Anyone who’s been priced out of Seminole Heights or Tampa Heights knows that the gap between the wealthy and the poor has never been more prevalent and more obvious in Tampa.
According to a new study from Apartment List, Tampa is currently ranked among the country’s largest metro areas for income inequality, with a wealth gap that jumped a whopping 16.2% between 2008 and 2017.
The study points out that Tampa’s richest residents now make 11.4 times the lower income residents, which is a considerable jump from 2008 when this ratio was 9.8.
While these numbers are pretty bleak, Philadelphia currently leads the country with a gap of 17.2, followed by New York City, and New Orleans. But Florida cities were also well represented in the study, with Orlando witnessing a massive 23% jump in wealth inequality over the same 10 year period, and Miami with a jump of 7.5%.
Arguably the largest culprit for this growing wealth gap is rising housing costs. “As incomes are growing fastest at the top of the income distribution, housing costs are doing the opposite,” said the study. “Americans in the bottom ten percent of the income distribution have experienced the most rapid growth in housing costs over the past ten years.”
In Tampa, the study found that over the last decade housing costs for people making more than the median income of $52,212 have gone down by 8%, while housing costs for people making below the median income have risen by 2%.
A lack of affordable housing isn’t just a Tampa issue, it’s been a growing problem across the state. According to a 2019 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Florida as a whole only has 26 available and affordable units per 100 renters, and those making the abhorrently low $8.46 an hour minimum wage are spending half their income on housing rather than basic needs.
According to a recent study from MIT, an adult needs to make $12.15 an hour, at the very least, to cover the absolute bare minimums in Hillsborough County.
This is a major problem, because as the Apartment List study suggests, housing markets and income inequality are directly linked and wealth gaps only benefit the rich. “If rising housing costs prevent those at the bottom of the income distribution from having capital to invest, relocate, or take risks, then moving up the income ladder becomes challenging. At the other end of the spectrum, falling mortgage rates can do the opposite for those already well off.”
There really isn’t one singular solution to this issue, but convincing Florida lawmakers to stop raiding the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Funds (so far they’ve milked at least $2 billion to date), and maybe increasing the state’s minimum wage to a “living wage,” we would at least be on the right track.
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