TAMPA, Fla. — Do you think things in Tampa are feeling a little crowded? Well, the City of Tampa is expecting to see somewhere around a 20% increase in households in the city over the next seven years.
Now, city leaders have to figure out how to accommodate that growth without displacing the people who already live here.
At Thursday’s city council meeting, councilmembers got an update on one of the biggest issues in the city: housing.
“People say don’t New York my Florida,” councilman Luis Viera said. “I say, don’t Miami my Tampa…the middle class and those struggling to get into the middle class have been priced out.”
In a new quarterly report, city staff says they have spent over $12 million of the $26.5 million set aside for housing funds this fiscal year.
They say the money has gone toward homeless services, rental assistance, home ownership, acquisition and rehab of properties, and public services.
There has been a push for rental assistance to fight rising prices, but Thursday, councilmembers mentioned the need to look long-term, and help residents get into homeownership. But, there are hurdles with that.
“Homeownership in this city will look different moving forward,” councilwoman Lynn Hurtak said. “We don’t have enough land for everyone to have an individual single-family home.”
Councilmembers say they may have to look at reworking zoning codes as they find new ways to build more densely.