Studer Community Institute

Pensacola is 3,000 units short of housing need

June 10, 2015
/ Carlton Proctor
/ training-development

There were scads of numbers and statistics paraded before the 100-plus people attending Pensacola Habitat for Humanity's Housing Summit earlier this week. But one number stood out above all the rest: 3,000. That's the estimated deficit of affordable housing units in the greater Pensacola community. How did Pensacola and Escambia County get so far behind? And what can the community do to lower that number, and meet the growing demand for affordable housing? Habitat Executive Director and summit host Tim Evans doesn't claim to have all the answers. But he's convinced pulling together community leaders and local housing experts and starting the conversation, is the best first step. Emceed by WEAR anchor Sue Straughn at Gulf Power Co.’s downtown headquarters, the summit attracted an impressive turnout of local developers, heads of nonprofits, and interested citizens. Keynote speaker was University of West Florida economist Rick Harper, who also serves as senior fellow at the Studer Community Institute. After an in-depth look at the local economy and jobs market, Harper closed in on what many agree are the underlying problems affecting housing affordability: Low wages and shortage of available units for rent or sale. "We have to raise the income of area residents," Harper said. "Tourism is only going to provide a sustainable wage unless it can build and sustain jobs year-round. You just can't do that when you've only got a 10-week summer tourist season." Low wages key to housing issues Tourism employs some 20,000 local residents and generates a dollar impact approaching $1 billion in the local economy. Yet its wages lag most other local industries. "Tourism is a large sector of the economy, but the downside is that three out of four tourism jobs pay less than the median wage," Harper said. In Escambia County, the median income is $43,918. One way to address a long-term solution, Harper says, is to turn tourism into a year-round industry that offers jobs paying wages that give its employees the means to buy or rent affordable housing. [caption id="attachment_24623" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Source: Pensacola Habitat for Humanity and the Center for Housing Policy.[/caption] That thought resonated with Evans. "My takeaway from the summit is what Dr. Harper said about trying to get wages up overall in the community and expanding the tourist season," Evans said. "I also think that it's important the city and county continue to find ways to expedite the process of clearing titles to vacant, infill properties and making them available to local affordable housing developers," he said. In addition to Evans, the summit's panel of experts included John Johnson, executive director for the EscaRosa Coalition on the Homeless; Abe Singh, executive director for the Area Housing Commission; Marcie Whitaker, administrator for the City of Pensacola's Community Development Block Grant program; and Carter Quina, a local architect and principle of Quina Grundhoefer Architects. Quina said the affordable housing needs in the Pensacola community cut across all demographics of age, race and income levels. "The affordable housing need is just as critical for those who are aging in this community, as to those younger citizens who are just starting out in their careers," Quina said. The path forward How Pensacola and Escambia County got so far behind in its inventory of affordable housing is likely a combination of lack of resources, poor planning and harsh economic conditions over the past decade. Harper noted that during the past 10 years, real wages, after discounting the impact of inflation, have fallen in the Pensacola community. What's more, Whitaker said that given the current minimum wage levels in Pensacola, a person would have to work two, full-time jobs to afford the average $850 cost of an apartment. [caption id="attachment_24621" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Source: Habitat for Humanity Pensacola and the Center for Housing Policy.[/caption] "What I'm stuck by is that we're 3,000 units short of what we need in this community," said Rick Dye, founder of Faith Works, a nonprofit organization helping people climb out of poverty and earn wages. "Honestly, I'm kind of ashamed that we've let ourselves get to this point here in 2015," Dye said. Dye said this situation begs the question: Who do we look to in this community to create the necessary housing at affordable prices that will allow the whole community to prosper? "Is it the public, private or nonprofit sectors? And which of those sectors have let us down over the years," he asked. "If we indeed are 3,000 units short of what we need, somebody in the great scheme of things is at fault." Evans said he wants to continue efforts, such as the summit, to raise awareness of the housing needs in the community and continue the conversation on how to solve those problems. "We want to keep looking at the local housing landscape and see if there's any low-hanging fruit that we can immediately address, and that we can help make happen as soon as possible," Evans said.

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Pensacola is 3,000 units short of housing need

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