Affordable Housing in East County

You probably know that these days affordable housing often means subsidized housing for renters and buyers. Let’s take a look at how this works using the following extract from a recent city document:

Regional Housing Needs Assessment

To ensure that there is adequate housing stock to meet the demands for Californian residents, the State of California has mandated that City’s provide housing opportunities in their communities. The housing development goals come in the form of the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) figures. These RHNA figures are broken into affordability categories. Lemon Grove was given the housing production targets below in 2005:

Housing Type Target # % of Total Who Qualifies* Very Low 46 19% Less than $35,100 Low 32 13% Less than $56,150 Moderate 46 19% Less than $69,400 Above Moderate 118 49% Above $69,400

*Based on household income for a family of four

In order to ensure cities take an aggressive approach in meeting RHNA targets, the State is working toward holding back grant funding and transportation funding for those cities that do not make efforts in meeting the targets. For Lemon Grove, this will have a significant impact on funding for street improvements and park infrastructure projects.

What that means is that cities have incentive to support low income housing. Lemon Grove is working to meet these goals in various ways. One is a condo project on a small block facing Broadway which presently contains a donut shop and an empty house. This will likely have 36 small condos and about 2,200 sq. ft. of commercial space. The project requires a General Plan Amendment, a Zone Reclassification and accommodating commercial & residential neighbors. Density will be higher than normally allowed (expect such exceptions in your city too).

Another proposed project will have 25 units and more are under consideration.

The community receives significant funding for affordable housing but pays in other ways. Higher density, increased crowding of street parking, increased use of other infrastructure including water, energy, sewers, schools and possibly fire & safety resources all become added expenses. This is balanced with increased tax revenues, local business profits and more effective use of neglected land.

For regular buyers and sellers, subsidized housing could translate to increased downward pressure on prices in the area where it appears.

If you are a real estate pro, a local resident or shopping for a home you may wish to be informed about such activities in your area of interest. City governments are required to make such information public and much of it is available on the internet and at libraries. In Lemon Grove the City Manager and the City Planner are quite helpful with information about these proposals.