San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury
• 2018-2019
“affordable Housing” an Urgent Problem for Our Community The lack of housing and the inability to afford housing has
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 11 findings
F1
The unaffordable costs of renting and buying homes on the Central Coast is of crisis proportions for those defined in the extremely low, very low, and low- income categories.
No recommendations for this finding
F2
The lack of “affordable housing” for the three lower categories presents a long- term threat to the economic vitality and social fabric of the county.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
The range of terms being used in the “affordable housing” debate creates confusion and perhaps misdirection for renters, home buyers and builders.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
The supply of rental units available to lower income families is insufficient.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
The jobs/housing imbalance places a burden on the transportation infrastructure and is costly for those who can least afford it.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
Most of the required annual housing element updates are difficult to access by the public.
Related Recommendations (2)
R2
Create, file, and publish the required housing element documents and reports on time and in a form easily accessible to the public. This should be done by the next report cycle.
R6
The cities and County should detail their specific plans to engage the public in the formulation of the 2020-2028 Housing Plan Update.
F7
The length and cost of the building permitting process is a major barrier to the construction of all housing, especially low income housing.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Reassess and improve processes to fast-track building and planning permit approvals from date of application. This should be implemented within FY 2019-2020.
F8
The overwhelming majority of new housing units in the Housing Element cycle (2014-2019) have been built for families earning in excess of $89,850 per year for a family of three.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
The cities and County should concentrate on promoting rentals for families earning below moderate incomes by increasing the percentage of required inclusionary housing units.
F9
All cities and the County have “affordable housing” funds which collect and hold the in-lieu fees, but the fees are not achieving the desired outcome.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Either increase in-lieu fees to realistically support the construction cost of inclusionary housing units or eliminate the fees altogether and require low-income housing construction. This should be accomplished within FY 2019-2020.
F10
All cities and the County have the ability to maximize their “affordable housing” funds by partnering with non-profit builders.
No recommendations for this finding
F11
Housing that costs less, such as tiny homes, pre-fabricated, modular, and manufactured homes, are underutilized in this county.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
Increase the opportunities through re-zoning for non-traditional housing options, such as modular homes, pre-fabricated homes, and mobile home parks. This should be accomplished within FY 2020-2021.
Conclusions 4
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CL1Very Low Income: 24.6% (for households of 3, maximum income $37,450/year)
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CL2Low Income: 15.5% (for households of 3, maximum income $59,900/year)
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CL3Moderate Income: 18% (for households of 3, maximum income $89,850/year)
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CL4Above Moderate: 41.9% (no restrictions on income above moderate) SLOCOG has the responsibility to distribute the number allotted by the State to our County. The largest allocation is to San Luis Obispo City because it has the largest number of jobs. It would appear, however, that these new goals continue to reflect the type of building that occurs in our county, that of overbuilding for those making a great deal of money. The State’s assignment of the housing goals for our county only requires that counties plan for this growth, not that they actually build the numbers cited. We question how the State arrives at these numbers, given that California, and specifically our county, continues to be the least affordable area in which to live. We encourage the county to examine what our real needs are: housing for the low and very-low income families that we rely on to support our economy. The incentives used by the government have proven to be largely unsuccessful in providing housing for those most in need. Our tourist, service, and agricultural economies depend on these workers and support our way of life. It is time to invest in new and innovative solutions to this crisis. No community can thrive if its workers can’t afford to live there. 4 “SLO County must plan for 10,810 more homes in 8 years. And they can’t all be mansions.”, Tribune Editorial Board, May 9, 2019 Submitted June 20, 2019 12
No Responses Found 2
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
San Luis Obispo County
County
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office