Consolidation Under One Agency Follows Task Force Report : Pasadena Revamps Housing Programs
Concerned about a housing shortage for people of average and low incomes, the Pasadena Board of Directors has reorganized the city’s housing programs, putting them all under the control of the Development Department.
The reorganization, recommended by City Manager Donald F. McIntyre, is the first step in a plan to expand efforts to rehabilitate and preserve existing housing and to encourage the construction of new affordable units.
McIntyre noted that, although a number of new housing programs and policies have been proposed, it is not yet clear how far the city will go.
Directors last week accepted a report from a housing task force headed by Mayor William Thomson. His report outlined a long list of programs and policies but made no attempt to establish priorities among housing projects or allocate housing funds.
“The need for low- and very low-income housing is so extensive,” Thomson said later, “that it didn’t make sense to focus on any particular category.”
The task force cited planning studies that show: 52% of the city’s residents are paying more than 30% of their income for housing; the city has lost 300 to 500 rental rooms in the past 10 years; there is a long waiting list for rentals in subsidized housing for the elderly and handicapped; 1,326 of the city’s 20,339 rental units need rehabilitation, and the city will need more than 2,000 housing units, mostly for low-income people, by 1994.
Staff Outlines Programs
In a housing report to the board this week, the city staff outlined eight programs that could be implemented this year, starting with a bond issue for affordable housing.
The programs include loans to help a nonprofit corporation acquire and rehabilitate 132 single-occupancy rooms at the YMCA and loans to rehabilitate dilapidated housing in the Lincoln Triangle, an area bounded by Fair Oaks Boulevard on the east, Villa Street on the south, the 210 Freeway on the west and Orange Grove Boulevard on the south. They would also assist projects that would provide nine new rental units in Villa Parke and 10 to 15 units on property at Villa Street and Los Robles Avenue.
Director Rick Cole said the housing reorganization is “an excellent and long overdue advance” that will enable the city to meet its housing needs in a coordinated way. Previously, programs involving rehabilitation, subsidized housing and new housing had been scattered among city departments.
The housing program will be overseen by the city board, with advice from the Community Development Committee, which will be renamed the Housing and Community Development Committee.
Task Force Recommendations
The task force report adopted last week contains numerous recommendations, including suggestions that the city:
Give priority to the rehabilitation and retention of existing housing.
Continue programs to assist home buyers, but recognize that these efforts are so expensive that it may be more feasible economically to encourage the development of rental housing.
Use city housing funds for loans rather than grants where possible so that the money can be repaid and become available for future housing programs.
Continue funding emergency shelters and encourage the development of transitional housing, where residents can stay on a short-term basis and receive social services that will help them back into the mainstream housing market.
The task force report has come under attack from John Kennedy, president of the Pasadena chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, who said it was “really no more than a public relations exercise.”
He has called for a moratorium on the demolition of any housing units renting for less than $900 a month; development of a plan to replace the affordable housing that has been destroyed by freeway construction and redevelopment, and the hiring of a deputy city attorney to work exclusively on housing discrimination cases and the rezoning of residential neighborhoods to discourage gentrification.
Kennedy outlined his proposals in a letter to the city board. The board has instructed the city staff to analyze the recommendations.
PROBLEMS CITED 52% of residents pay more than 30% of their income for housing
Pasadena has lost 300 to 500 rental rooms in the past 10 years
There is a long waiting list for rentals in subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled
1,326 of the city’s 20,339 rental units need rehabilitation
Pasadena will need more than 2,000 additional housing units, mostly for low-income people, by 1994
