Pinellas County leaders tackle housing affordability crisis amidst soaring prices

Share
Pinellas county business leaders // Credit: Chris Young 28 April 2023

Listen:

Pinellas County leaders came together today to discuss housing affordability amidst increasingly unaffordable housing prices. The recent population boom in Florida has had both positive and negative effects, especially for Pinellas County. The county is the 7th largest in the state and struggles with housing affordability.

Business leaders and elected officials are trying to tackle the problem. Brent Burish, CEO of HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital in St Petersburg, saw the effects firsthand.

“We’ve seen patient care technicians making 40,000 per year after ten years cry because they’re moving to Georgia because their  rent is half as much.”

Tim Wranovix, director of Raymond James National Housing Group, mentioned that although low-income residents are hardest hit, lack of affordable housing affects people of all income levels.

“Even areas we deem as wealthy areas will eventually not be the destination that folks think they are if restaurants can’t have their workers, or there’s no hotels, or you can’t staff for new small businesses trying to open”

The summit marks the rollout of a new Housing Action plan, which lays out specific steps to create housing choices for people of all incomes. The goal is to update codes to allow for more townhomes and tiny homes, and create loans for housing near transit areas.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Morning Energy
Player position: