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We've been sharing some of the results of the "What Tampa Bay Needs" survey, and as expected, housing and affordability made up a huge chunk of the submissions.
Readers feel like they're working all the time, they're worried about the rising costs of rent and insurance, and they're desperate for solutions. We were grateful to the many who chimed in, and we're hopeful that some of their concerns below will have been assuaged when the next leap day arrives.
Better cost of living. Businesses won't succeed when our customers are having to make the choice of paying high housing costs, taxes and insurance premiums or going out to dinner. That's if they can even afford to own a home since the rental market is so out of touch with what the average annual income is.—Jeni Armstrong, owner Corner Club Tampa
Affordable commercial and residential rent and insurance. It's just simply a greedy market these days that most people can't afford anymore. No idea how to make it a reality at this point. —Keith Ulrey, Owner Microgroove
Affordable housing for all and affordable home insurance for those getting priced out. We are pricing many people out of many areas of Tampa Bay. We can't remain a healthy community when modest incomes aren't enough to provide stable housing. Build more affordable communities instead of high-priced condos so that those who work in downtown areas can afford to be close to work.—Maggie Hall
We are destroying arts and culture and making this city unaffordable for the people who make it. We need to stop selling our city out to the highest bidders who are destroying culture in the name of high-end condos with expensive retail below. Affordable housing now!—Matt Slate
Tampa Bay needs better public transportation. Perhaps a rail system connecting all the communities across Pinellas and Hillsborough county. Rent prices need to be controlled. The cost of living/buying a home needs to be controlled. People’s salaries need to be raised in order to reflect the cost of living. We need easier and better access for those in our communities. We need more resources for the unhoused population.—Sarah Eddinger
Affordable housing and child care. So many are ending up homeless due to rental increases. Build homes that don't cost a fortune, no more highrises and upper class condos. We need simple affordable structures.—Antonette Deforest, Director, Dinner and Duds for the Homeless
Tampa Bay is becoming unaffordable to people who actually live here. If you want to keep a vibrant area people need to actually live in it. And not just one demographic. Tampa needs affordable housing, not just for the very poor but for the middle class. Reasonable rents, and housing prices that aren't out of the reach of anybody making less than $200,000 a year. And please stop destroying parks and green spaces in St Pete. And if you expect people to go to downtown areas in both St Pete and Tampa we need more parking at reasonable prices. Especially in Pinellas County and St Pete, we need public transportation that actually works that doesn't take you an hour to go 4 miles. Cheaper parking at the beaches for locals not just hyperlocals.—Michelle Cloutier
Make Tampa a more walkable/bike able city. With more sidewalks and bike paths. I live in West Tampa and we are way behind South Tampa. Public transportation that doesn’t take two hours and where you’re not at risk of being stabbed. Maybe more buses or a monorail. More affordable housing. Less luxury development. Public transportation is going to be the only way the downtown business sector and Ybor can scale considering there’s limited parking. A monorail to the major neighborhoods could be interesting. Down the middle of Kennedy to Dale Mabry, Westshore, Tampa, the base, downtown, channelside and Ybor. More affordable housing combined with public transportation to let people who work jobs in the city live a reasonable distance.—Tommy Dragon
Upzoning to townhomes and quadruplexes throughout neighborhoods. Encourage very high density within a quarter-mile radius of high frequency transit corridors to incentivize low-car households. Less car-dependent infrastructure.
The only people who make the city cool are leaving. The artists are leaving, the musicians, etc. The cool people are being priced out. I have lived in Saint Pete for my 27 years of life. My peers are being priced out. They cannot afford to live here even though they'd love to.
We have an immense undersupply of housing and it needs to be solved before we lose the last of what makes this city interesting. We easily could, we just need a bit of political will.
This is due to a policy decision to exclusively allow single-family housing for the vast majority of parcels in our area. Our region flourished and developed before there were arbitrary requirements on density. We should take the hint and get rid of our currently overly prescriptive policy.
Eliminate minimum parking requirements as all they do is further push people away from viable alternatives and spread out areas that could easily be walkable so long as there wasn't a parking lot 2x the footprint of the building in the way...
Safe neighborhood greenways/bike boulevards to get bikes off of the major roads. We have an incredibly high pedestrian fatality rate and it seems that we are still obsessed with throughput as the only goal, those peoples lives were just a byproduct of only basing our transit network around the automobile.
We have unelected zoning officials(Elizabeth Abernathy and Derek Kilborn) that put their own personal preferences over the good of the city, whether that be under the guise of the nebulous 'neighborhood character' or more recently, them preventing 'gentrification'.
Allow double ADUs throughout.
Mixed-use should be allowed throughout all residential areas to allow fruit stands, barbershops, and other daily needs within walking distance. This eliminates a large number of car trips and promotes social cohesion to meet your neighbors.
This city is becoming soulless due to arbitrary policy positions pushing residents out.
Remove them.—Warren Willingham
Public transportation (train/trolley), affordable housing, lower insurance rates, no more tasteless modern build, control of out of state real estate investors and short term rentals, more third spaces, more public funding of the arts, more art galleries and music venues. Tampa is quickly becoming an unaffordable copy of every city undergoing similar growth. Our culture is being leeched as out of state people come pushing locals out. We need to encourage middle class to thrive here and encourage the underground local arts to continue here to preserve any culture we might have left.—Hannah Lorra
Affordable housing. I have been a volunteer helping the underserved for at least 30 yrs. It has never been so bad! Pantries have at least three times as many families and homeless in need. Hotels are full of single moms with kids who can ‘t find affordable housing. No rent assistance available in Tampa. TECO assistance is spotty. TECO assistance is sometimes available again after a long period of nothing. At the first of the month there is funding and then gone in days. Public housing wait lists are five years long or more. A neighbor told me last week that he was told by a friend that if he paid a person $2,000 up front he could be moved to the front of the waitlist at Tampa housing.—Mary Jane Sultenfuss
Affordable housing, rent caps and laws on short term rentals. The cost of living is outweighing the pay. Tampa natives are being priced out of where they grew up and want to live. I own a small business and it's ridiculous that cheap rent is still over 30% of my pay, some people paying close to 50%. Pass the laws and enforce them and make it easier for people to add ADUs on their property.—Amara Stasko
The last two years of storms have really done a number on the homeowners insurance industry. My own policy went up 90% year over year last year. Same house, hasn’t moved, zero claims, 90% rate hike. Thatwould absolutely ruin a person on a fixed income, a person that’s lived in a generational home, that’s paid off, all of a sudden can’t afford the insurance they need to protect their property from catastrophe. That’s not OK. I’d love to see some kind of legislature “Homestead” exemption like we have on property tax apply to homeowner’s insurance, if that’s even possible at the local city level. Something specific that only extends to one property (outside of the Evacuation zone A, as this zone is generally composed of higher income, higher value luxury homes) that’s a primary residence. —Devon Ingandela
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