ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — Families displaced by Hurricane Maria and several nonprofit organizations protested in Altamonte Springs for what they say is a lack of affordable housing in Central Florida.

The protest happened on the two-year anniversary of when Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.

Many of the demonstrators said they struggled to find affordable homes on the mainland after they lost everything in Puerto Rico.

State Senator Victor M. Torres Jr. said lawmakers continue to work to find a solution.

“I sit on the tech community up in Tallahassee, and this past week the first thing we had in our workshop was affordable housing,” Torres said. “Why is it that we’re still struggling?”

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, 22 percent of Florida renter-households are extremely low-income, and the state has a shortage of more than 420,000 affordable and available rental homes for those renters.

Lee Steinhauer, Government and Legal Counsel of the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando, said there are multiple factors for the lack of affordable homes from a labor shortage, to rising land and constructional material costs, and simple supply and demand.

“When you have 1,500 people a week moving to the Central Florida area, that’s a tremendous demand for housing,” Steinhauer said.

Javier Figueroa, like many of the protestors, said he came to the mainland after the natural disaster to provide a better life for his family, and it includes a home they can afford. ​