Avalon Helps Fund Housing Project
The Avalon City Council has voted unanimously to commit $500,000 to build an 80-unit affordable housing project that will cost $6.3 million.
The project, located on a southern slope overlooking Avalon, would ease the city’s housing shortage for permanent residents. Developers would own and maintain the property.
“It’s been a long-awaited start on the much needed low- and very-low-(income) housing needs that we have in the community,” Councilwoman Irene Strobel said.
Rents on 42 of the apartments will range from $500 for a studio apartment to $900 for a three-bedroom apartment. The remaining 38 units will be rented as low- and very-low-income housing, starting at $180 for a studio, on up to $425 for a three-bedroom dwelling, said City Manager Chuck Prince.
According to Prince, the city must establish income and residency guidelines before tenants are placed in the units. The state defines very low income for one person as $13,950 and low income as $21,300; for a family of four, very low income is $19,950 and low is $30,400.
“We have to establish a priority for year-round island residents,” he said. “We are not building vacation homes for those on the mainland.”
Mary Ellen Shay, the city’s housing consultant, hired the Sacramento-based firm of Daniel C. Logue and Cyrus Youseffi. Along with the grant from Avalon, the firm would receive $3.6 million from the State Department of Housing and Community Development and the remaining $2.2 million from conventional financing sources in the form of 30-year loans.
Last year, the Santa Catalina Island Co., which owns much of the land in Avalon, unveiled a sweeping 15-year plan aimed at developing areas of town in three-year phases. The low-income housing project is just one of four development proposals the company has committed to sponsor along with the city and private developers.
The company is giving the city the three acres needed for the site as compensation for improvements needed on city property for other projects. The Eucalyptus Hill site is the second such housing development project being built on the island. The other is the Hamilton Cove condominium development, which is in its second phase of construction.
Last spring, the city surveyed the community to determine its basic housing needs. “We found that we needed to develop 202 units over the next three years to help cure the shortage,” Prince said.
Community correspondent Carol Rapson contributed to this story.
