Still Undecided? Compare the 2026 Candidates Running to Represent Florida’s Congressional District 24

AFFORDABLE HOUSING & HOMEOWNERSHIP

QUESTION: Home ownership has proven elusive for many South Floridians due to exorbitant prices and an inability to compete with wealthy foreign investors. Despite working multiple jobs, many are still struggling to cover basic expenses and believe purchasing a home is no longer within their reach. What have you done in your work to make home ownership attainable for residents in your district?

Te Mayonna Brown: “I’ve spent my career understanding what it takes to bring housing projects from concept to completion. I’ve spent my career building and revitalizing communities — not just talking about housing, but creating real pathways to homeownership. As a real estate developer, I’ve helped transform neighborhoods and move families from being renters to homeowners. One of the programs I introduced allowed families to rent a home for 12 months while they worked on improving their credit, organizing their financial documents, and preparing to qualify for a mortgage. At the end of that process, they were able to purchase the very home they had been living in. That program worked because it recognized that many hardworking people don’t need a handout, they need a hand up. We need time, guidance, and an opportunity to become mortgage-ready. That’s the kind of experience I’II bring to Congress. I will fight for policies that expand responsible homeownership, encourage innovative pathways to buying a home, recognize alternative credit histories like on-time rent payments, and ensure that hardworking Americans can compete for homes instead of being priced out by wealthy investors. I’ve already helped families achieve the American Dream. In Congress, I want to help make that dream possible for even more people.”

Marshall Davis Sr.: (Editor’s Note: Davis submitted this response after publication. Agreed to include it but we decided in fairneess to publish the answer as it was emailed to us.)

For over 40 years, Marshall L. Davis, Sr. has served as an architect of human potential; engineering a multi-disciplinary ecosystem that transforms raw, underserved talent into world-class excellence. But developing human potential is far more than an artistic milestone; it is one of the most powerful drivers of long-term economic impact.

By empowering thousands of youth from Liberty City, Little Haiti, and Overtown to become Oscar and Tony Award winners, university professors, corporate executives, and thriving professionals, he fundamentally changed their financial trajectories. That surge in economic mobility directly impacts housing: high-earning power and career stability are the true bedrocks of homeownership, mortgage eligibility, and generational wealth creation.

By cultivating human capital, Marshall’s work didn’t just nurture artists—it created new homeowners, stabilized family rents, and enabled local families to buy property, build equity, and anchor themselves in District 24 rather than being priced out.

This is the proof of concept he is bringing to Washington: that investing in human potential is the ultimate blueprint for economic mobility and housing security, not just in South Florida, but for working-class communities across the nation.

Oliver Gilbert: “For families in this district, a home is the single biggest engine of generational wealth. When ownership slips out of reach, the wealth gap doesn’t just persist, it gets locked in. While serving in local government, I’ve attacked this from the supply side: removing barriers to responsible development, building density along our transit corridors, and pushing the partnerships that put more housing in the neighborhoods that need it. The more housing we build, the lower the price of the housing. In Congress, I’m bringing a plan. It’s called the HOME Act: Home Ownership Made Easier. Millions of families can afford a home. They just can’t afford this month’s payment. The HOME Act fixes that without repeating the mistakes that caused past collapses. You qualify under today’s 30-year underwriting standards. Your rate and total cost are fixed at closing. Then you choose a 40, 50, or 60-year payment schedule, which lowers your monthly payment without increasing the total you owe. And qualified heirs can assume the mortgage without a forced refinance, so the home stays in the family. That’s generational wealth, by design. I’ll pair it with a first-time and moderate-income homebuyer tax credit, down-payment assistance and housing counseling to close the racial homeownership gap, and policies that discourage the institutional speculators, private-equity firms and cash investors who outbid working families for single-family homes. Because keeping the home matters as much as buying it, I’ll fight for a long-term reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, with real mitigation dollars to bring premiums down.”

Shevrin Jones: “Homeownership is how working families build wealth, and it is slipping out of reach in South Florida. My work has focused on the full pipeline that gets a family to the closing table. I filed legislation to create the Florida Hometown Hero Housing Program, helping teachers, nurses, first responders, and other essential workers overcome the biggest barrier to buying a home: the upfront costs. I helped make personal financial literacy a graduation requirement in Florida’s public schools, so every student leaves knowing how to manage a budget, build credit and prepare for a mortgage. Because a family drowning in rent can never save for a down payment, I have filed renter protections session after session because I recognize stability today is the foundation of ownership tomorrow. And I have fought the property insurance and tax pressures pushing longtime homeowners, especially seniors, out of homes they already own. In Congress, I will fight for federal down payment assistance for first-time and first-generation homebuyers, federal action to lower property insurance costs, and rules that put working families first.”

Kendrick Meek Jr.: “Homeownership is the primary engine for generational wealth building, yet wealthy outside corporate entities and foreign investors are systematically buying up South Florida’s housing stock and locking local families out. Working multiple jobs should guarantee a path to owning a piece of the American Dream, but skyrocketing prices have made it feel completely elusive. Throughout my career, I have used my legal background to advocate for consumer protections and community stabilization. Through my work with local civic and legal networks, I have pushed to protect working-class neighborhoods from aggressive real estate speculation and corporate flipping. To make homeownership attainable in District 24, I will take this fight to the federal level by implementing the following measures: Cracking Down on Institutional Investors: I will co-sponsor legislation to penalize large-scale institutional investors and foreign corporate entities that buy up single-family homes in working-class neighborhoods. We must use federal tax penalties to disincentivize Wall Street from treating our neighborhoods like commodities. Expanding and Funding First-Time Homebuyer Programs: I will advocate for a major federal expansion of programs to help first-time and first-generation homebuyers. I strongly support legislation authored by Congressman Gomez of California that creates federal down-payment assistance grants of up to $30,000 for first-time and $60,000 for first-generation homebuyers to give local workers the capital they need to compete in our region. Federal Support for Community Land Trusts (CLTs): I will work to direct federal appropriations and capital grants toward expanding Community Land Trusts in District 24. By taking the cost of land out of the equation, CLTs permanently preserve housing affordability, allowing local residents to build equity without being priced out by the market.

Jean Monestime: “As stated previously, my office established the Chairman’s Council for Prosperity Initiatives. This body was specifically tasked with crafting legislation to address income inequality, expand affordable housing, and improve economic mobility for low- to moderate-income residents. With regards to Affordable and Transit-Oriented Housing, we strongly championed public–private partnerships to build affordable housing near mass transit. A key example is the Northside Transit Village, a multi-story affordable housing development built adjacent to the Northside Metrorail Station using mortgage revenue bonds. We also consistently sponsored extensions and updates to the Miami-Dade Infill Housing Initiative Program. I also sponsored legislations increasing down payment assistance for first-time home buyers from $10,000 to up to $100,000. I also helped many non-profit organizations become affordable housing developers, which contributed to more families being able to purchase their first home from the County’s infill program.”