Change in State Affordable Housing Policy Favors Local Residents, Workers

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

March 18 -- A subtle yet sweeping change in California law will significantly impact the composition of Santa Monica’s state-funded affordable housing for years to come by giving preference to those who live or work in the city.

Under the new policy enacted last year, affordable housing developers for the first time can assign a “local preference” to current residents or full-time workers who are commuting to Santa Monica in projects that use state monies but don’t receive federal funds.

“For us in Santa Monica, this is a big win,” said Joan Ling, executive director of Community Corp., a non-profit housing agency that owns and operates 78 buildings totaling of 1,200 units in the city.

For several years, Community Corp. lobbied the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development to change the State’s local preference policy to ensure that those with local ties comprise an even more significant portion of total residents in any project the agency develops, including the six already in the planning and finance phases, Ling said.

Further, the change should boost the percentage of Santa Monica residents and workers in Community Corp. buildings from the current 30 to 40 percent to about half, Ling said.

Although statewide in scope, the policy change would probably only affect small cities that are considered “desirable” to live in and have an infrastructure of affordable-housing, she added.

West Hollywood, Berkeley and Santa Cruz are examples of other municipalities that might benefit from the change, Ling said. Because few cities are not affected by the change, Community Corp. received little help in lobbying the State.

“Sometimes we felt like a lone voice in the wilderness,” Ling said.

In addition to the lobbying efforts, a general desire to “add uniformity to the regulations” in affordable housing -- especially for people who commute to full-time jobs in adjacent cities -- led to the change, said Bill Pavao, deputy director of community affairs with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

Pavao emphasized that local preferences are not mandatory, but “permissive” under the state’s new regulations.

The policy change should help the Santa Monica’s efforts to increase the number of local residents and workers living in affordable housing, City officials said.

“This is basically an endorsement of what we already do here in Santa Monica,” said Bob Moncrief, the City’s Housing and Redevelopment Manager.

Currently, the City can give a preference to residents and to full-time workers who commute to Santa Monica only if local funds are used to build an affordable housing project, Moncrief said.

Yet affordable housing projects typically involve several layers of funding, he said. If any of the funds come from the Federal government, developers are banned from giving any local preference.

That has been a problem for senior housing, which is usually bankrolled with a mix of local and Federal monies, compared to most Community Corp. developments, which use State and local funds.

Two years ago, Moncrief boycotted the opening of a $9.5 million senior housing project he had worked six years to bring to fruition because the Federal policy resulted in nearly all of the units going to applicants from outside the city. (Full story)

Under the new state policy, it remains to be seen if the City will in fact partner up more often with the State than with the Federal government on future projects.

Moncrief said the most important thing from the City’s perspective is that Santa Monica will be able to build more housing for local residents and those who work here.