Affordable O.C. Rent: Where?
Rocky and Diane Bales shipped off the dogs to relatives and make their kids take turns sleeping on the fold-out couch, all part of the hassles they face as apartment nomads.
Though they pull in a combined $60,000 a year, the young couple can’t find a suitable apartment in Orange County that they can afford--at least, not one as nice as the house they rented in Anaheim until it was sold in July.
Since then, the Baleses and their two children have ricocheted among the temporary corporate apartments run by Wycliffe Bible Translators Inc. in Huntington Beach, where Rocky works as a computer programmer.
“We’ve spent every weekend and a lot of evenings looking for a place, and we haven’t come close,” said Diane, a secretary at the California Teachers Assn. office in Orange. “One place told us they would be happy to take our application--and it would be a year wait.”
With a booming economy and coveted sunny weather, Southern California has seen its available apartments and other rental housing gobbled up--and the cost of those remaining has soared.
Orange County, in particular, has become one of the nation’s tightest markets for affordable rentals. The dearth of apartments has fueled an 8% increase in rents in the past year, close to five times the increase homeowners saw in their average monthly mortgage payments, according to the 17th Orange County Annual Survey, released last week by UC Irvine.
While lower-income families have long had a difficult time finding adequate housing in Orange County, the lack of affordable apartments in general emerged as a major concern among residents in their otherwise rosy attitude about the economy and quality of life in the county.
“We continue to create new jobs for folks who earn $8 an hour, but we don’t create any new housing,” said Allen Baldwin, who heads the Orange County Community Housing Corp.
Baldwin’s nonprofit group maintains 205 apartments for low-income renters and has no vacancies. His waiting list tops 1,500.
Overall, 97% of the county’s apartments are occupied, forcing some desperate renters to double up or seek cheaper housing in Long Beach, Riverside or outlying areas.
“It borders on exclusionary occupancy. It’s ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you,’ ” said Caroline Latham, a partner of RealFacts, a Marin County real estate services firm. “Finding an apartment in a climate like that depends on how fast you can get to a phone and call when you hear about a vacancy.”
RealFacts found in a September survey that the average rent in Orange County was $956 a month, the highest in Southern California. The most expensive area to live in the county was Newport Beach, where renters forked over an average of $1,576. La Habra was the lowest, at $758 a month.
Situation Creates Longer Commutes
The bumper-to-bumper conga line on the San Diego Freeway weekday mornings is one obvious side effect of the housing crunch, said economist Anil Puri, director of Cal State Fullerton’s Institute for Economic and Environmental Studies.
“Housing costs are so high that people cannot afford to live in the county, so they have to commute. That puts extra pressure on our transportation system and environment, and we also have to pay higher wages to compensate for the commute,” Puri said. “It has definite negative consequences on the growth of the economy.”
Kathryn Vroman spent weeks scanning the classifieds and driving up and down neighborhood streets looking for a studio apartment under $600. The only places she found were either run-down or in areas where she didn’t feel safe. Vroman, 38, works for the Mediation Center in Costa Mesa, teaching schoolkids conflict resolution skills, and earns less than $30,000 a year.
She thought she was in luck when she spotted an ad for a $500-a-month studio apartment in Corona del Mar. Big mistake.
“It was a tool closet, with a bathroom added onto it,” she said. “I knew I wouldn’t find a place in Laguna, but when I couldn’t afford a place in Santa Ana or Orange, I was shocked.”
Vroman ended up leaving Orange County and renting a place in Long Beach for $525.
Nham Do and his family didn’t have that option. Do, a Vietnamese refugee, arrived in Orange County two years ago and his family and job demands require that he stick close to the area. His 17-year-old son goes to high school in Garden Grove. Do works seven days a week, earning about $1,100 a month.
The modest two-bedroom apartment Do rents in Garden Grove is “not in good shape” but still sets him back $600 a month, he said through a translator. That leaves $500 a month to pay bills, buy food and clothes for his wife and two kids and pay for classes he’s taking to become an auto mechanic.
“It is very difficult,” said Do, plucking at the Old Navy shirt he fished out of a pile of discarded clothes.
Still, it’s a step up from just a few months ago, when his family shared a cramped two-bedroom apartment with another family. Do’s fortunes may become brighter still. He may soon qualify for a renovated two-bedroom apartment in Santa Ana subsidized by the Civic Center Barrio Housing Corp., which has developed more than 250 rental units in Santa Ana over the years.
The organization has a standing waiting list of more than 200 families, said President Helen Brown.
“The greatest unaddressed area is that of the working poor. They’re the ones who really are being hurt in today’s market,” Brown said. “What are they doing? Moving in with their folks, sharing rentals--making overcrowding more and more of a problem.”
Catering to Affluent While Poor Strike Out
In Orange and Los Angeles counties, there are four needy renters for every unit of affordable housing, the widest gap in the nation and twice the national average, according to a June study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
The two counties also have the highest proportion of low-income tenants living in overcrowded conditions, and they do among the worst jobs of getting government housing assistance to poor residents, the study found.
With the economy and hiring on an upswing, and vacancy rates falling, landlords are catering to higher-income renters who can afford to pay amounts that lower-income residents can’t match--even with government assistance.
“We’re getting lots of calls from people who are complaining about the rent going up and up. We say, ‘Sorry, they can do this,’ ” said Dave Levy at the Orange County Fair Housing Council. “People are getting squeezed out.”
Marnie Abercrombie, a single mother with three young children, spent the summer living in shelters and a motel room in Anaheim before receiving apartment salvation from the Orange County Community Housing Corp. Abercrombie now lives in a two-bedroom apartment in a safe Huntington Beach neighborhood and pays $450 a month.
“Most of the places I looked at were way too expensive,” said Abercrombie, 30, who makes $1,700 a month as a clerk for an Irvine law firm. “It was also impossible for me come up with the money to move and for rent and security deposit all at once.”
Location, not money, is the problem that Ron and Judy Schneirson face.
They are looking for a house to rent in picturesque Old Towne Orange and are willing to pay up to $1,700 a month. No luck.
“We spend days driving the area and found no ‘for rent’ signs; called a couple real estate agents, who said there’s nothing for rent,” said Ron, an electrical engineer for Nextel.
The Schneirsons are building a home in the area, but they won’t be able to move in for at least a year. For now, they are living at Judy’s parents’ house in Fullerton.
In desperation, the Schneirsons slapped fliers on car windshields during a community meeting Tuesday night, offering a $100 payment for anyone who finds a place for them to rent. They planned to hand out more fliers this weekend.
So far, no one has called.
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Cost of Living Here
Apartment rents in Orange County have increased 18 % since 1994 and nearly 7 percent just the last year, making them most expensive in Southern California. All figures are averages
Orange County Rates
1994: $812
1995: $822
1996: $845
1997: $905
1998: $956*
* September; other figures are December
September 1998 Rates
Studio: $680
1 bed/1 bath: $838
2 bed/1 bath: $873
2 bed/2 bath: $1,098
3 bed/2 bath: $1,211
* How Orange County rents compare to the rest of Southern California:
*--*
County September average Increase from 1997 Orange $956 6.9% Los Angeles $935 5.8% Ventura $890 6.5% San Diego $830 10.4% San Bernardino $676 4.2% Riverside $646 5.4%
*--*
Source: RealFacts; Researched by PHIL WILLON/Los Angeles Times
