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Comprehensive Plan Housing Element their housing units and make their houses safe for occupancy. Besides rehabbing substandard units through its various housing programs, the county has also addressed substandard conditions by razing vacated substandard units where those units could not be rehabilitated and providing households living in substandard units with new housing. In the future, the county's policy should be to continue to provide SHIP rehabilitation loan assistance to qualified households. • Overcrowded Conditions Another housing condition that must be considered is overcrowding. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of occupied housing units with more than 1.1 persons per room increased from 1,016 to 1,431. Generally, overcrowded conditions occur when families cannot afford to rent or buy a home large enough to accommodate their entire family. As housing costs increase, more people tend to share the same unit, and overcrowding occurs. Generally, households that live in overcrowded units also face housing affordability problems. Through SHIP, HHR, and other federal and state programs, the county has increased the affordable housing stock and has reduced the county's problem with overcrowded conditions. Since more affordable housing is needed, the county should continue to provide assistance through its SHIP program as well as other federal and state programs to qualified households. • Infrastructure and Community Development Characteristics Within the county, there are some older neighborhoods with inadequate infrastructure. These neighborhoods lack paved roads, adequate drainage facilities, and centralized water and sewer. When the county retrofits a neighborhood to provide those improvements, the funding is usually derived through an assessment. With this process, benefiting property owners pay some or most of the cost of the improvement. For many neighborhoods, however, this is not a viable solution because the homeowners in the neighborhood cannot afford to pay for assessments. Besides assessments, there are other sources of funding for infrastructure improvements. Among those sources is the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. In the past, the county has utilized CDBG funds to make infrastructure improvements in the Wabasso and Rockridge areas. Although the CDBG program is a good funding source for infrastructure improvements, the program is competitive and has limited funds. Also, project ranking criteria make it difficult for Indian River County to obtain CDBG funding. Among the areas that have infrastructure deficiencies are some portions of Wabasso and Oslo; limited areas in Gifford; and a small area adjacent to the City of Fellsmere. Also, subdivisions such as Vero Lake Estates, Pinetree Park, Paradise Park, and others have infrastructure deficiencies. While infrastructure improvements have been made in some of these areas, there are still infrastructure deficiencies in the county. In areas with a high concentration of low to moderate income households, the county utilizes state and federal grant programs to address infrastructure deficiencies. In the future, the county should apply for 28 Community Development Department Indian River County