It’s not breaking news: America is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis.
Half of U.S. renters are considered rent-burdened, spending 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities — a record high. We’re short more than seven million affordable, available rental homes for extremely low-income Americans.
State by state, city by city, millions of Americans are struggling. Many are living on the streets of our largest metropolitan areas. The struggle is so real that affordable housing has emerged as a top political issue in 2024. According to the latest polling, 77% of Americans report an affordable housing crisis in their local communities, with even more (80%) claiming their city and county officials are not doing enough to solve the problem.
Never before have so many people — across the political aisle — agreed that the housing affordability problem needs to be solved now, not later.
It is perhaps the most unifying issue of our time, especially in Florida. Nearly 60% of Floridians personally know someone suffering because of the affordable housing crisis, with almost 80% of South Florida residents urging local officials to take action on the issue. Three out of four of Miami residents say the current cost of living is not manageable.
So how do we tackle it? There are several practical solutions to consider — from rent control to new construction to adaptive reuse, which converts existing buildings into affordable housing. In truth, all of these should be on the table.
But, first and foremost, we need to agree on one thing: All Americans should have a roof over their heads, with no exceptions. Once we agree on that, today’s problem solvers need to acknowledge that solutions are not necessarily straightforward or obvious. They are situation-dependent, subject to change based on a given city or state. There are numerous constraints and challenges, such as infrastructure, zoning regulations and costs, and they influence design decisions within the built environment.
Only through partnerships can we hope to overcome these obstacles. This is not a public or private sector issue. To the contrary, it’s going to take all of us together. Academia too will play a pivotal role, grooming the next generation of problem solvers to tackle affordable housing.
Fortunately, we already have a viable case study in place. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) — the world’s largest HIV/AIDS organization and a firm believer that housing is the number one social determinant of health — recently partnered with a professional architecture office, Fort Lauderdale-based Glavovic Studio, and an academic institution, Florida Atlantic University, to approach the affordable housing crisis from different perspectives.
Most design studios within architecture schools like FAU’s operate within the autonomy of an academic silo. But FAU and other leaders in the architecture field no longer can sit this one out. The stakes are too high, and the problem too critical in regions like South Florida, with one of America’s largest growing populations and not enough affordable housing to accommodate sky-high demand.
Scrambling to pay rent or being priced out of communities altogether, college students and recent graduates understand the need for affordable housing better than most. Consider Miami, where recent grads barely can afford 2% of the city’s rental market.
Young Americans bring creative brain power that can translate into unique, previously underused approaches to affordable housing. Through the FAU partnership, students developed a guidebook to help identify which kinds of existing vacant properties may be most viable for affordable housing projects. They then developed comprehensive architectural designs on specific sites in South Florida. The students also took advantage of the state’s new “Live Local Act,” which allows certain properties to be rezoned for housing.
Over time, the FAU students’ design proposals will become new models for adaptive reuse and sustainable living in the South Florida region. As Dr. Joseph Choma, Director of FAU’s School of Architecture, put it, “pragmatic constraints” are “poetic design opportunities.” Imagine if the same partnership model is applied in other cities across America, from New York to Los Angeles.
We are facing an unprecedented housing affordability crisis, but there is still hope. It is still a solvable problem, as long as we work together.
Margi Glavovic Nothard is the founder and design director of Glavovic Studio in Fort Lauderdale. Ebonni Chrispin, of Pompano Beach, serves as director of legislative affairs and community engagement at AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
