Tackling the Affordability Crisis in Miami-Dade County
Rising insurance, SB 4-D condo assessments, and the squeeze on coastal homeowners, David Jolly's plan for Miami-Dade
Miami-Dade County is at the leading edge of Florida's affordability crisis. From Surfside to Aventura, from Brickell to South Beach, aging coastal condominiums are facing special assessments of tens of thousands of dollars per unit under the state's new structural reserve law. Homeowners insurance premiums rank among the highest in the country. And for renters and first-time buyers, the cost of living in Miami-Dade has become out of reach for too many families who call this county home.
David Jolly knows that Miami-Dade's housing affordability crisis is not one story, it's many: the fixed-income retiree in a 1980s Sunny Isles condo facing a $75,000 special assessment, the hospitality worker in Doral paying more than half her paycheck on rent, the young family who grew up in Kendall but can no longer afford to buy in the county where they were raised.
As governor, David will fight for Miami-Dade County with a comprehensive affordability plan that tackles the structural pressures unique to this region: condo reserve costs through a no-interest state-backed loan program, property insurance through a state catastrophic fund that removes hurricane coverage from the private market, and workforce housing through scaled public-private investment in units located near where Miami-Dade workers actually work.
The SB 4-D Condo Crisis Is Hitting Miami-Dade the Hardest
The Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside on June 24, 2021 was a tragedy that shook Miami-Dade County and the entire state. In response, the Florida legislature passed Senate Bill 4-D in May 2022, requiring structural inspections and full reserve funding for all condominium buildings three stories or taller. The law's intentions were sound: protect residents and prevent another catastrophic failure.
But the implementation of SB 4-D has created a financial crisis for thousands of Miami-Dade condo owners. Older coastal buildings built in the 1970s and 1980s, the backbone of Miami-Dade's condo market, have been hit with milestone inspection requirements at age 25 if they sit within three miles of the coast. Many of these buildings had deferred maintenance for decades. Special assessments to meet the new structural reserve requirements are commonly $5,000 to over $150,000 per unit, with outlier coastal buildings imposing assessments of $200,000 or more. Monthly homeowners association dues are up sharply across coastal condos to fund the mandated reserves.
For Miami-Dade's retirees and fixed-income homeowners, many of whom bought their units decades ago when the county was still affordable, these assessments are unaffordable. They cannot access six-figure sums from savings, and they cannot sell their units at fair prices because potential buyers see the same assessment liabilities and walk away. The condo market in Miami-Dade has softened dramatically: the statewide condo-townhouse median price declined 0.8 percent in 2024 even as single-family prices rose 2.4 percent. Older coastal condos are especially difficult to sell at any reasonable price in Miami-Dade's current market.
David Jolly's Plan: No-Interest State-Backed Loans for Miami-Dade Condo Owners
As governor, David will create a no-interest state-backed loan program to allow condominium associations and individual owners to spread SB 4-D inspection and reserve costs over time without forcing fixed-income residents to sell. The program will let Miami-Dade condo owners absorb structural assessments over 10 to 15 years at zero interest, with the state absorbing only the financing cost.
This is not a bailout. Condo owners will repay the loan in full. But the program recognizes the reality facing thousands of Miami-Dade families: you cannot write a check for $75,000 when your entire retirement savings is less than that, and you should not be forced out of the home you have lived in for 20 years because the state passed a law without funding the transition.
Miami-Dade County deserves a governor who will fight to stabilize the condo market, protect fixed-income homeowners, and ensure that SB 4-D's safety goals do not come at the cost of displacing the families who built this county.
Property Insurance Costs Are Crushing Miami-Dade Homeowners
Miami-Dade County has some of the highest homeowners insurance premiums in Florida, which itself is the most expensive state in the country for property insurance. Estimates of the average Florida annual premium range from roughly $3,800 to over $15,000 depending on coverage level and geographic region. Coastal markets like Miami-Dade have seen the largest cumulative premium increases over the past several years.
Multiple national insurers, including Farmers, Bankers Insurance, and AAA in some segments, either pulled out of Florida or significantly curtailed coverage between 2021 and 2024, citing hurricane-loss volatility. Florida led the nation in homeowner-insurance non-renewal rates at 2.99 percent of policies in 2023. Miami-Dade homeowners have been among the hardest hit by these withdrawals, with policies moving to Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state insurer of last resort, or to smaller specialty carriers charging higher premiums.
