Housing

National legal aid organization Legal Services Corporation says 40% of the cases it closed last year were related to housing issues -- a record for any one type of case. The numbers reflect the same in Central Florida.

The housing information hotline rolled out by the city of Tampa in June 2022 was recently absorbed by the Tenant Services Team, the newest branch of the Housing and Community Development Department.

In June, nearly four in 10 Floridians relied on credit cards or loans to afford basic living expenses, like food or transportation.

Housing affordability in Florida is a struggle for a lot of people. A new report from the Florida Policy Project offers potential solutions to those challenges.

Tampa had a 4.8 percent year-over-year home-price increase, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

More than 1,500 renters were evicted in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties in March. That’s a 26 percent jump compared to January of 2020, according to data from the Eviction Lab.

In recent years, cities and counties, in Orange, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, have passed tenant “bill of rights” that go beyond a state law known as the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

Local agencies in the greater Tampa Bay region are set to receive more than $19 million in annual grant funding to address chronic homelessness in their communities.

The new law, dubbed the Live Local Act, marks a historic investment in affordable housing through a series of tax breaks, incentives for development and a record $811 million in funding.

Almost 2,900 eligible St. Petersburg communities and property owners have the option to convert their home or build up into four residences on a typical sized single-family lot.

More than half of non-residents who commute to jobs in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area earn less than $3,333 a month, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The country is suffering from a severe shortage of affordable housing. But elected officials have done little to fix a problem that puts many Americans at greater risk for sickness and shortens lives.