Commissioners with the city of Lake Worth Beach, Florida, have declared a state of emergency over the housing crisis in their area — a method that could pave the way for rent control.
The recent decision came after hours of listening to terrified renters, who packed the room of a city meeting with the hopes of demanding protections as they faced unprecedented rent hikes. One man said he only narrowly escaped making the choice between eating and keeping a roof over his head, while a single mother said she wasn’t sure how she could continue keeping a roof over her four children’s heads.
The housing emergency declaration allows city leaders to explore what legal routes they can take to possibly put rent control in place, and any other options to address the crisis that is forcing some residents on the streets as rents skyrocket out of control, explained City Commissioner Christopher McVoy.
“There is a sensitivity that these are real people with real major suffering because of housing prices and especially rental prices,” he said. “This is not just the lower end of the income range, where it is probably worse. It goes across a number of income ranges.”
But the road to establish rent control is a difficult one, with Florida state law pre-empting local municipalities from putting those protections in place. And other options to address the crisis, such as building affordable units, could take years.
The rental crisis in Lake Worth Beach
In the meantime, the rental crisis in South Florida, including Lake Worth Beach, grows worse.
According to the 2021 Palm Beach County Affordable Housing Needs Assessment from researchers over at Florida International University, Lake Worth Beach has one of the highest rates of cost-burdened renters in Palm Beach County, with 65% of renter households paying over 30% of their income toward rent.
And the median renter income there is $31,312.
“It really is hard, and it’s the tale of two cities. It’s a description of a world that is so miles from what people are really experiencing,” McVoy said. “For the people moving from New York where now they move here and it costs less, it’s great for them. But then you have a room full of people who can’t find anything and have way less disposable income. They are getting evicted from what they have.”
And it disproportionately affects the Hispanic community of Lake Worth Beach, explained Mariana Blanco, assistant executive director with the Guatemalan-Maya Center in the city.
Their group, along with others, have been pushing for the city to declare a state of emergency as they have witnessed the community they serve struggle. They say many of them are undocumented workers, with instances of them having to sleep on the streets due to rent hikes and difficulty finding affordable places to live.
“Our organization became a temporary solution for housing because law enforcement agencies would bring families they found sleeping on the streets to us,” Blanco said. “We’ve been pushing for this. We want to make sure everyone is protected, not just landlords.”
Rent-control efforts throughout Florida
For the city of Lake Worth Beach commission, rent control is one of many options they are exploring as they grapple with a crisis that doesn’t have an easy fix, but one that needs to be solved as quickly as possible.
“I think all of us are really dealing with something that was unforeseen, and we are trying to catch up,” said Edward Murray, associate director of the Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. “There was a time when renters could escape to Orlando or Tampa, but those have grown expensive as well.”
Some questions the City Commission could explore are:
—Do they look at how short-term rentals affect the housing market?
—Do they make a tenant’s bill of rights to help renters understand the few protections they do have?
—Should the focus be on building truly affordable housing?
—Could rent control be an option?
“Are these options by themselves going to fix it? Maybe one piece helps one family, maybe a different one helps another family,” McVoy said. “I think the idea of just sitting and doing nothing is not acceptable.”
Not only do leaders have to prove and establish that there is an emergency “so grave as to constitute a serious menace to the general public,” they then have to bring it to the voters to decide on and have yearly elections to keep a rent-control ordinance in place.
Orange County leaders voted in a 4-3 vote earlier this month to put a rent-stabilization ordinance on the ballot in November. Already, they have had pushback, with the Florida Realtors and Florida Apartment Association Inc. filing a complaint against it.
Many landlords argue that they need to increase rents to keep up with the rise in property taxes and insurance costs. Some experts say that increasing supply would help control rent hikes, while rent control would dissuade developers from building more supply.
St. Petersburg, Florida, officials recently voted against declaring a state of emergency in regards to housing, effectively canceling any hope of putting rent control toward the voters, while Tampa, Florida, leaders also voted against putting it on the ballot.
Any measure for rent control in Lake Worth Beach would be almost a year in the making as the deadline to put it on the ballot in November has passed.
“That’s the worst part. We are casting thoughts about. One thought we had was can churches be of any help? Can they let people sleep on the floor? That is what the state of this suffering is now. We are just going to need a place so people aren’t sleeping outside,” McVoy said.
