Finally Homing In on SRO Solutions : * County Task Force, Santa Ana Showing the Way
Orange County’s severe shortage of affordable housing can’t be solved in a day. But at least some steps are being taken to address one part of the problem. That is the lack of housing for single adults whose incomes fall short of what is needed to rent even the cheapest of apartments.
Recently, about 100 developers, builders, government housing administrators and advocates for the homeless met in Costa Mesa to get down to the nitty-gritty of how to build SROs--an acronym for single-room occupancy hotels. Expert panelists were peppered with questions: Can federal or state housing agencies help with financing? What strings would be attached? What about community reaction? How much parking is required?
For this area, SROs are an entirely new kind of construction, unlike hotels or apartment buildings. Typically, they consist of one-room living units with shared cooking facilities. They require on-site managers, housekeeping and security. Because they’re cheap and don’t usually require large security deposits, SROs are affordable for elderly and disabled people on fixed incomes or young people making their way in the world.
In years past, SROs were common in American cities. But through the years most have deteriorated into flophouses or worse. Many were bulldozed to make way for redevelopment, leaving a legacy of loss that couldn’t be restored overnight.
In Orange County, where housing costs often are unaffordable for even middle-class people, SROs are virtually non-existent. That means that people on the economic fringe can easily end up in the streets. Estimates are that there are 10,000 homeless people in the county, many of whom could afford a room at an SRO--if there were any.
In recent years, some communities, such as Los Angeles, have embarked on ambitious SRO programs in which community redevelopment funds were used to refurbish and operate rundown hotels in Skid Row areas.
In Orange County, a different tack is being taken, one pioneered in San Diego. There, the city’s role is to assist private developers by simplifying the bureaucratic process. San Diego’s SROs have higher rents than those built with direct government financial assistance, but they still cost far below other rental housing.
Inspired by San Diego’s success, Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young and Orange County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton organized an SRO task force earlier this year in which 16 cities and the county participated. The task force already has issued a much-praised development guide to SRO housing that is thought to be the only of its kind in the nation. The recent conference, which was sponsored by the Building Industry Assn., Orange County Region, built on the information gathered in the guide.
Those attending the conference expressed hopes that an SRO project would become a reality in Orange County within a year or so. Two SRO projects--both in Santa Ana--are moving forward and there is strong interest in Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove and Buena Park.
SROs can’t fill the county’s need for affordable family housing, or provide living quarters for single people totally without an income. They can, however, help women like Melissa, who lived on the streets of San Diego for five years before she finally got a room at an SRO a few years ago. “We changed her from being a street person to being a real person,” the SRO’s owner said.
With luck, there soon will be Melissas in Orange County who will have a chance to be real people too.
