Suddenly Daisy Yant had nowhere to live. The Tallahassee single mother of three teenage sons lost her job of 16 years, then lost her home of 13 years. "It was hard," she said. "I felt beat up by the world and I couldn't handle it, but it made me stronger." In 2001, after living with her mother for several years, she moved into the Orange Avenue apartment complex owned by the Tallahassee Housing Authority. Yant, 48, has lived there ever since.
But Tallahassee has a shortage of such affordable apartments for people with low incomes. Rents are increasing much faster than incomes, creating one of the state's greatest burdens for renters. Though apartments are all over town, many are geared toward students. Suddenly Daisy Yant had nowhere to live. The Tallahassee single mother of three teenage sons lost her job of 16 years, then lost her home of 13 years. "It was hard," she said. "I felt beat up by the world and I couldn't handle it, but it made me stronger."
In 2001, after living with her mother for several years, she moved into the Orange Avenue apartment complex owned by the Tallahassee Housing Authority. Yant, 48, has lived there ever since. But Tallahassee has a shortage of such affordable apartments for people with low incomes. Rents are increasing much faster than incomes, creating one of the state's greatest burdens for renters. Though apartments are all over town, many are geared toward students. "Even if they set it up for families, it ends up getting mixed with students," Yant said. "A lot of the cheaper places are far from the city and are not convenient for transportation."
City officials are placing more emphasis on affordable rentals. Some public-private efforts are in the works. Still, the affordable-housing gap is expected to widen because of the expense of building new units. "For a long time we focused on [owning a home], and the reality is that some people at the low-income level won't have the ability to do this," said City Commissioner Andrew Gillum. "What can you do to meet their needs short of homeless shelters or living with relatives?"
The greatest need in Tallahassee is affordable rentals for people making no more than 60 percent of the area's median income, Gillum said. For a single person, that's $35,000 a year or less. According to Carolinas Real Data, which assesses rental markets, average rent in Leon County has increased from $590 in 2000 to between $850 and $900. But while average rent has increased at least 44 percent, income has increased by only 23 percent, according to the Agency for Workforce Innovation.
That puts renters in a squeeze. According to the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse, two-thirds of renter households spend more than 30 percent of their annual income on rent. "Apartment rents in Tallahassee are driven by student housing, suite-style apartments," said Jim Croteau, president of the 21st Century Council, which compiles information on the quality of life in Leon County. "The property values in town are so high that if you want to develop and make a profit, you have to build for students or residents with high income — and that forces out affordable rental housing.
"The real issue is if the working person, the teacher, is struggling to make it, how do you afford to live here after you graduate?" Crystal Joseph is struggling with that problem. Joseph, from Baton Rouge, La., has been renting in Tallahassee for three years and is completing her Ph.D. at Florida A&M. She's working full time, but her $30,000-a-year job won't likely let her stay after graduation. "The job market is not very good when you think about bills and apartment prices," she said. "It's not feasible. "Something's going to have to give."
City leaders say they're
Source: Tallahassee.com