ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Low-Income Housing Fills a Need

Through much of the 1980s, low-income housing was simply not a fashionable topic in Orange County. There’s little other plausible explanation for why the county squirreled away federal housing funds originally allocated for local use.

While money gathered in a reserve account, advocates for the poor complained about the unmet need with some understandable bitterness.

The 1990s brought the recession, and with its disappointments and new political priorities came a fresh appreciation in county government of how many people were really just scraping by.

As if by wizardry, the county has moved affordable housing to the front burner. The new priority is late, but it is welcome.

In recent weeks, the Board of Supervisors approved several key projects and is expected to consider many more in the months ahead. This is being done, at last, through the county housing authority, which now is making available the $15-million reserve account that was previously idle.

The movement comes none too soon. The county’s goal is to use its reserves to help build 1,000 new low-income units throughout the county within the next three to five years. That construction would nearly double the current pool of existing homes for low-income and elderly residents.

With 7,000 county residents on the county waiting list for affordable housing under the Section 8 federal subsidy program alone, this aggressive new county strategy is a worthy response to real economic dislocation.