New Affordable Housing Set to Come on Line

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

June 7 -- Non-profit officials this summer are looking to put a dent in Santa Monica’s job-rich, housing-poor reputation.

For the first time in five years, the city’s largest non-profit housing provider, Community Corporation, will finish constructing new units for working families in Santa Monica this July.

Nearly 130 affordable housing units are scheduled to come on line in three separate multimillion dollar complexes around the city, significantly increasing the non-profit’s current housing stock of 1,200 units, according to Executive Director Joan Ling.

“These buildings will help 129 working families, who otherwise would not be able to stay and live here,” said Ling, noting that most of the units have two and three bedrooms.

Because the non-profit gives preference to people who live and work in Santa Monica, the units -- which will rent for less than half the $1,600 for a typical market rate two-bedroom -- will hopefully help attract and keep blue-collar and entry-level white-collar professionals in the city, she said.

“One of the problems Santa Monica has is recruiting entry level workers,” said Ling. “Many say, ‘Why work in Santa Monica, when I’ll just go and work somewhere that is 20 minutes away.”

The new crop of apartments will go to a “needier” group of working class and entry level professionals, Ling said. Teacher’s aids, nurse’s aids, restaurant and hotel workers, janitors, construction workers and secretaries are all the types of workers who may benefit from such housing, Ling said.

“It will be a source of housing, hope and stability,” said Ling.

With between 40 and 45 units in each complex, the buildings will be spread throughout Santa Monica and will be modern in design, Ling said.

The first apartments to lease, at 15th Street and Broadway, should come on line in July, Ling said. Another complex, this one at 26th and Santa Monica Boulevard, should be completed later this summer. And the last set of units, at Main and Pacific, should be finished by the end of the year.

While Community Corporation has added to the City’s affordable housing supply by renovating existing buildings, these will be the first newly constructed units in five years.

“This is a significant achievement,” said Ling.

But it won’t come cheap.

Each of the 44 units at the 15th Street and Broadway complex cost nearly $350,000 to build, Ling said.

With those estimates, 129 units would place the total cost for construction of the three complexes at nearly $45 million, although those figures would be different for each building depending on several factors, Ling said.

Construction costs and land prices have steadily risen over the years, as has the cost of building parking, which is estimated to be nearly $25,000 to $35,000 per space. Those factors have contributed to the buildings’ bottom lines, Ling said.

Those costs aside, Ling estimates each unit would be about $150,000.

While Community Corporation had been concentrating on acquiring buildings damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake and rehabilitating them -- which is cheaper -- they began looking to construct new housing in response to the city’s housing needs as the new century approached.

“We don’t do our work in a vacuum,” said Ling. “A lot of it is in response to what the city needs.”

Although the City picks up a portion of the cost, the largest percentage is covered through tax credit equity investment, state housing money and tax exempt bonds, said Ling.

If the land were purchased today, construction costs could run as high as $450,000 per unit, Ling said.