Looking for affordable housing in Palm Beach County? New tool shows what’s available

Nearly 8,000 affordable or workforce housing units either already exist or are planned in Palm Beach County, and current or prospective residents can look through them all in a new county tool, county officials say.

On Friday, the county announced the launch of its affordable and workforce housing dashboard, offered on the following website: https://discover.pbcgov.org/HED/Pages/Countywide-Housing-Dashboard-.aspx

People can use the tool to look for affordable housing opportunities across the county, some of which are already completed and some of which are still under construction.

Of those nearly 8,000 units, 5,668 are completed, 505 are under construction and 1,654 are in the pre-development phase, according to the latest dashboard figures shown Friday afternoon. The county may continue to update the dashboard as new projects arise.

The dashboard is intended to serve as an extra resource for people looking for options during the current housing crisis, Jonathan Brown, the county’s director of housing and economic development, said in a statement.

Key findings

According to the dashboard, much of the affordable and workforce housing options can be found in a cluster within the greater West Palm Beach area in municipalities such as Riviera Beach and Mangonia Park.

Nearly 5,000 affordable and workforce housing units are concentrated in this district, with 4,125 of those completed, 365 under construction and 408 in the pre-development stage, meaning they will begin construction in the future.

The need for affordable housing options in this area makes sense after a recent study conducted Florida International University identified areas where poverty rates remain extremely high, which they found in areas in the greater West Palm Beach area.

Here’s how the county’s other pockets fare with affordable housing offerings, according to the dashboard:

— Near Jupiter and Juno Beach, 144 completed housing units exist in three different projects.

— In a region that encompasses parts of West Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Palm Springs and Greenacres, more than 700 completed affordable and workforce housing options are scattered throughout, with more than 400 units in the pre-development phase.

— In West Delray and West Boca, more than 200 completed housing units have risen with 17 under construction and 14 in the pre-development phase.

— More than 700 homes are in the pre-development stage in the more rural municipalities of Belle Glade and Pahokee.

According to county documents, a two-person household that brings in $51,420 or less, for example, could pay about $1,200 for an affordable one-bedroom unit. If that same two-person household instead brought in nearly $120,000, then their monthly rent could hover more around $2,800 for a one-bedroom unit.

Jack Weir, the board of directors chairman for the Housing Leadership Council of Palm Beach County, said the dashboard is a step in the right direction because “we have been trying to get more information out on the amount of workforce and affordable housing units in existence,” he said.

Providing this information is important in two ways, he said: One way is so that county residents can know what’s already available and what’s coming online, and another way is so that people can see which municipalities or unincorporated parts of the county are producing a lot of affordable housing options and which are lagging behind.

“It’s similar to standings in a sport,” he said.

Other efforts in the works

This dashboard is the latest initiative in a string of efforts by the county to tackle the affordable housing crisis. In May, different developers stepped forward to apply for chunks of the county’s $200 million affordable housing bond resulting in the approval of three more affordable housing projects.

Last year, the Housing Leadership Council had also discussed a “Housing For All” initiative that would aim to create 20,000 workforce and affordable housing units by 2032, part of which would be funded by the bond.