Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, was in Hollister Friday to
listen to a panel of experts discuss the lack of housing in
California’s rural counties.
Hollister – Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, was in Hollister Friday to listen to a panel of experts discuss the lack of housing in California’s rural counties.
“Affordability is the most significant housing problem confronting families in California,” Salinas said. “Constituting the single largest expenditure for families, housing in California has had serious implications for middle- to low-income families and local communities.”
When asked about solutions to the state’s rural housing shortage, Salinas said that he had organized the hearing in hopes of getting answers to that question.
During the three-hour hearing in the San Benito County supervisors chambers, Salinas, county and city officials, and a handful of others listened as panelists discussed the state’s housing crisis and the difficulty of building affordable housing in rural areas.
“This is such a critical issue for all of California,” said Supervisor Pat Loe, who attended the hearing.
Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz said that, along with creating jobs, affordable housing is his top priority.
Richard Friedman, acting deputy director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development, said strong population growth, a supply shortage and declining affordability has led to a housing crisis in California. The crisis has been exacerbated in rural areas, he said, by those who work in urban centers flooding into rural areas in an attempt to find less expensive housing.
“As people look for an affordable place to live in urban areas, they push out into rural areas, increasing demand in rural areas,” he said.
Despite a Silicon Valley bedroom community with a housing supply limited by a state-imposed moratorium banning new sewer hook-ups, Hollister is no exception.
According to regional Multiple Listing Service figures from RE Infolink, the median price for a Hollister single-family home in October was $607,450. In September, the same house would have been valued at $585,000. Last October the price was $485,000.
Thanks to the acreage that usually comes with it, the latest median price for a home in unincorporated parts the county was $1.25 million.
Also on Friday’s panel: Gonzalas City Manager Rene Mendez; Dennis Lalor, executive director of South County Housing Corporation; David Cooke, Director of Real Estate Development for Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association; and developer Terry Moreland, president of the Moreland Corporation.
Salinas said that he would take the information he heard Friday back to Sacramento. The effort to address the housing issue needs to be bi-partisan, he said.
“When you need a home, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat.”
