TAMPA, Fla. — When it comes to affordable housing, experts say every community is impacted differently, particularly minority communities. That’s why a national organization that started in the Tampa Bay area, is coming together to see how they can change that.
What You Need To Know
In a Thursday night meeting, Realtors from all over the Tampa Bay Area will join residents, politicians and political candidates to talk about how they can impact the affordable housing crisis in the area
The National Association of Real Estate Brokers is an organization founded in Tampa in the 1940s when they say Black Realtors weren’t allowed
There are a number of NAREB events this week in St. Pete and Tampa that people searching for a home are encouraged to attend
There’s a one story brick home on a corner lot in St. Pete that’s a dream come true for Damian Marriott.
Marriot is thinking about building generational wealth for his family and he said right now, buying his first home at 46 years-old just makes sense.
“Stability, in case anything happens you can leave for loved ones and kids,” he said. “What I realize is owning a home is gonna be much better and cheaper than owning your own home and bigger space.”
It’s something he didn’t think he would ever be able to do. Now, thanks to the funding from a first-time homebuyer program through the city, he’ll close on this home in the next month if all goes as planned.
“Right now we have a shortage of supply. And that’s big. We have a shortage of supply because we’re 26,000 units down. So, we need 26,000 houses to even catch up right now. That means we don’t even have enough affordable houses for people to get in,” National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Hillsborough County President, Keianna Carty said.
Carty explained how the National Association of Real Estate Brokers is an organization founded in Tampa in the 1940s when they say Black Realtors weren’t allowed.
“What we do is, we make sure not only do we have the market with housing, we also make sure there’s fair housing. So, in 1968, the Fair Housing Bill passed and that was in part due to the work NAREB put out for that,” she said.
She said they examined a report their organization uses that has data that shows numbers of minority home buyers is noticeably lower and it’s not showing signs of improvement.
“Usually our African American communities are impacted and our Latino communities are impacted, generally just generation wise, they’re making a lot less money. So, because of that, they are very much impacted on home ownership,” she said.
So, NAREB is getting back to the basics this week. In a Thursday night meeting, Realtors from all over the Tampa Bay Area joined residents, politicians and political candidates to talk about how they can impact the affordable housing crisis in the area.
“We’re asking them to come and talk to us about fair housing and what that looks like and an affordability crisis and what the city and the state are gonna do to help us at this time where we’re trying to get people in homes,” she said.
That’s the kind of intentional leadership people like Marriott say is going to be needed to make sure more people like him get in the home of their dreams.
There are a number of NAREB events this week in St. Pete and Tampa that people searching for a home are encouraged to attend. Events in Pinellas and events in Hillsborough are available.