The private market is not coming back to Miami-Dade at affordable rates. The structural reason is simple: no private insurer can carry the capital reserves required to cover a major hurricane hitting Miami-Dade's dense coastal corridor, and climate science tells us these storms are increasing in frequency and intensity. Private insurers price this risk into every policy, adding huge risk margins on top of the actuarial cost. The result is that Miami-Dade homeowners are either uninsured, underinsured, or paying premiums so high they threaten the ability to stay in their homes.
David Jolly's Plan: State Catastrophic Fund to Cut Miami-Dade Insurance Costs by 60 to 70 Percent
As governor, David will introduce legislation on day one to establish a state catastrophic fund that fully removes hurricane coverage from the private market for all Florida homeowners, including every household in Miami-Dade County. This state sovereign wealth fund will pool hurricane risk across all Florida homes, spreading the loss exposure efficiently the same way Medicare pools health risk across millions of people.
David fought for a national catastrophic fund during his time in Congress representing Pinellas County. As governor, he will implement the same principle at the state level. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund already exists as a state-run reinsurance pool, holding $7.12 billion in reserves as of December 31, 2024, with statutory authority to cover up to $17 billion in losses. David's plan expands that mechanism to absorb hurricane coverage directly out of the private market.
The projected savings for Miami-Dade homeowners: 60 to 70 percent reduction in total property insurance costs. This is not a subsidy. Homeowners will still pay for their hurricane coverage through the state fund. But by removing the private-market risk margin and pooling loss exposure statewide, the actuarial cost drops dramatically. For a Miami-Dade homeowner currently paying $10,000 per year in property insurance, the catastrophic fund would bring that down to $3,000 to $4,000 per year. For renters in Miami-Dade, the same insurance savings flow through to lower rents as landlords' insurance costs fall.
Miami-Dade County deserves a governor who will take on the insurance crisis with structural solutions, not small reforms at the margins. The state catastrophic fund is the only actuarially sound way to restore affordability for Miami-Dade's coastal homeowners and renters.
Miami-Dade's Workforce Housing Crisis
Miami-Dade County is among the states with the most acute rent-affordability crisis per the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The 2025 State of the Nation's Housing report found 22.6 million U.S. renter households, half of all renters, were cost-burdened in 2023, paying more than 30 percent of income on housing. Florida and Western states are the regions where the crisis is most acute due to especially pronounced rent increases.
For Miami-Dade's hospitality workers, service employees, teachers, and healthcare workers, the math no longer works. Rents rose dramatically from 2020 through 2023, and wages have not kept pace. Young families who grew up in Kendall or Hialeah are now priced out of the county. Hospitality workers in Miami Beach or Brickell often commute from Broward or beyond because they cannot afford to rent in the communities where they work.
Miami-Dade has models that work for workforce housing. Public-private partnerships in downtown Miami, Doral, and other submarkets have successfully delivered affordable units tied to income, trade, and proximity to work. But the scale of investment has been insufficient. Florida's Republican leadership has failed to invest in workforce and affordable housing at the level required to meet demand because they do not believe in using government to create more affordable housing units.
David Jolly's Plan: Scale Up Workforce Housing Investment in Miami-Dade
As governor, David will scale up a historic investment in workforce and affordable housing using public-private partnerships that have proven to work in Miami-Dade and across Florida. He will expand funding through the state's SAIL program (State Apartment Incentive Loan) and SHIP program (State Housing Initiatives Partnership), targeting units located near where Miami-Dade workers actually work: hospitality corridors in Miami Beach, healthcare campuses in Kendall, service zones in Doral and Aventura.
The Live Local Act, passed in 2023, dedicates $150 million per year of SAIL funding for 10 years, totaling $1.5 billion in additional investment. David will fight to ensure Miami-Dade County receives its fair share of those resources based on population and need. He will also work with Miami-Dade County government to streamline zoning and permitting for workforce housing developments so that state funding translates into units on the ground faster.
For Miami-Dade's renters and working families, workforce housing tied to income and proximity to work is the path back to affordability. David knows that government cannot solve the housing crisis alone, but public-private partnerships can deliver the scale of supply needed to bring rents down and give Miami-Dade families a shot at staying in the county they call home.
Utility Costs Add to Miami-Dade's Housing Burden
Rent or mortgage is the largest line item in a household budget, but electricity, water, and gas bills are the next-largest fixed monthly housing cost for most Miami-Dade families. Florida Power & Light, the state's largest investor-owned utility and the primary electricity provider for Miami-Dade County, is authorized by the Florida Public Service Commission to earn a return on equity of 10.95 percent under a four-year rate settlement effective January 2026 through December 2029. FPL's 10.95 percent authorized return on equity is among the highest in the country.
