Rent has skyrocketed across the country. But in Florida it rises at an "abnormal" rate

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Zenith Word, 33, had hoped to stay another year in the two-bedroom apartment he rents for $1,000 a month in a diverse, urban suburb in northeast Tampa.

Word, who uses the pronoun they, are Army veterans with a disability, suspected that this winter's lease renewal might see a raise, but the new $1,300 figure completely alarmed them.

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Word scrambled to find another apartment, only to find that the rents were just as high.

Worried about ending up on the streets, Word trained their cat, Mau, to walk on a leash and get used to being carried in a backpack.

But it didn't come to that, Word said, because a friend living outside of Tampa offered them a spare room for $800 a month, which was available because a family member had died.

"Housing is a necessity, and it shouldn't be so scarce and hard to come by," Word said.

Angel D'Angelo outside his apartment in Riverview, Florida.Angel D'Angelo outside his apartment in Riverview, Florida.

/NBCnews

Across the Tampa and St. Petersburg metro area, renters are struggling with soaring housing costs.

The median rent for single-family homes, condo units and small multi-unit buildings

, according to an analysis by Florida real estate academics. that they shared with our sister network NBC News.

Their study examined the Tampa Bay area, which includes St. Petersburg, as well as three other Florida cities, Fort Myers, Miami and Orlando, where units were leasing as of early 2021 below the historical average.

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They found an even bigger change than they had expected: Rents have risen in all four markets, between 24% and 32%, and at a rate the researchers had never previously recorded.

In a typical year, rents range from 1% to 2%.

“This is all pretty abnormal, and what surprises me most is the magnitude of the differences in the numbers,” said study co-author Ken H. Johnson, associate dean of the Florida Atlantic University College of Business.

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Across the country, other recent real estate analyzes have found similar spikes, with Miami and Tampa often at the top of the list, as well as Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona;

Las Vegas;

San Diego;

and the New York City area.

In Florida,

.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that there are 28 affordable rental homes in the state for every 100 extremely low-income renters, or people earning no more than 30% of their area median income.

That's the worst ratio in the Southeast and one of the lowest nationally.

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The problem is especially acute in the Tampa Bay market, where the population is about 3.1 million.

The pandemic has drawn thousands more people to its beachside communities and the vacancy rate has fallen, creating a pronounced housing shortage that experts don't think will improve any time soon.

The staggering rise in rents is hitting people across the socioeconomic spectrum, according to housing experts, and fueling a crisis in which tenant advocates, real estate and local political leaders are clashing over possible solutions.

“People say they are spending 50% or 60% of their income on rent while it keeps going up,” said Karla Correa, 22, one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Tenants Union.

"It's unsustainable," she added.

"Basic Economics"

Central Florida's Gulf Coast has become a top relocation destination, with Tampa trailing only Miami and Phoenix as the top US cities where people want to move, according to a migration report from home buyers that the real estate company Redfin published last week.

Housing experts say the population influx was driven by Florida's pandemic restrictions and shift to telecommuting, as well as the lure of lower taxes and warmer weather.

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And it comes at a time when the local housing market is hot: The typical Tampa home is worth nearly $375,000, an increase of more than 31% from a year ago, compared with a 20% increase in value. of homes nationwide, according to a Zillow analysis.

Meanwhile, experts say,

.

Development has been hampered by the challenges of securing land, meeting building and zoning requirements, and sourcing materials amid supply chain shortages.

"If it's too expensive to buy a house, it's going to continue to be rented," said Corianne Scally, a research fellow at the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank focused on social policy issues.

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In December, Angel D'Angelo learned that the rent on his one-bedroom apartment in Riverview, a suburb of Tampa, would increase by nearly $300 a month to $1,630.

D'Angelo, who works in contracting for an insurance company, had already postponed replacing his car after an accident last summer and was now facing another unforeseen expense.

He called the management company and negotiated the increase to $205 more per month.

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“I don't know how lucky I'll be next time,” D'Angelo said.

Frank LoTurco, vice president of Picerne Real Estate Group, which oversees D'Angelo's apartment complex, acknowledged that the company has recently raised rents after limiting increases during the pandemic.

The reason?

“Basic economics,” he said, noting that more people are clamoring for such housing.

“From the point of view of market conditions, we will do our best to obviously make a profit,” LoTurco said, “but at the same time, we are not trying to harm residents.”

Correa knows that many tenants' fears of losing their homes are well founded.

From the bedroom of his apartment in downtown St. Petersburg, he can see a shelter for the homeless. Octavio Jones / NBC News

D'Angelo worries what rising rents will mean for his 59-year-old mother as she nears retirement.

Tens of thousands of retirees flock to Florida each year, but many older residents can't even cut back on part-time work if they want to afford housing.

“If these things are not controlled, how are we going to be able to pay for her to live somewhere?” D'Angelo said.

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Christopher Lai, a real estate agent in Tampa for more than 15 years, doesn't think the rental market is anywhere near leveling off, as hedge fund investors continue to pick up homes at a record pace.

Lai said some of those investors are renting houses at a 30% increase compared to a few years ago.

"This is a full blown crisis," Lai said.

"People want to buy a house, to move up, but now you can have a whole generation of tenants who won't be able to buy it because it's too expensive."

Activists push for rent control

State and local leaders have attempted to address the affordability issue by increasing and improving Florida's housing supply.

Lawmakers earmarked $362.7 million for affordable housing efforts, including paying for lower-cost home repairs and helping first-time homebuyers with down payments.

St. Petersburg dedicated at least $34.3 million of its stimulus money to affordable housing, while Tampa this month launched a $5 million emergency rental assistance program and has allocated public land for new housing. Low cost. 

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St. Petersburg officials have also recently discussed changing zoning regulations and increasing the density that developers can build.

In 2019, the City Council made it possible for homeowners to build small apartments on their land, often known as

or

, which can be rented out. 

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But tenant advocates want more. 

The St. Petersburg Tenants Union has called for rent control, or caps on the rents that landlords can charge.

Florida law does not allow this type of freeze, but some advocates have called on the City Council to declare a state of emergency on housing and hold a referendum on the issue.

A council subcommittee voted against the idea last month. 

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Rent control is also facing opposition from industry groups, including the National Apartment Association, which lobbies on behalf of landlords.

Instead, Greg Brown, the group's vice president of government affairs, wants federal legislation to encourage more homeowners to participate in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 program, which helps low-income families pay living place. 

Low-income tenant advocates support more federal funding for Section 8, but they also want bigger changes.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition advocates for a federal rental assistance fund, like the temporary assistance programs that were put in place during the pandemic.

And Correa, the organizer of the St. Petersburg Tenants Union, suggests that the city reuse empty homes for people in need. 

Correa said the consequences of the rent escalation have stretched across generations.

At last month's rally outside City Hall, he saw an elderly protester carrying a sign warning, "

" 

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Correa believes that the fear is well founded.

In February 2020, just before the pandemic began, a team from the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative counted nearly 1,500 homeless people.

An employee helping homeless families with children in the Pinellas County school district, which is part of the Tampa Bay region, said calls for assistance have increased 3,000% in the last year. 

From the bedroom of Correa's apartment in central St. Petersburg, he can see a shelter for the homeless.

“People want to talk about human rights abuses in other countries, but look at what is happening in our own city.

I don't know how the government allows this to happen,” she lamented.