Cities Not to Blame For Housing Woes

* Re “An Unaffordable Housing Crunch,” (May 7):

The editorial offered the opinion that “city governments are doing too little to help” the provision of affordable housing, but this opinion leaves the wrong impression and assumes that cities on their own can provide affordable housing.

First, cities do not build housing; the housing industry builds housing.

Cities cannot force developers to build unprofitable projects. Cities, and the county, can provide some assistance through redevelopment agencies and housing authorities, but the cost of land requires significant subsidies (up to $80,000 per unit) to make affordable housing projects pencil out.

Second, as your newspaper has acknowledged in past editorials, the state of California is diverting millions of dollars of local property tax revenue annually to the state’s general fund.

This diversion of revenue, which began in the early 1990s, exceeds $1 billion and this year will be $250 million more than last year.

Yet the state is predicting a surplus exceeding $6 billion. A large portion of that surplus is local property taxes taken away from cities and counties.

To provide needed services such as police, fire, parks and libraries, cities must pursue retail development because in the state’s arcane and convoluted fiscal system, retail development pays for the services it demands, and residential development does not.

City officials in Orange County have been and remain committed to implementing policies that ensure decent, safe and sanitary housing for our residents. We remain open to the partnerships that are necessary to realize that goal.

City officials, more than any other level of government representatives, recognize that a healthy, balanced and sustainable community requires a solid economic base and a range of housing types from which residents can choose.

It is, after all, city officials who are charged with adopting public policies that not only meet the service demands of the community but that ensure a balanced budget.

Until leadership exists at the state level to return diverted local property taxes to local communities and until private industry can earn a reasonable return on investment by building affordable housing, cities cannot solve the problem alone.

JAN DEBAY

Newport Beach councilwoman