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Many Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation and high housing costs. But in the Florida Keys, one of the nation's unique coastal areas, service workers are finding it especially hard to make ends meet and pay their rent. David Ovalle has this report.
DAVID OVALLE, BYLINE: Reagan Bush Rodriguez works 40 hours a week at a Cuban restaurant in Key Largo, Florida. It's the first town in the island chain south of Miami that stretches more than 100 miles between the Gulf and the Atlantic. Today, he's making coffee for a tourist from South Carolina.
REAGAN BUSH RODRIGUEZ: Here you go, boss. Want anything else?
UNIDENTIFIED CUSTOMER: Perfect.
RODRIGUEZ: You have a good one.
UNIDENTIFIED CUSTOMER: We're good.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED CUSTOMER: Thank you.
OVALLE: Workers like Rodriguez are vital here. They serve tourists from around the world who come to boat, snorkel, fish and sunbathe. Rodriguez is 25 and loves working in the Keys. He attends community college here, but he can't actually live here.
RODRIGUEZ: In a perfect world, yeah. Yeah, the view's amazing. The water's nice, but it was a little too expensive.
OVALLE: Rodriguez commutes from the southern end of Miami, where he lives in a small, $800-a-month efficiency apartment. He drives 45 minutes to work and earns $11 an hour.
RODRIGUEZ: I'm spending about $45 every two days, every other day, on just in gas. So it's like - it's brutal.
OVALLE: Florida used to be one of the more affordable states to live in, but in recent years, it has not escaped soaring rents and home prices, says Sam Staley, an economist at Florida State University.
SAM STALEY: Trends in Florida are going the wrong way. Actually, in most of the counties in Florida, we're finding that housing markets are tighter and housing prices are going up.
OVALLE: Affordable housing has been a problem here in Monroe County for a long time because of the islands' unique geography. There's little land to develop. Construction costs more. Officials are mindful of preserving the pristine natural environment that attracts visitors. Last year, the county tried a novel approach to make a small dent in the lack of housing for workers.
HOLLY RASCHEIN: Thanks so much for coming down to the beautiful South Cliff Estates.
OVALLE: That's Monroe County Commissioner Holly Raschein. She's giving a tour of South Cliff Estates, a complex of one-bedroom apartments reserved for service and hospitality workers. The county bought it for $7.5 million.
RASCHEIN: As you can see, you know, got a full living room, can have a little dinette area, full kitchen, the bathroom. Again, everything is brand new.
OVALLE: But there's one problem. The county can't find renters. When officials listed the units last August, rent was priced at nearly $3,000 a month.
RASCHEIN: That just did not sit well with me. That didn't sit well with the rest of my commissioners. And I don't think it sat very well with our community because we didn't get any takers.
OVALLE: The county dropped the price to a little under 2,000 a month. That's average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the Keys. There's been a couple applicants, but still, no one lives here. A few miles up the road, Rodriguez said he hadn't heard of South Cliff Estates. He says even at the reduced price, it's not practical as he finishes school to one day become a police officer.
RODRIGUEZ: Everything's too expensive, especially the Keys. So because of that, that's a move north in the future.
OVALLE: Rodriguez isn't sure how far north he'll go. He says he could move to another state altogether.
For NPR News, I'm David Ovalle in Key Largo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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