Florida’s housing crisis: The Puerto Rican face of evictions

By Laura González Alverio | Centro de Periodismo Investigativo
Marilyn Vázquez’s smile fades when she recalls her experiences in 2022. It’s not easy to recount how she ended up on the streets, gave away most of her belongings, and crammed what was left into a hotel room in Kissimmee, Florida, where she lived for a year.
It’s difficult for her to talk about it because she knows this scenario could happen again at any moment.
“No one tells you how to survive if you have to live in a hotel, what you must do,” she says. “I spent six months crying. I didn’t want to go back to the room. I kept asking myself what I was doing there, what I did wrong… It was very hard,” she recalls.
Vázquez, 54, has lived in Kissimmee, a city in Osceola County, Florida, for three decades. This county and Orange County have the highest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the state. She has six grown children living in different parts of the United States but hesitates to reach out, fearing she might be a ‘burden.’
Since 2018, Vázquez has been living in an apartment complex in Kissimmee. However, by the end of 2022, she found herself on the street with nowhere to go. “I was paying around $800 there. But they [the managers] started getting rid of the old tenants and bringing in new ones due to a ‘complex restructuring.’ And they raised the rent,” she explains. Her rent increased to $1,100.

When she tried to find another place to live, she experienced what many Florida residents faced after the pandemic: high rental costs.
According to the real estate platform Zillow, as of December 30, 2024, the median rent in Florida was 20% higher than the median in the United States. The rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Orlando is around $1,450.
By the end of 2023, Vázquez recovered and found housing in the apartment complex where she still lives in Cameron Preserve, Kissimmee. Initially, she paid $904 a month, but within less than a year, the rent increased to $1,029.

Vázquez’s situation worsened last July after an accident at her job as a supervisor in the Maintenance Department of the hotel where she had lived for almost a year.
Shortly after, she lost her job. One morning, she found an eviction notice on her door. Eviction is a legal process through which the property owner or rights holder requests a court order to have the occupant, whether tenant or lessee, vacate the property.
“I was so desperate,” she says, watching her cat Oreo roam the empty living room of her apartment. “I started packing what I had. I thought we would have to sleep in the car. Back on the street again,” she said through tears.

Vázquez began contacting community organizations and found a church group that offered her the money she needed to pay that month’s rent and avoid eviction. This gave her time to apply for workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits. However, the fear of being left without a safe place to live haunts her.
A silent community
An annual census of homeless people in Central Florida, prepared by the Homeless Services Network, found that as of January 2024, there were 2,883 people without secure housing across Osceola, Seminole, and Orange counties. Of that total, 1,682 were housed in shelters. The report indicates a 28% increase in homelessness in the area compared to the last count in 2023. Similarly, the entity reported a 105% increase in the number of people without shelter — specifically those without space in emergency shelters.
It was also discovered that, for the first time, more than half of the homeless people aged 65 and older live without shelter.
The federal government, specifically the Department of Housing and Urban Development, requires this census for people experiencing homelessness to understand the population in need and allocate funds to organizations dedicated to distributing aid.
According to Martha Are, director of Homeless Services Network, most of the cases in the census were citizens who had secure housing before the pandemic surge in 2020.
“Some of these people were still housed somewhere but faced the prospect of becoming homeless soon, had difficulty paying rent or mortgage, or had already received an eviction notice,” the organization says about its findings.
In addition to dealing with an eviction order, homeless people also face social stigma.
“Puerto Ricans keep quiet about their needs,” says Marytza Sanz, director of Latino Leadership, which aids low-income Latino communities through health clinics, housing guidance, and education programs. “I know there are people who work at Disney and sleep in the parking lot. The magic exists at Disney and nothing else,” adds Sanz, who helps Puerto Ricans newly arriving in Florida through the organization she leads.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do”
“There are days when I sit here and don’t move,” says Clara Miranda, her gaze lost toward the garage door of the house where she stays, where some boxes with what’s left of her belongings are piled up.
After a pause, Miranda adds with a broken voice: “I stay still, processing how I lost everything overnight.”
To avoid having an eviction order affect her credit history, Miranda gave up the house she rented in Hernando County, where she had lived with her 10 and 21-year-old sons for five years. Before that, she did everything she could to pay the rent after losing her job in October 2023 following a car accident.
In the United States, once a person enters the eviction process and has a debt to settle, the notification or negative mark goes directly to a credit agency that prepares a credit report for each individual. Even if the person manages to pay off the debt and avoid eventual eviction, the blemish can remain on their record for up to seven years, sometimes longer.
This process can appear as a public record anytime a landlord conducts a background check on a tenant. It is independent of the tenant’s credit history, and unlike marks that remain on credit reports for seven years, the record of this legal process can be maintained indefinitely.

