The 2020 Palm Beach County Affordable Housing Needs Assessment provides a current market perspective on the key demand and supply factors impacting the production and availability of affordable housing in the County and major municipalities. The report provides a clear understanding of the scope and scale of Palm Beach County’s affordable housing issues and includes a data-driven platform for policy direction. Developing policies to alleviate the County’s critical affordable housing needs requires a full understanding of the dynamics of the housing market and the economic contexts underpinning affordable housing. This understanding and perspective has been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As such, the Affordable Housing Needs Assessment has been written to help expand the importance of affordable housing – to recognize that affordable housing is critical to Palm Beach County’s economic resilience and the health and well-being of its residents.
- The Affordable Housing Needs Assessment reached several critical conclusions:
The scope and scale of Palm Beach County’s affordable housing needs are substantial and impact a broad spectrum of economic and social issues; - Without a carefully crafted affordable housing response, the COVID-19 pandemic will extend economic hardship for many Palm Beach County working families and households for years to come;
- Renter households are the most vulnerable due to extended job loss, existing low household incomes, and excessive cost-burden levels;
- An aggressive post-COVID affordable housing response is required to serve as a stabilizer in the short-term and a more coherent and impactful affordable housing development delivery system in the long-term to help overcome current and persistent levels of distress while better preparing for inevitable future shocks.
- The scope and scale of Palm Beach County’s affordable housing needs in the post-COVID-19 economy will demand a much greater public, private, and philanthropic response.