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Luxury apartments and condos continue to pop up in downtown Tampa, but there are still limited options for affordable housing in the region.
Housing affordability was a hot topic at this year’s State of Tampa’s Downtown forum, hosted by Tampa Downtown Partnership on Tuesday.
Leaders gathered at a downtown conference to discuss the limited affordable housing options in and around Tampa’s downtown.
Bemetra Simmons with the Tampa Bay Partnership says the city consistently ranks top for migration, but lowest for wages.
“We’ve gotta find a way to expand the amount of housing that we have, while at the same time increasing higher-wage jobs here in the community,” Simmons said.
Leroy Moore is the Senior Vice President and COO of the Tampa Housing Authority.
Moore joined other panelists in calling for more government incentives for developers to build affordable housing.
“It’s sad, but I can give you two examples in the downtown market in the last two years where we’ve had market rate developers interested and desirous of including affordable units in their market rate luxury development and could not, you know, get the deal negotiated at our governmental level,” Moore said.
Also on the panel was the President of affordable housing development company Blue Sky Communities Shawn Wilson.
Wilson spoke about making the city less car-reliant and reducing minimum parking standards for developers.
“You may get a block where it’s nice and interesting, but then you’re also walking across a sea of asphalt and you’re going through five minutes of misery. As somebody who walks and bikes everywhere, the misery factor is way worse than heat and the humidity,” Wilson said.
Tampa’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee meets June 3rd.
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