Miranda and her family were about to sleep in their car, which she eventually gave to the bank because she couldn’t pay.
Currently, Miranda and her sons sleep on the couch in her mother’s living room. Her mother also struggles to survive paycheck to paycheck in the Kissimmee area. Miranda’s sister, daughter, and her mother’s partner also live in this house.
“I’m at zero,” says Miranda. She claims to have knocked on doors seeking assistance in Orange and Osceola counties but still has no answers. However, she explained that she wouldn’t return to Puerto Rico. At this point, she has nowhere or with whom to return.
how much do you need to earn to live in Florida?
Testimonies like Clara Miranda’s reflect alarming figures about the cost of living in Florida, where the average salary is insufficient to cover basic needs.
According to Luis Palomino, an economic analyst at El Instituto, a multidisciplinary research and teaching center at the University of Connecticut that has studied the Puerto Rican diaspora in states like Florida, a Florida resident must earn at least $2,500 a month to survive. Even then, this salary borders on poverty and doesn’t account for medical expenses.
“What we find in the data is that, on average, Puerto Rican families in Florida are at least three people. But we see that an individual’s income cannot cover those living expenses in many cases, and families start to come together to divide and cover those expenses; they combine salaries to at least reach $76,000 a year,” Palomino says.
The economist highlighted the gender wage gap among Puerto Ricans residing in Florida.
“On average, Puerto Rican women earn $32,000 a year, while men earn an average of $40,000 a year,” explains Palomino, whose analysis comes from the American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census in 2022.
The minimum wage in Florida is $13 an hour, but it will increase to $15 by September 30, 2026.
Federico Alves, an economist and former risk analyst at the U.S. Stock Exchange, said, “Florida is divided into two very different economic areas.” In South Florida, which includes Miami and West Palm Beach, the minimum annual income should be $45,000 a year just “to survive,” which would translate to earning $20 an hour. “If you move from that area, you might need to earn at least $17 an hour,” he said.
Although a higher salary would be ideal, Alves points out how difficult it is to find a job with a competitive salary in Florida. “Undoubtedly, the most expensive living components are in South Florida, where housing costs between 30% and 40% more than the rest of Florida,” he emphasizes.

According to recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, the southern region of the United States, including eight states, among them Florida, had a peak inflation of 3.8% in March, which reduced to 2.7% by the end of November 2024.
The figures are based on the Consumer Price Index, which records the cost of food, gasoline, and other common household purchases.
Marked by eviction
Anna Eskamani, a Democratic legislator in the Florida House of Representatives, has been trying to amend the eviction law in Florida since 2020. None of the measures presented have garnered enough votes. Sometimes, they haven’t even reached a vote.
The most recent bill, titled “Keep Floridians Housed Act,” ordered the creation of a Department of Housing and Tenant Rights. This agency would work with the state Legislature, state agencies, and other stakeholders to devise and implement strategies “designed to combat affordable housing and homelessness issues in the state.”
It also sought to eliminate the mark on the credit history of those who have been in the eviction process or have been evicted at some point.
But this legislation also didn’t pass.
“It’s frustrating to see the number of people who have ended up on the streets because of this,” Eskamani says in an interview with the CPI. “Most are Hispanics,” she assures.
“And what should a person do during those seven years with that mark? Basically, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to find a place to live again, even if they have the money or have recovered financially. Many of these families were just a paycheck away from being able to pay rent or mortgage on time,” she says. Eskamani added that she would resubmit the legislative measure in the next session, but with more straightforward language. This time, it will only include the article to remove the mark on the record of those who have been evicted.

