High Housing Costs Hamper Businesses, Survey Says
Despite a good economy, a new survey suggests Ventura County’s shortage of affordable housing--exacerbated by strict growth-control laws--is hampering business’ ability to expand.
Fifty-four percent of business administrators responding to the survey believe the high cost of housing is impairing their ability to recruit employees, according to a questionnaire answered by 104 businesses and released Wednesday by the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.
An insufficient stock of rental housing countywide was listed as a problem for 59% of area employers. The problem is worse for large companies; 70% with 300 or more workers report shortages of housing for their lower- and mid-level wage earners.
To help fill the gap, 33% of the companies provide employees with some form of financial assistance for housing costs. Still, 49% reported that soaring mortgage and rental payments have made it difficult to maintain a competitive pay scale for workers.
“These numbers are alarming,” Fred Ferro, chairman of the association’s housing task force, told a panel of 25 business leaders, real estate executives and housing advocates gathered at a breakfast forum to discuss housing issues. The survey was mailed during the summer to 880 employers, from hospitals and schools to farming, manufacturing and service companies. Respondents were allowed to respond anonymously.
Ferro has called for creation of a lobbying group of business executives to counter slow-growth and neighborhood groups that routinely oppose or pressure officials to shrink the size of new apartment and townhome projects.
Members of such a group would attend planning commission and city council meetings in support of projects they consider well-planned but facing opposition merely because homeowners don’t want renters living in their neighborhoods.
Demand is expected to continue to outstrip supply because of the county’s tight controls on where development can occur.
Six of Ventura County’s 10 cities and its unincorporated areas have adopted growth-control laws prohibiting development on agricultural land without first getting voters’ consent. The Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources measures were aimed at preventing sprawl between cities.
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Slow-growth advocates, including Ventura lawyer Richard Francis, a key architect of the policies, have said cities should encourage higher density multifamily housing on vacant patches within city limits. But Ferro said many residents don’t want any new apartments and are willing to turn a blind eye to the economic consequences.
Dave Anderson, chairman of the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission, said while corporate executives have the right to be heard, they shouldn’t count on his vote if it means crowding the city with people who can’t afford to live there.
“No one company made Thousand Oaks and no one company’s going to unmake Thousand Oaks,” he said.
If workers can’t afford housing, companies should swallow some of their profits and pay their employees more, or employees “ought to accept that they may have to commute,” he said.
“At some point, you’ve got to put out the no-vacancy sign.”
Apartment, townhome and condominium rents now average $1,042 countywide, pricing that’s out of the range of many single teachers and public safety employees as well as laborers, and forcing some adults with families to double-up in dwellings.
Countywide, rental vacancy rates are at 1.4%, meaning some prospective residents simply can’t find rentals. The median home price in the county is $251,000, shutting many prospective buyers out of the market. And job growth is outpacing housing construction.
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Paul Sheehan of the Ventura-based real estate consulting firm Dyer Sheehan Group said he believes elected officials would welcome an executive lobbying force. When only project opponents show up at meetings, officials feel political pressure they might not if there were a force present to “neutralize the negativity,” he said.
“Most of these politicians recognize the need and are looking for the excuse to make the right decision,” Sheehan said.
Supervisor Kathy Long, who attended the breakfast meeting, encouraged business leaders to organize and urged them to recast the debate by using such language as “work force housing” instead of “affordable” housing to describe the unmet need.
The executive director of the Area Housing Authority also endorsed Ferro’s plan.
While about half of the residents subsidized by the housing authority are senior citizens, Doug Tapking said the remaining 1,192 are working-age people with children. He added that about 80% of those adults have jobs.
“They are nurses. They are schoolteachers. They are your secretaries . . . not welfare people,” he said.
Tapking has a waiting list of at least three years for applicants seeking help with monthly housing payments.
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Corporations carry a certain weight that nonprofit advocates for the working poor cannot match, Tapking said. That is because business provides the jobs and tax dollars that power an economy, he said.
“The last thing a city wants to hear is ‘We’re moving to Bakersfield,’ ” Tapking said.
Ferro said there is also convincing to be done within the business community before an organized advocacy effort can begin. Some companies may shy away from advocating individual projects, he said, while others may actually oppose the effort.
Ferro said one high-tech executive told him he didn’t want increased affordable housing because the company uses the county’s low density and high-end demographics as selling points in recruiting executives, and because Ventura County is still a cheaper place to live than Silicon Valley.
