BREA : New Panel Replaces Housing Board

The City Council has disbanded the Brea Senior Subsidy Board and replaced it with an expanded panel that will advise the council on issues relating to affordable housing.

Sitting as the Redevelopment Agency, the council voted 3 to 1 Tuesday to establish the Housing Breans Advisory Board to review and provide input for a variety of affordable housing programs offered by the city, officials said.

“This is another way for us to get community input on what we’re trying to do in the area of affordable housing,” Councilwoman Bev Perry said.

In addition to Perry, Mayor Burnie Dunlap and Redevelopment Agency member Gene Leyton voted for the formation of the board. Councilman Glenn. G. Parker was absent.

Councilwoman Kathryn E. Wiser cast the dissenting vote. She said she is not against affordable housing. However, she does not want the city to create “another layer of bureaucracy,” she said.

“Staff should be advising us, not advising a board, which in turn will advise us,” Wiser said.

Community Services Director Sue Georgino said the board will comprise seven members representing a cross-section of the city.

Staff members from the Redevelopment Services Department will provide support, Georgino said. She said the board initially will meet every two months, but the schedule will be reviewed after six months.

“It will provide council and the Redevelopment Agency policies and guidelines to meet the overall affordable housing goals,” Georgino said.

The city hopes to build 1,500 affordable housing units in the next eight years, she said.

The board will replace the five-member Senior Subsidy Board, which was created in 1989 to monitor the implementation of the Brea Senior Subsidy Program. The program provided rent subsidies to qualified senior citizens.

Because the city has expanded its housing programs and resources, a bigger board is necessary, Georgino said.