News Highlights

12/16/2020 New research from the Shimberg Center and University of Illinois looks at the role of state policy in promoting healthy living environments in homes funded by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). The researchers studied a wide array of health factors including healthy neighborhood environments, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, noise, green building materials, and more.

12/9/2020The Shimberg Center in the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management invites applications for one nine-month tenured or tenure-track faculty position in housing studies beginning in the fall of 2021. Full job description here; apply here.

11/30/2020 The number of unemployed workers in Florida rose from 310,000 in January 2020 to 1,304,000 in May, then fell to 653,000 in October, according to a new fact sheet, COVID-19 and Unemployment in Florida: October Update. In all, the state added 343,000 unemployed workers between January and October. Other key findings:

• The number of jobs lost was greatest in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Orange Counties.
• Unemployment in Osceola County peaked at 29% in May before falling to 10% in October.
• Jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry were hardest hit by far.

See employment changes for all counties and industries with the COVID-19: Workforce & Housing Indicators data tool. For more information about the impacts of COVID-19 on housing and the economy in Florida, see our COVID-19 & Housing Resources page.

6/21/2020The Shimberg Center and partners launched the CODY (Co-Design for You) Virtual Reality tool to help persons with Parkinson's Disease and other movement difficulties to redesign interior home features to best fit their circumstances. The CODY tool allows the user to test different safety options without having to move items around physically. Sherry Ahrentzen (Shimberg Center), Ravi Srinivasan (M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management) and Shabboo Valipoor (Department of Interior Design) led this interdisciplinary study that includes researchers from College of Medicine, Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Journalism and Communications, and College of the Arts and Department of Neurology. Learn more and watch a video on the project here.

4/10/2020Today the Shimberg Center launched two new Web pages with information about COVID-19 and housing in Florida. COVID-19: Workforce and Housing Indicators provides county-by-county data on housing cost burdens, older populations, children’s access to Internet and health insurance, worker counts in hard-hit service industries, and subsidized housing sites eligible for new tenant protections under the federal CARES Act. COVID-19 & Housing Resources describes the data and provides links to relevant news articles and housing resources from our partners. Check back frequently for updates to both pages, and send us suggestions or custom data requests to fhdc-comments@shimberg.ufl.edu.

08/16/2019 Students Experiencing Homelessness in Florida: Updates and Solutions finds that in the 2017-2018 school year, 95,873 students in Florida schools were identified as homeless–nearly triple the number from ten years ago. Of these, 19,721 students were made homeless by hurricanes, including 11,968 students who moved from Puerto Rico to Florida after Hurricane Maria.

The Shimberg Center and Miami Homes for All co-authored this new report with support from JPMorgan Chase and Co. See also county-level fact sheets on student homelessness, an interactive map of Florida schools and homeless student counts, and more.

07/11/2019 A new research brief summarizes findings on statewide housing trends from the 2019 Rental Market Study. The Center also released briefs on regional rental housing trends in South Florida, Northeast Florida, the Orlando area, and the Tampa Bay area. In addition to documenting the shortage of affordable rental housing statewide, the briefs show that most of the state’s growth since 2000 has come from age 55+ homeowners and renters of all ages, while the state has been losing younger homeowners.