A humanitarian crisis is growing in the central Florida region. Hundreds of Floridians are finding themselves food insecure and without a steady source of shelter as the cost of living continues to rise and wages stagnate. According to the Homeless Service Network of Orlando, there are 7,106 people experiencing homelessness in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties alone; this number is only growing. But why? What makes now any different from the years prior? What is it that is preventing thousands of our neighbors from achieving socio economic stability? To learn more, I talked to Kate Santich, director of communications for the Homeless Services Network. 

“Our metro area has been either one of the worst or the worst for the availability of affordable housing to people with extremely low incomes. This is important primarily because we have a service- and tourism-based economy where a lot of people make the minimum wage. When something happens—when their car breaks down or their kid gets sick—their hours get cut short. They fall into homelessness very quickly because they just don’t have any resources to fall back on.” 

There is an extreme lack of affordable housing in central Florida. According to Zillow, the median rent for an apartment in Orlando is 2,050 dollars a month, or around 25,000 dollars a year. Meanwhile, the average salary in Orlando is a mere 32,190 dollars a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This leaves only $7190 for Orlandoans to cover insurance, food, utilities, and incidental expenses. This already poor salary-to-rent ratio is only projected to worsen in the coming years. According to Florida Atlantic University, the average rent increase is 9.3 percent a year, whereas the average wage increase is a mere real value of 1.7% a year, according to the US Department of Treasury. This means that even if you can afford your apartment now, there is no guarantee that you will be able to afford the same place later down the line.

So then, where is the affordable housing? Kate Santich has an answer for that as well.

“Almost every time there is a proposal to build an affordable housing development, we get the turnout in droves, with people saying, ‘That’s a great idea.’ We really want to have affordable housing, but then we hear, ‘We don’t want it next to me.’ And as a result, affordable housing is really hard to get built these days. We need people to say yes, ‘I want affordable housing in my backyard.’ Because yes, it’s going to benefit the community.” Says Kate Santich.

There is an answer to this growing crisis, but as with all things worthwhile, the solution requires a sacrifice. Yes, the creation of affordable housing units will decrease the value of homes by inflating the market. Yes,  the resale value of your home will not be as high as you would like, but is that worth depriving the thousands of Central Floridans of the basic necessity of shelter—to have a safe place to sleep at night and to have a fair chance at life? 

So then, how is it that we, the common person, make a difference? Kate Santech left me with these closing remarks.

“Know where your political leaders stand on issues—homelessness, affordable housing—and know what their track record is. So not just what they say, but what they have done. And make your own voice heard about what you want to see. I think one of the ways to do that is to simply talk about what you are seeing, and this isn’t always an easy thing to say to people.”