Pandemic to worsen Orlando’s affordable housing shortage

ORLANDO, Fla. — Editor’s note: This story is available as a result of a content partnership between WFTV and the Orlando Business Journal.

Orlando is already short tens of thousands of affordable homes, and may fall further behind as the coronavirus pandemic triggers job losses while housing costs stay high.

Among the Orlando metro area’s population that earns 50% or less of the area’s median income, there is an existing 91,000-unit shortage, according to a 2019 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. That encompasses all housing types, from single-family homes to apartments.

Orlando’s affordable housing situation is already at the level of a crisis, and economic fallout from the pandemic — including job loss, evictions and foreclosures — will only exacerbate the issue, said Cliff Long, CEO of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. It’ll take collaboration from the public and private sectors to make a dent in this shortage, Long said.

Click here to read Alex Soderstrom’s story on the Orlando Business Journal’s website.

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