Ensuring affordable housing for low-income families and workers
who can’t afford to buy a home is an admirable goal. That’s why San
Benito County was right to take steps ensuring affordable homes
will be built. But, the county may have gone a bit too far.
Ensuring affordable housing for low-income families and workers who can’t afford to buy a home is an admirable goal. That’s why San Benito County was right to take steps ensuring affordable homes will be built. But, the county may have gone a bit too far.
First, a little background.
Last week, the Board of Supervisors sent its state-mandated housing element to Sacramento for approval. The state requires all cities and counties to ensure housing, including affordable housing, can be built to accommodate its fair share of California’s burgeoning population. Each jurisdiction is given a number of homes to accommodate. San Benito was allocated 620 between 2000 and 2008 – many of which already have approval to be built.
So, county officials had to create a plan to meet those goals. The plan they came up with has what’s called an inclusionary ordinance, which mandates 30 percent of all new developments be affordable to very low- and low-income families. A four-person family earning $50,000 qualifies as low income.
Again, trying to ensure that all people in San Benito County can afford a home is a noble goal, and can be a key aspect to economic development.
“I’ve received calls from people who can’t keep their employees because of the cost of living here,” Al Martinez, executive director of the San Benito Economic Development Corporation, told supervisors.
But a mandate requiring 30 percent affordable housing in all projects with more than 20 homes seems too steep. By comparison, Monterey County has an inclusionary ordinance that requires, at most, 20 percent of new developments to be affordable. The city of Watsonville has the same requirement.
Having set the bar so high could stifle local businesses. It’s not the big developers we’re worried about. KB Homes, which develops hundreds of homes in one fell swoop and has deep pockets, surely can make the economies of scale work to make nearly a third of their projects affordable. But what about the little guy? It could be a challenge to a small developer to make ends meet under such stringent demands.
Another snag is that requiring such a high number of affordable homes could be a deterrent to any development. If developers shy away from building new homes because making 30 percent of them affordable is not cost effective, that hurts the cause of affordable housing. If they don’t build market-rate homes, they won’t build below market-rate homes.
An inclusionary ordinance more in line with that of our neighbors would have been more effective in providing affordable housing and, at the same time, more business friendly.
Still, the county is to be commended for looking out for those with lower incomes in San Benito. And, we’re sure there are developers out there savvy enough to figure out how to make a profit while building affordable housing – it’s the American way.
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