ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – St. Johns County is facing a growing shortage of apartment homes, putting pressure on families and essential workers trying to find affordable housing.
Johnmichael Fernandez, director of local government affairs for the First Coast Apartment Association, shared research showing the county currently has a shortage of about 700 apartment homes across all income levels. By 2030, that shortage is expected to grow to more than 3,400 units.
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For residents earning $35,000 or less annually, he says the shortage will be around 3,200 units. Fernandez explained, “Going back to high school economics, it’s supply and demand. When demand is high and supply is low, prices go up.”
The shortage means rising rents and fewer options for many residents. Katelynn Quarrels, a seventh-generation St. Johns County resident, knows this struggle firsthand.
“My rent went from $850 in 2021 to almost $1,590 in 2025,” she said. “That’s such a short span of time with no gradual increase in my income, and I still had to work two jobs,” Quarrels said.
Quarrels faced displacement after her lease ended in July, with limited options available. “It didn’t really give me an option to have somewhere to go temporarily, where I could pay five to six grand to move in and make three times the rent,” she said. “We’re currently displaced.”
Before being approved for a Habitat Humanity home, which she is helping to build, she remembered being in apartments with bad conditions. “If I didn’t have this option, we’d probably still be living in an apartment complex that wasn’t taking care of their tenants,” she said.
Fernandez emphasized the urgency of addressing the shortage. “We have to act now, because it doesn’t take a couple weeks or months to build an apartment community. It takes years,” he said. “With zoning, planning, financing, and construction, it can take six years or more to get delivered units into the community.”
Fernandez concluded, “Housing is not going to get more affordable by doing nothing. We really have to address the shortage of housing that we currently have.”
While the county does have workforce housing options for homes and townhomes, there are no zoned and restricted workforce housing apartments available.