Countywide : Single-Occupancy Hotels Plan OKd

In an effort to tackle Orange County’s dearth of affordable housing, county supervisors approved a plan Tuesday that will make it easier to build single-room-occupancy hotels.

“This item brings us closer to developing a truly affordable housing stock in Orange County,” said Supervisor Roger R. Stanton. For people who have been shut out of affordable housing, this plan “opens those doors again.”

The county’s single-room-occupancy ordinance, which was drafted largely in emulation of San Diego’s successful program, is intended to make it cheaper for builders to construct the hotels here. SROs generally provide affordable places to live by giving residents smaller spaces than normal apartments and allowing them to pay weekly rather than depositing a month’s rent in advance.

The ordinance would give SROs permission to waive certain parking requirements that apply to hotels and apartment houses and it would add other incentives for construction. In return, all SROs would have to provide 24-hour security.

Although passage of the ordinance represents an important step toward building Orange County’s first SRO, a builder will still have to finance one, since the government is not planning to build any with taxpayer money.

“How soon until we actually have an SRO here?” Stanton asked. “God only knows. But we’re taking this one step at a time and this was a very important step.”

The county has already published a guide for local governments advising them on how to create their own SRO ordinances. Huntington Beach became the first city in Orange County to act earlier this year when it passed an SRO ordinance.