Many Hands Open the Door to Housing : * Cooperation Results in Affordable Irvine Apartments
There’s not much good news these days in Orange County’s housing industry, but at least one recent event was worth celebrating. After many months of planning, and some delays, ground was finally broken on San Rafael Apartments in Irvine, a 382-unit project that will include 115 units of much-needed affordable housing. The project is an excellent example of what can be done when government, a private developer and a nonprofit corporation work closely together.
What exactly is “affordable housing”? In this case, it is apartments that would be available to residents who earn 50% or less of the county’s median yearly income of $52,200. That means that someone earning $26,100 a year--secretaries, retail clerks and even some beginning teachers, for example--would be eligible. Unfortunately, too often even people who earn higher salaries have trouble scraping together money for the region’s high rents, let alone down payments on a house or monthly payments on a $250,000 mortgage. (That, by the way, is the average cost of a house in Orange County.) More and more, these workers are being forced into outlying areas and long commutes.
The San Rafael project is stepping positively into this affordable housing void. It is the result of a unique partnership between the city of Irvine, the Irvine Co. and Bridge Housing Corp., a Bay Area agency that is the nation’s largest nonprofit residential builder. Bridge was brought into the deal because of its track record on affordable housing and the scope of its past projects, which are on a much larger scale than those built by local nonprofit housing agencies.
The agency’s president, L. Donald Terner, who was in Orange County recently to talk about the San Rafael project, explained that while the high-end housing market is in a slump here and elsewhere in the state, there is a pent-up demand for moderate- and low-income housing throughout California. Typically, he said, when Bridge completes a project, so many people want to move in that hundreds are left “kicking the sand” when they are turned away.
That implies that much more could be done to spur affordable housing projects. One thing that would help is if President Bush and Congress extended the federal low-income tax credit, an investment incentive that is due to expire on June 30. Also, in California, a measure by state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) would give city and county redevelopment agencies more flexibility in how they utilize at least some of the money they are required to set aside for affordable housing projects. For example, the measure would allow agencies to authorize projects outside their own boundaries. As it is now, agencies are not moving ahead with affordable housing because they haven’t identified viable projects within their own communities.
One good thing already in place in Orange County is the Affordable Housing Clearinghouse. This welcome new nonprofit program--backed by local lending institutions--is putting together funding packages for a variety of housing projects. In the end, a combination of savvy nonprofits, adequate incentives, willing developers, cooperative government agencies and “can-do” lending agencies can make a project workable. The good will of neighbors can help. Too often, they fear that projects might attract undesirable residents.
No such resistance is expected to the handsome San Rafael project, however.
It is a good sign that, when all have a common purpose, the right elements can be brought together for the benefit of everyone.