This matters for Miami-Dade affordability because utility bills are part of the housing-affordability stack. A Miami-Dade renter paying $2,000 per month in rent also faces $150 to $250 per month in electricity costs, especially during summer cooling months. A homeowner paying $3,000 per month in mortgage, insurance, and property taxes faces the same utility bill on top of that. For families already stretched thin, a 10 percent or 15 percent reduction in utility costs is meaningful relief.
David Jolly's Plan: Cap Utility Profit at the National Average
As governor, David will fight to cap the rate of profit for investor-backed utilities at the national average, roughly 9 to 10 percent return on equity. This is not a radical idea. Utilities in other states earning 9 to 10 percent continue to invest in grid modernization, renewable integration, and storm hardening. There is no evidence that capping return on equity at the national average suppresses investment. It just stops the outlier markup that Miami-Dade families are paying through their monthly bills.
Bringing FPL's authorized return on equity down from 10.95 percent to the national norm of 9 to 10 percent would generate savings for both homeowners and renters in Miami-Dade. Combined with the insurance catastrophic fund and the condo no-interest loan program, capping utility profit is the third leg of David's affordability plan for Miami-Dade: lower insurance, manageable condo costs, and fairer utility bills.
Miami-Dade Deserves a Governor Who Will Fight for Affordability
The affordability crisis in Miami-Dade County is not one problem, it's a stack of structural pressures that have converged to make the county unaffordable for too many families. SB 4-D condo assessments. Record-high property insurance premiums. Rising rents that have outpaced wages. Utility bills that add hundreds per month on top of housing costs. Together, these pressures are forcing people out of Miami-Dade, the county they have called home for decades.
David Jolly is running for governor to tackle the affordability crisis with real solutions: a no-interest state-backed loan program for condo owners, a state catastrophic fund to cut insurance costs by 60 to 70 percent, scaled investment in workforce housing, and a cap on utility profit at the national average. These are not small tweaks at the margins. They are structural reforms that will restore affordability for Miami-Dade's homeowners, condo owners, and renters.
Miami-Dade deserves a governor who will fight for everyone, not just for the wealthy or for the ideologically aligned. A governor who understands that economic fairness is not a zero sum game and that providing relief for working families, retirees, and first-time buyers makes Miami-Dade stronger for everyone.
That's the leadership David Jolly will bring to Tallahassee. A fair Florida starts with making Miami-Dade affordable again.
Welcoming the Immigrant in Miami-Dade
Miami-Dade County is home to one of the most vibrant immigrant communities in the United States. From the Cuban refugees who arrived during the Mariel boatlift to the Haitian, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan, and Colombian families who have made this county their home, Miami-Dade's immigrant communities have built the economy and culture that define South Florida.
David Jolly grew up in Miami during the Mariel boatlift. He remembers when Cuban refugees were rounded up and housed in the Orange Bowl, and he remembers Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré saying that if we fail to embrace the refugee, we might as well throw the Statue of Liberty into the East River. Those values, the values of welcoming the immigrant and celebrating the economic and cultural contributions of our immigrant communities, are at the core of David's campaign for governor.
The current governor and president have treated immigration as a threat and Miami-Dade's immigrant communities as targets of fear and division. David rejects that framing entirely. He knows that there is a lower propensity of violent and property crimes in immigrant communities than in native-born communities, and he knows that the misinformation about immigration from Tallahassee and Washington is a moral failing.
As governor, David will fight to ensure that Florida becomes a state where the immigrant is recognized and celebrated for their contributions to our economy and to our culture. Miami-Dade County, built by generations of immigrants, deserves a governor who will defend that legacy and reject the politics of division.
How David's Plan for Miami-Dade Differs from Current Leadership
The DeSantis-era insurance reforms focused on litigation: assignment-of-benefits restrictions in 2019 and one-way attorney fee elimination in 2022. Those reforms reduced one driver of insurance costs (litigation) but did not address the underlying structural problem, hurricane risk in every private policy. Citizens depopulation has shifted policies back to private carriers, but often at higher rates, especially in Miami-Dade's coastal markets.
David's plan is structurally different. It separates hurricane coverage entirely from the private market through an expanded state catastrophic fund, a step no other state has taken at this scale. It also addresses the SB 4-D condo crisis with the no-interest loan program and utility costs with the return-on-equity cap, two affordability pressures DeSantis-era reforms did not target.
For Miami-Dade families, the difference is this: DeSantis trimmed costs at the margins. David is proposing structural reforms that will deliver measurable relief (60 to 70 percent insurance savings, manageable condo assessments, lower utility bills) on the timescale Miami-Dade needs. That is the leadership difference this county deserves.