A Florida lawmaker is warning that the condo crisis in the state could trigger the ‘next wave of homeless people.’
Mike Caruso, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, said rising condo fees would hit elderly residents on a fixed income the hardest.
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Lawmakers are now grappling to find a middle ground between ensuring buildings are safe, while also making sure homeowners are not bled dry.
‘Our next wave of homeless people will be our fixed-income elderly who could no longer afford the triple reserves or the quadruple dues that their condos that they have lived in for often 20, 30, 40 years are assessing them at this point,’ Caruso told the Miami Herald.
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Charles Burkett, the mayor of Surfside, told Realtor.com in an email that lawmakers jammed through the condo safety bill before federal investigators had a chance to find the official cause of the collapse – a process that he is said is still ongoing.
‘The tragedy is that many very, very expensive solutions have been put forward for a problem that may or may not exist,’ he wrote.
‘The result is our condo owners are suffering badly from it and in many cases, losing their homes.’