As I was picking up a bottle of water and a Fast Company magazine at the San Francisco airport this morning, I hear the news streaming the story about the housing "riot" in Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend. I couldn't pay fast enough... I wanted to find out more about the story!
According to the Sun Sentinel, approximately 4500 people showed up at the Housing Authority of Ft. Lauderdale when they announced that new Section 8 housing had become available. However, the agency completely underestimated the demand and only had 3000 applications ready. The application process shut down early and the police were called when the crowd "grew unruly".
Points to remember: 4500 people showed up BEFORE EIGHT IN THE MORNING to receive assistance. In actuality, people were lining up on Friday night in front of the building - the police had to cordon off the street and set up barricades due to the high demand. The Housing Authority had 3000 applications. They are quoted as saying that "it was a much larger crowd than anticipated...." and are unsure of how many applications actually got distributed. So... what happens now?
People got angry, to say the least. Ft. Lauderdale has been one of the cities that has been the hardest hit by the housing crisis (8th highest foreclosure rate in Florida - one out of every 182 homes in some state of foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac), and many of the people that are applying for assistance have been displaced by foreclosure. The Housing Authority distributed flyers and ran ads promoting this assistance, and then shut it down when they received a deluge of response. What is their plan of action to attend to the obvious need?
The need is great, and even that feels like a massive understatement. Based on this one example, is it possible that the government agencies - federal, state, and local alike - are underestimating the housing crisis, and the affect on all aspects of American homeownership?
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