’d never thought about, particularly affecting families in lower-income neighborhoods such as East Stuart.
He said he knows longtime, homesteaded families who would love to pass their homes down to their children. But as soon as the children take over, they lose the Save Our Homes tax cap their parents had. It’s a factor that could cost them hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a year in taxes.
The cap limits the appraised value a homestead can be assessed at to a maximum of 3% a year for full-time Floridians. If you’ve been in your home a long time during home inflation, you likely are paying taxes on nowhere near the real value of your home.
Smith suggested the Legislature propose a constitutional amendment to facilitate generational wealth transfers such as this. My guess is it would be popular, so long as there were a cap on what Save Our Homes benefit could be passed along to relatives.
It would provide an incentive to keep homes in families rather than pressuring children to sell them to developers, who might be more apt to gentrify neighborhoods like East Stuart with higher-priced housing.
Smith and Dzadovsky also talked about incentive-type programs; Smith specifically citing potential options to limit or waive impact fees in certain situations. Dzadovsky suggested incentive plans similar to short-term property tax abatements governments give businesses willing to bring targeted industries to the area and employ workers at higher wages.
Ciampi, after hearing suggestions from Adams and Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, was one of several lawmakers who proposed the four counties get together ASAP to make specific requests to the Legislature before their 60-day session starting in March.
The group seemed excited about appointing a committee to focus on the issue.
It all sounded good.
Then again, the last time I remember being in such a room with representatives of four counties ― and future Senate President Ken Pruitt of Port St. Lucie ― was in 2005.
Pruitt, in attendance Wednesday on his namesake campus of Indian River State College in St. Lucie West, had gotten Gov. Jeb Bush and the state to fund a regional Committee for a Sustainable Treasure Coast to help ensure the region thrived in coming decades.
I won’t get into its seven principles and numerous action steps here. I can tell you that the committee called for a nonprofit to be created to help the region work together more efficiently.
The committee was created, but by 2014 was defunct.
For our region’s sake, let’s hope some of the solutions proposed Wednesday in a variety of areas of common interest fare better than that nonprofit and plan.
This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Support his work by subscribing to TCPalm. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman
Alice J. Roden started working for Trending Insurance News at the end of 2021. Alice grew up in Salt Lake City, UT. A writer with a vast insurance industry background Alice has help with several of the biggest insurance companies. Before joining Trending Insurance News, Alice briefly worked as a freelance journalist for several radio stations. She covers home, renters and other property insurance stories.