Black and Latino communities: The most affected by evictions
In 2018, landlords filed approximately 3.6 million eviction cases in the United States, an average that has held steady since 2000 until the recorded date, according to statistics from The Eviction Lab, a Princeton University center specializing in the study of eviction processes.
The Eviction Lab maintains an updated eviction database in at least 10 states and 36 cities. According to the database, 1,009,411 eviction lawsuits were filed in those states in the last 12 months.
Of this number, Black and Latino communities are the most affected. A study by the organization revealed that although Black people constituted 19.9% of tenants in the analyzed counties, they represented 32.7% of those who received eviction orders. In other words, one in five tenants was Black, but one in three evictions affected people from this community.
The study confirmed the racial/ethnic and gender disparity in eviction threats and details that this likely contributes to racial and gender inequalities in economic, social, and health outcomes in the United States.
Findings from the study conducted between 2012 and 2016 in 39 states show that among tenants, women — especially Black and Latina women — face higher eviction rates. The risk is 2% higher for women in general, 4% for Black women, and 9% for Latinas, a group that includes Puerto Rican women.
In the 1,195 sampling counties in the study, The Eviction Lab estimates that 341,756 women were evicted annually, approximately 16% more than the 294,908 men. In the specific case of the Hispanic community, it was found that 56,400 women were evicted compared to 51,456 men, a difference of 9.6%.
This trend continues to rise after the pandemic. The Eviction Lab indicates that, in the last year, for example, 58% of people facing eviction were women, a figure disproportionately composed of more Black and Latina women.
Juan Pablo Garnham, communications manager at The Eviction Lab, explained that women are often at the center of eviction statistics because they are frequently mothers balancing monthly expenses
“The presence of children implies having more expenses, having more limitations to work, and having more elements that can destabilize you, especially if you are a single woman or have low income. Your savings capacity is much lower, for example,” Garnham explains.
“It should also be said that landlords are often not very ‘kid friendly’ despite the Fair Housing Act stating that discrimination based on family type is not allowed,” he adds.
All this causes a domino effect on people. “Evictions are not only a consequence of poverty but also a cause,” Garnham points out.
Another study conducted by Princeton researchers found that the high cost of housing and eviction orders also affect people’s life expectancy. The study noted that the increase in rent leads families to cut essential health expenses.
“Poor households with children that are rent-burdened, or that spend 30% to 50% of their income on rent, spend 57% less on healthcare and 17% less on food compared to households that are not burdened,” the study says.
In the analysis, researchers used records of 38 million eviction court cases filed between 2000 and 2016 to understand the impact of such events on tenants’ health. They found that merely being threatened with eviction was associated with a 19% increase in mortality. Receiving an eviction judgment was associated with a 40% increase in the risk of death.
The report concludes that, among other things, more emergency rental assistance programs, legal assistance, and extended notification periods before an eviction would be necessary public policies to deal with this problem.
“Since Black and Hispanic families disproportionately rent their homes and are subject to a disproportionate number of eviction lawsuits, these policies may also help reduce racial disparities in health and mortality,” the study says.
Among the recommendations, they urge governments to increase the fees landlords must pay to the court to start an eviction case. In Alabama, for example, the average cost to file an eviction lawsuit is $276, which encourages landlords to first work out a solution with tenants instead of immediately resorting to the courts.
In Florida, meanwhile, the average cost to file an eviction order in court is $185.

