Affordable housing units open at Oceana Apartments

Low-income housing developer AMCAL celebrated the grand opening of its first 100% affordable-housing development in Huntington Beach.

All 78 units at the Oceana Apartments at 18151 Beach Blvd. are offered at below-market rates, with rents ranging from about $480 to about $1,370 for one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, said Mario Turner, vice president of development for AMCAL, during a ceremony at the housing development Tuesday.

“The tenants living here are getting a great value,” AMCAL Chief Executive Percy Vaz said. “It’s made possible with our public-private partnership with the city of Huntington Beach.”

The apartments tout various on-site amenities, such as barbecue areas, a children’s playground and a clubhouse with offices and a media room. However, the amenity Vaz said he is proud of is the social support programs AMCAL provides to the residents of Oceana and its other 59 housing developments in California.

AMCAL has partnered with nonprofit LifeSTEPS to offer residents programs such as case-management services, educational classes, mediation services and social activities.

“We do a survey of the tenants; then [LifeSTEPS] provides social support programs for them based on the needs of the tenants,” Vaz said. “It could be teaching them English, offering child care, afterschool care, helping them fill out forms and accessing these programs.”

Turner added that AMCAL and LifeSTEPS have about $500,000 in donations they have collected from their annual Partnership for HOPE (Housing Opportunities and Personal Empowerment) to go toward scholarships, grants and emergency needs for residents.

“The money is not for staff or for operations,” he said. “It’s all for resident needs. Whether it’s an emergency, like their car breaking down or them losing their job, they get help from the fundraiser [Vaz] puts on each year.”

Huntington Beach Planning Commission Chairman Ed Pinchiff said the Oceana Apartments are an example of what affordable housing can look like in Huntington Beach, in light of the recent opposition to housing projects in the city.

During most of 2015, residents pushed for changes to be made to the Beach and Edinger Corridors Specific Plan to slow the number of housing developments being built along Beach.

The specific plan was adopted in March 2010 as a way to revitalize Beach and Edinger by streamlining the approval process. However, many residents last year complained that too many residential developments were being approved.

In May 2015, the City Council approved several amendments to the plan, including reducing the number of allowed residential units along the corridors from 4,500 to 2,100.

But in July, the nonprofit Kennedy Commission sued the city, claiming the changes would prevent Huntington Beach from meeting the state’s requirements for affordable housing. The city was also warned by the state Department of Housing and Community Development that the changes would make the city’s plan non-compliant with state law.

Later in November, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Kennedy Commission and declared the changes to the specific plan void.

Pinchiff said he likes how the Oceana Apartments are set up, with all the units designated as affordable housing. He compared Oceana to the Elan mixed-use project down the street, which has 274 units, but only 27 designated as affordable.

Vaz and Turner said they were well aware of the issues surrounding housing developments in the city and that they did their part to develop a project that was close to pleasing both sides.

Turner said AMCAL worked closely with residents and businesses that surrounded the business and adjusted their plans according to their concerns.

“If you do good outreach, work with the neighbors closely and address their concerns, I think that’s being a good developer,” he said. “We did that here. I can’t speak on any other projects, but in respects to us, I think it worked out.”