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<\/p>\nPALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 More than 3,000 people responded to a WPTV Facebook post regarding our recent coverage of wages and rents in South Florida \u2014 and the message was clear: rising housing costs are pushing South Florida residents to a breaking point.<\/p>\n
WATCH BELOW: Rising rents consuming 50% of income for many South Florida residents<\/p>\n
South Florida rent crisis: Palm Beach County proposes $228.7M to help<\/p>\n
Below is a snapshot of some of the responses to the Facebook post:<\/p>\n
“The challenge is high prices and low wages,” one person said.<\/p>\n
“I’m wondering if these landlords were looking for a place, what their thoughts would be,” another person said.<\/p>\n
“So what is going to be done about this?” another commenter said, which doesn’t seem easy to answer.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Ned Murray at the Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center at Florida International University, many renters in South Florida are now using 50% of their income on rent, far above the traditional baseline of 30%.<\/p>\n
“Things really begin to break down, and that is increasing rapidly, and in fact here in South Florida, including Palm Beach (County) we have $320,000 renters who are now in that 50 percent and over category,” Murray said.<\/p>\n
Tackling affordability in housing is being talked about a lot lately, and it is on the minds of local elected officials.<\/p>\n
“It is the most difficult thing we have to deal with; it is the one thing we get calls about every single day,” Palm Beach County Commissioner Bobby Powell said.<\/p>\n
In the current proposed budget for Palm Beach County, $228.7 million has been directed to housing programs, such as the Housing Initiatives Program and the Housing Bond Program.<\/p>\n
“What we can do is when we allocate funds we can make sure that rents don’t go over a certain amount,” Powell said. “There are some units we approved on July 7 that won’t be over 60 percent of the area median income.”<\/p>\n
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