Latino Families Stand to Benefit from Inauguration of Low-Income Housing Projects in Florida

A significant amount of Latinos are affected by the housing crisis in Florida, especially those in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

According to Miamidadematters.org, Latinos earn in average less than all other ethnicities in the county: the former earn $59,496 a year in average, while the figure for Whites is $89,259. African Americans earn $65,539, American Indians/Alaska Natives $77,149, Asians $104,326, and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders $82,993.

Miami-Dade is at the epicenter of the nation's housing affordability crisis in the country, something that Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava recently acknowledged.

Several initiatives have been launched to address the issue. One of them is the building of affordable housing in the Little Havana sector, where there is a high concentration of low-income Latinos.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, in partnership with developer Jorge Perez's Related Group, inaugurated this week two recently completed affordable housing communities in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

The development will include studio, one and two bedroom apartments. Residents will have access to a community room, fitness center, business center, dog park, bike storage, outdoor grilling area and courtyard.

In Palm Beach County, nearly a quarter of the population is Latino (24.2%), according to the Census Bureau. In cities like Palm Springs it reaches 60%, in Greenacres 45% and in Lake Clarke Shores: 33% of the population is Hispanic. The median income in this county is $68,874, meaning that the average Latino is below that.

Recently, the West Palm Beach Commissioners unanimously approved a housing project aimed at this demographic. It is a housing complex that will include three 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom apartment buildings made of steel containers because of the low cost of construction.

The complex will be built on 45th Street near Ballpark, a site with a high concentration of Latino and African American residents.

The units will be reserved for families earning between $45,000 and $72,000 a year.

These local initiatives are only part of the housing crisis experienced by the Latino community nationwide. Nearly one in five Americans (19%, or 62.1 million) are Hispanic, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. It is the largest ethnic-racial minority group in the country, but HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) says research shows Hispanics experience severely inadequate housing at twice the rate of non-Hispanics. In the 2019 Worst Housing Needs report to Congress, HUD found that nearly 25% of Hispanic households met the criteria for worst needs, either paying more than half of their income on housing costs, living in severely inadequate conditions, or both between 2017 and 2019.