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California
San Diego Housing Plan Designates Nearly 40 Percent of New Construction for Low-Income Residents
Following its comprehensive land-use and transportation plan, whose smart-growth segment seeks development near transit and utilities, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) adopted a housing plan that directs San Diego County and its 18 municipalities to create zoning for construction of 107,301 units over five years, including 42,491 -- 39.6 percent -- for low-income residents, with communities exceeding their shares offered priority in SANDAG transportation grants.
Expected by the state Department of Housing and Community Development seven months earlier, the plan took longer to get hammered out because it involved ''a tough issue'' of money, reports North County Times writer Mark Walker, quoting both SANDAG chairman, Poway Mayor Mickey Cafagna, who said officials want to do more than just create new zoning, and San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who stressed that zoning alone does not produce affordable housing.
All involved agreed that neither state nor federal aid is likely, said the SANDAG chairman, pointing out that affordable housing typically needs subsidies of up to $150,000 per unit, which means $600 million for the newly adopted plan. ''Now let's just get out there,'' he said, ''and build as many as we can.''
With the county's median income at $63,400 for a family of four, and the median North County home price reaching $538,000 last month, the plan includes two affordability categories -- for ''low'' and ''very low'' incomes in four-person households, no more than $54,800 and $34,250 a year, respectively. Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce official Mitch Mitchell told the SANDAG board that only 12 percent of county residents can afford a median-price home, warning, ''We aren't building houses for the average family. This is a regional crisis that has to be addressed.''
The nonprofit Community HousingWorks group's executive director, Sue Reynolds, said, ''Our economy is growing through jobs that pay $30,000 or $40,000 and not $60,000 a year,'' pledging to help county and municipal officials build as many low-income units as possible. -- North County Times 2/26/2005
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