Hollister
– County staff members hope to piece together a coalition of
affordable housing advocates, local developers and city and county
representatives to tackle San Benito’s affordable housing
shortage.
Hollister – County staff members hope to piece together a coalition of affordable housing advocates, local developers and city and county representatives to tackle San Benito’s affordable housing shortage.
The Board of Supervisors directed staff to pursue the partnerships during its affordable housing study session on Tuesday. The session was a follow-up to a longer discussion in January.
A number of speakers said they are concerned about a recent dearth of affordable housing development – San Benito’s last sizable development, Riverview Estates, was completed in 2002.
Supervisor Pat Loe said addressing the county’s affordable housing shortage needs to be a community effort.
“The only way to make this work is to have buy-in from the community,” Loe said. “We can’t do this by just adopting an ordinance.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho and others argued that many of the county’s housing needs can only be met by working with the City of Hollister, particularly by building developments on the city’s borders and tapping into Hollister’s services. That view was echoed by Dennis Lalor, executive director of the affordable housing group South County Housing.
“I feel strongly that that’s the way to take advantage of the infrastructure in Hollister,” Lalor said. “That’s just common sense.”
However, Lalor acknowledged that Hollister has housing problems of its own, due in large part to the sewer hookup moratorium that’s been in place since 2002. The moratorium has brought local development to a virtual standstill. South County Housing, for example, has nearly 100 affordable units that have been put on hold until the moratorium is lifted, Lalor said.
“There’s been a real human cost, a real cost to the civic structure of Hollister in the last four years,” Lalor said.
Supervisor Reb Monaco also said “the time has come” to repeal the county requirement that developers make 30 percent of their subdivisions available at less-than-market costs. He argued that the requirement only convinces developers to build elsewhere, rather than encouraging the construction of affordable housing.
“I don’t see anybody disagreeing with the fact that it’s not working,” Monaco said.
Supervisors Botelho, Don Marcus and Jaime De La Cruz said they would support lowering the requirement, but Loe said supervisors need to see a detailed list of how much affordable housing has been built under the existing requirement before they change it.
“Until we know how we’ve gotten to this point, we can’t make a decision,” Loe said.
Henriques said supervisors should also consider hiring a full-time housing analyst to look at San Benito’s housing needs and to coordinate efforts with the City of Hollister and other agencies. He suggested that the county could also pay a consultant to serve in a similar role.
Hollister School District Superintendent Ron Crates said that if the county decides to hire a consultant, the school district would like to contribute financially.
“We feel this is a major issue facing the community, and we’d like to sit at the table,” Crates said. “We’re concerned about getting staff members in our county and the city who can afford to live here.”
However, most of the supervisors were resistant to bringing on new staff members.
“I’m reluctant to go out and hire a consultant off the bat,” Monaco said.
In the coming months, Marcus, who chairs the board, will be working with County Administrative Officer Susan Thompson to turn the staff recommendations into concrete proposals that the board can vote on.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
