Public-Housing Strategy Endorsed : Homes: County supervisors, acting to keep eligibility for U.S. funds, adopt goals including construction of 1,000 new, low-cost units within the next five years.

The County Board of Supervisors endorsed a public-housing strategy Tuesday that makes provisions for additional affordable housing units a top priority and urges a plan of renovation for existing facilities.

Chief among the county’s goals, as presented in a report submitted to supervisors, is a plan to build 1,000 new, low-income units throughout the county in the next five years.

If accomplished, the construction would sharply increase the 1,500 existing homes for low-income and elderly residents that the county has helped finance.

Although the submission of a housing strategy report is necessary for the county to remain eligible for millions of dollars in federal housing assistance funds, county officials said the report’s priorities reflect a dramatic change for an area that in recent years has seen an influx of lower income residents.

“I think we all know what the economy is doing to Southern California,” said Bob Pusavat, the county’s director of housing and redevelopment. “From our perspective, we see a real demographic change. We see some families doubling and tripling up in one home.”

Pusavat said the current county waiting list for affordable housing under a federal subsidy voucher system--known as the Section 8 program--stands at 7,500 people.

The need for additional affordable housing locally was further dramatized last week when a study by a national research group found that Orange County had the worst record of providing affordable housing among 44 metropolitan areas surveyed.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities study did not grade county government’s performance in providing public housing, but rated a typical low-income renter’s access to public and market-rate housing.

The county actually began its public housing construction effort earlier this year when it approved three separate projects totaling 124 affordable homes. Within the next several months, there are plans to begin construction on five more projects that would total 260 units. The eight projects are located throughout the county, from Mission Viejo to Stanton.

In addition to the standard federal, state and private financing plans available for these projects, county officials also are drawing on a $15-million reserve account controlled by the Orange County Housing Authority.

The money, which has been accumulating for the last decade, has become available only in recent months because of a loosening of Housing Authority rules.