TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A brand new report from Florida TaxWatch is urging lawmakers to take additional motion to assist middle-income households struggling to afford housing, even after main reforms below the state’s Reside Native Act.
The nonprofit authorities watchdog launched an replace Tuesday, evaluating how properly the Reside Native Act has labored because it was handed in 2023 and later amended in 2024 and this yr.
The regulation was designed to extend reasonably priced housing throughout Florida by giving builders monetary incentives and easing zoning guidelines for qualifying initiatives.
Whereas the regulation has helped in some areas, Florida TaxWatch says too many working households, together with academics, law enforcement officials, and firefighters, are nonetheless priced out of the housing market.
“The one revenue vary the place the reasonably priced housing want is pronounced is the ‘lacking center,’ these households throughout the 80-120 p.c Space Median Earnings (AMI) affordability threshold,” Govt Vice President of Florida TaxWatch Jeff Kottkamp mentioned. “This revenue degree consists of those that earn an excessive amount of to qualify for conventional reasonably priced housing however not sufficient to afford market-rate houses.”
“These are our academics, firefighters, police, and different professions who can’t afford to stay close to the place they work,” he mentioned. “Because the 2026 legislative session approaches, Florida TaxWatch urges legislators to proceed to work carefully with stakeholders to pursue measures to handle the supply of reasonably priced housing, particularly for the lacking center.”
Key points and findings:
- Price burden stays excessive: In line with the report, 35% of Florida households spend 30% or extra of their revenue on housing, a federal threshold for being “price burdened.”
- Tax exemptions not all the time working: The Reside Native Act provides builders a property tax break of as much as 75% for middle-income housing, however many native governments are opting out. Officers argue the coverage favors builders with out requiring them to go financial savings on to renters. In addition they warn that misplaced tax income shifts the burden onto different taxpayers.
- Combined native outcomes: Whereas the regulation goals to fast-track reasonably priced housing in business and industrial zones, some native governments have resisted, citing issues over land use and density.
- Extra assist wanted: Florida TaxWatch recommends lawmakers take into account new tax credit score packages to assist middle-income housing. Ideas embody a state tax credit score for builders of reasonably priced single-family houses and a state-level housing tax credit score to complement the federal program.
Regardless of the act’s progress, rising property taxes, inflation, and building prices are nonetheless making housing tougher to afford for a lot of Floridians, in line with the group.
“Reasonably priced housing isn’t simply in regards to the very poor,” mentioned Florida TaxWatch CEO Dominic Calabro. “We’d like options for the total vary of working households in Florida — particularly these within the lacking center.”
“The demand for reasonably priced housing just isn’t new to most households in Florida,” Calabro mentioned. “As inflation and price of residing proceed to extend, the price of housing and different mandatory fundamental wants of people proceed to be a monetary problem.”
“In line with the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth, households spending 30 p.c or extra of their revenue on housing bills are thought-about price burdened,” he mentioned. “Right here in Florida, 35 p.c of households had been thought-about price burdened in 2022.”
