Santa Monica Daily Press
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer

CITY HALL For the third fiscal year in a row, City Hall met the affordable housing goals set out by Proposition R. Affordable housing projects were finished in large numbers during fiscal year 2013-14 despite the loss of the redevelopment agency (RDA) - a major source for affordable housing in the city by the sea. Last fiscal year, developers created more affordable housing units in Santa Monica than they had in any of the previous 20 fiscal years, according to a report from city officials. And that’s just as far back as the readily available data goes. The drought is coming, however. The feast of affordable housing last year was largely a result of projects that were approved before the dissolution of the RDA in 2012. City officials are projecting that the goal will be missed this fiscal year.

Prop R, passed in 1990, requires that 30 percent of all multifamily housing completed each fiscal year be affordable and that half of all affordable housing created be for low income households. Last year, 458 multi-family units were added to Santa Monica and 257 of them (56 percent) were affordable to low-income residents. The second best year for overall affordable housing production was in 2008-09, when 248 units were created. In 2010-11, only eight affordable units were created. The percentage of low and very low income residences created was the highest since the turn of the millennium.

In 2012, in order to plug a budget shortfall, Gov. Jerry Brown agreed to dissolve every RDA in the state, including the Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency. Last fiscal year, 98 percent of all affordable housing was built by nonprofit, publicly subsidized developers, according to the report from city officials. “Historically, the funding for subsidizing nonprofit developments, which have produced the majority of affordable housing, came from a Housing Trust Fund created by the Redevelopment Program,” the report said. “The dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency in February 2012 has meant the subsequent loss of funding for affordable housing.

Without a new source of funding dedicated to subsidize nonprofit affordable housing, staff anticipates significantly fewer affordable apartments being built in the future.” Only 19 percent of the 366 housing units in the pipeline are designated affordable and only 13 percent are designated for low income residents. Last fiscal year, only 13 units were approved for development and not one of them is designated affordable. Developers looking to add housing can do a number of things to satisfy affordable housing requirements. They can build affordable housing on-site or off-site. They can also pay a fee, about $30 per square foot of development that will go back into the production of affordable housing.
Last fiscal year, all developers opted to pay the fees rather than build the housing, resulting in close to $900,000 for future projects. Since 1994, 40 percent of all new housing has been designated at least moderately affordable with a quarter of all new housing being affordable to low and very low-income residents.

In November, voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have raised taxes on the sale of million dollar homes in order to pay for affordable housing. As a result, in January, council voted to cobble together a slew of different funds that will cover about what RDA would have provided over a two-year period. City officials were quick to point out that this is not a long-term solution.

SMRR WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY TO TAX PROPERTY OWNERS SO THEY CAN FUND MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING (MORE VOTERS FOR THEM LESS WATER FOR US AND MORE GRIDLOCK FOR EVERYONE)!