ChuckE Law - Community Lawyering in Miami

If you read the prior post you know that "affordable" housing generally means that the targeted family - the family it is "affordable" for - need only pay 30% of their income for housing related expenses (rent or mortage and taxes, utilities, etc.). You also learned that "area median income" or " ami " is used to measure housing expenses for different income levels, for example, HUD provides data on how many families making 50% of " ami " in Miami Dade County are living in "unaffordable" housing (paying more than 30% of their income in rent.) Where we left off in the last post, I showed that median income can vary dramatically from County to County in Florida and this can cause problems. Thus someone who is making 50% of " ami " in Palm Beach County can move to Hamilton County with the same job, same salary and be making 100% of " ami " just because Palm Beach County is a rich county and Hamilton Cou...

What do we mean when we say " affordable housing ?” For example, the newspapers say the City of Miami is the least affordable City in the country or that Miami-Dade County is the least affordable County in the country for renters. What does that mean? Affordability is defined as paying less than or equal to 30% of your gross income for housing expenses (including taxes, utilities,etc.). • So the Census simply looked at all households and of all the cities measured, City of Miami had the highest percentage that paid more than 30% of their income in rent. • The Census then looked at all renters households. Of all the Counties measured Miami-Dade had the highest percentage that paid more than 30% of their income in rent. One problem with using affordability as the only measure of housing need is that it has become increasingly common for families to pay over 30% of your income in rent. So planners have looked at higher rates of payment. Extremely high rates of paym...