Affordable Housing

The Problem

Everyone deserves a safe place to call home. The affordable housing crisis has continued to grow in Palm Beach County. Without a serious change in how the county addresses this crisis, it will only get worse – especially for those making below 60% of the area median income ($58,440 for a family of four). 

  • Families are one unexpected expense away from being homeless. An estimated 105,000 households are cost burdened (paying more than 30% of their income towards rent). Of those, 77,000 are paying more than 50% of their income towards rent.

  • To afford the average apartment, someone working a minimum wage job would have to work 163 hours a week – that’s four full-time jobs.

  • There’s a deficit of 42,500 rental units for those at or below 60% of AMI. This is further compounded by the fact that Palm Beach County has lost 10,000 rental units that cost less than $1,000 per month on the last 10 years.

Proven Solution:

According to the federal definition, “affordable housing” means not paying more than 30% of our income towards rent and utilities. Families making below 60% AMI are most often those paying more than 30% of their income towards housing. The County has continued to create “workforce housing”, which is for families making between $58,980 - $137,620, but this excludes more than half of our workforce employed in low-wage service sector jobs. 

Over 800 communities across the country have addressed the affordable housing crisis through Affordable Housing Trust Funds (AHTF). AHTFs utilize local public dollars to address the housing needs of a community. Not only do AHTFs address the housing problem, but there are financial and other benefits to the county:

  • For every 100 new affordable housing units built, 150 jobs are created locally.

  • More affordable housing attracts businesses. 62% of company executives say the availability and cost of living is an important consideration when selecting new facility locations. 

  • Every dollar invested by AHTFs leverages as much as five times additional public and private investment in housing.

2025 Nehemiah Action Update

Commissioners Gregg Weiss and Bobby Powell were present to address affordable housing. Commissioner Powell committed to support our affordable rental housing program proposal and to support allocating $50 million annually into an affordable rental housing trust fund. Commissioner Weiss did NOT support our affordable rental housing program proposal, but did commit to support allocating $50 million annually into an affordable rental housing trust fund.

You may have noticed the empty chair for Commissioner Joel Flores. Despite committing to attend at our Community Problems Assembly in October and then reaffirming his attendance at our meeting with him in February, Commissioner Flores' staff told us Friday that he would not be in attendance. We were not given a reason for why he was not there. We are disappointed that Commissioner Flores did not follow through on his commitment to be there on Monday, but we look forward to continuing to work with him on this issue

As you heard at the Nehemiah Action, Commissioner Sachs agreed to bring our housing proposal to the Board of County Commissioners the Tuesday after the action April 8th. We are so proud that 32 of you showed up for that meeting! However, Commissioner Sachs did not put the proposal on the agenda in time and therefore it was not brought up. We are in the process of scheduling a meeting with her now to get this brought before the Commissioners in May.

Stay tuned for an update on this!