“Sometimes I didn’t have money even to eat”
Joemar Machín, a Puerto Rican who moved to Florida 10 years ago, knows very well what it’s like to go hungry and have nowhere to go after being evicted. He arrived in Florida with the motto many carry when stepping on U.S. soil: “I’m here looking for better opportunities.”
“I wanted to be a cook and study at the Le Cordon Bleu academy in Orlando. I arrived with the help of another person who had promised me the world but disappeared. And I was left alone, working and trying to pay the rent,” he recalls.
“Sometimes my checks arrived late, so I paid the rent late. I didn’t know how evictions worked. I got an ‘eviction notice’ shortly after. I was completely on the street, sometimes going from hotel to hotel, splitting room prices with other friends I had met in the same situation,” he narrates.
He had no one to turn to if he returned to Puerto Rico.
Eventually, he met a friend with whom he shared the rent of a house in Orlando. But renting on his own and under his name has been impossible.
Like Machín, Fernando, a fictitious name for a man living in the Central Florida area who preferred to remain anonymous for this story, also found himself on the street.
“Puerto Ricans usually keep their needs quiet here. You don’t want people to find out, but you also don’t want to move because you want to push forward no matter what,” says Fernando.
“Puerto Ricans ‘cling to a corner’ and don’t let go until they can overcome the obstacles they face.”
In 2022, Fernando got divorced and had nowhere to go. He had no savings. He only had a job that helped him live paycheck to paycheck and his car, where he spent many nights.
“At work, they didn’t notice. I didn’t dare say anything,” he recalls. “When you sleep in a car, your health deteriorates. You get cramps. You’re not comfortable. Those who have lived in this situation can quickly identify others who are in the same situation,” he affirms.
Fernando lived in his car for four months while using his gym membership to shower. Shortly after, he saved enough to rent an apartment in Osceola County.
The “real” solution: Affordable housing
“The first thing we need to address is our shortage of affordable housing. We have housing with rental costs like New York or California, but not competitive salaries that compensate for this increase,” says Jorge Duany, a retired anthropologist and sociologist from Florida International University.
Duany, who has dedicated himself to studying the causes of Puerto Rican migration cycles to the United States, referred to a Household Pulse Survey by the Census Bureau — reported by The Miami Herald — which reveals that 76% of South Florida residents report having difficulty paying their usual expenses.
The same report notes that Miami residents are more overwhelmed by rental costs than residents of other cities and states. According to the Zillow platform, renting a one-bedroom property in Miami can cost $2,500.
“There aren’t enough low-cost housing options here (in Miami). In Orlando, there are more housing options, but still, many more affordable housing units are needed, which aren’t available,” Duany said.
David Andolfatto, director of the Department of Economics at Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, agrees with Duany.
“Although we see construction projects and programs, the question is: are there enough? Are there enough housing units, enough programs to help people who can’t pay more?” he questions.
According to a study by the Florida Housing Coalition, Florida only has 24 affordable rental homes available for every 100 tenants with extremely low incomes.
Increase in homelessness in Florida has effects in Puerto Rico
The lack of affordable housing and the eviction problem have ramifications beyond the state of Florida. In the last six months, at least 60 Puerto Ricans from this state have returned to Puerto Rico after experiencing homelessness, said Belinda Hill, executive director of the Puerto Rican organization Solo Por Hoy.
“We’re talking about 10 people per month. This wasn’t happening before. Annually, we had about three cases,” she said in an interview with the CPI.
“We’ve seen an increase since the pandemic, but the significant increase has been in the past six months. Most of these cases are due to rent increases. Families can’t sustain themselves and come here thinking they’ll get immediate help, but that’s not the case either,” Hill said.
In addition to the shortage of affordable housing and high rental costs in Florida, Hill points out that the surge in people without secure housing arriving in Puerto Rico is also motivated by a law that went into effect on Oct. 1, prohibiting homeless people from sleeping in makeshift camps in public places like sidewalks, parks, or beaches.
Governor Ron DeSantis promoted the HB 1365 law following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed municipalities nationwide to criminalize sleeping in public places.
“We have limited vouchers for homeless people that have no value in the current market; our vouchers are not attractive to landlords,” assures Hill, who said that annually, they have 982 housing vouchers that “are always used.”
According to the most recent census of homeless people in Puerto Rico required by the Federal Housing Department, as of January 2024, there were at least 2,096 people without secure housing; 55.4% of this figure were people experiencing homelessness for the first time. Puerto Rico has a population of 3.2 million.
Considering this, Solo Por Hoy’s director laments that the government has no effective plan to address the crisis.
“In the United States, there is a shortage of affordable housing… And if we can barely attend to our own, how are we going to be able to attend to those who keep arriving?” Hill questions.
What is the federal government doing?
At the beginning of 2024, Gov. DeSantis signed the Affordable Housing measure (SB328) that sought to amend some aspects of the Live Local Act (SB102) to promote affordable housing development. The amendments mainly focus on property tax exemption.
The Live Local Act, signed in 2023, was widely supported by the Legislature. It seeks developers of new complexes to designate at least 40% of the units as “affordable” for low-income individuals.
This law states that rent should not exceed 30% of tenants’ salaries to be considered affordable.
It is estimated that 2.4 million low-income residents spend more than 30% of their salaries on housing and, in some cases, more than 50%. The report from the Florida Housing Coalition highlights this, stating that “this makes it almost impossible to save for retirement or emergencies and difficult to afford other basic needs like food and childcare.”
The law does not require developers to create units for low-income individuals but offers attractive benefits for them to consider implementing this initiative in their construction projects, such as granting them low-interest loans.

Similarly, the law increases the tax credits available for developers from $14.5 million to $25 million and provides a rebate of up to $5,000 for the sales tax on construction materials for units financed through the Florida Housing and Finance Corporation.
Meanwhile, the measure that Representative Eskamani would resubmit to eliminate the negative credit mark for those evicted remains pending.
“You can’t give up,” says Fernando, a Puerto Rican who shared his story anonymously. “The process you’re going through now doesn’t necessarily define your future… But you have to know that, at any moment, this can happen to anyone,” he concludes.
This story was made possible by a grant from CPI’s Instituto de Formación Periodística
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If you or someone you know is going through an eviction process or experiencing food insecurity, these organizations might be able to help:
Nonprofit community organizations
- Hispanic Federation: 844-432-9832
- Advance Community Center: 407-350-3311
- Second Harvest: 407-295-1066
- Latino Leadership: 407-895-0801
- Salvation Army (Osceola): 646-860-8855
- Homeless Services Network: 407-893-0133
- Samaritan Resource Center: 407-482-0600
Contacts for legal advice
- Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida Inc. – Kissimmee/Orlando: 800-405-1417
- Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association Inc. – Orlando: 407-841-8310
- The Florida Bar Foundation
- One Stop Housing