By Joni Halpern
Let’s look at the facts.
Every housing project in the portions of San Diego that can be considered affluent or wealthy can yield maximum market-rate rents for a developer. Adding market-rate units in a city that contains part of the “American Riviera” can only increase profits.
So first things first — the developers gain the right to build hundreds and later thousands of new units, promising to help the City accommodate households up to 60% Area Median Income (AMI), or 80% AMI, or preferably 120% AMI.
Developers get very advantageous permissions (limited, if any, parking, fees, or other requirements) that limit up-front costs.
Then they allocate a few units to “affordable” status.
But they don’t want the cleaning ladies, the child care providers, the caregivers, the working people who work for wages low enough to help the market-rate renters sustain their households.
The developments proliferate, but San Diego NEVER makes a dent in the massive backlog of units needed to house the individuals or families with low incomes. Households with two persons making low wages, elderly people with small fixed incomes of Social Security or small pensions, disabled persons on fixed incomes — none of the existing developments constructed under the easing of building requirements will ever address the needs of these persons.
Yet these persons are an essential part of our city, our communities, our family lives.
Instead, we will place them in little ghettos that we now create just for them. They are worthy to take care of our beloved family members, worthy to enter our houses to fix the things we want fixed at a low price, worthy to enter our private spaces to clean, but never to live next to us.
And that is the bargain Mayor Todd Gloria has made with developers.
Step 1 — give them latitude to build the maximum market-rate apartments.
Step 2 — move the unwanted to spaces where they will not tarnish the optimum rental prices developers want to impose.
I voted for Todd Gloria. But I will never make that mistake again.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Numerous multi floor apartment buildings have been built or are being built in the mission gorge area. And I suspect looking at the old commercial in the area, several more will likely follow. Another is near Alvarado hospital. Supply seems to be progressing near transit in these areas.
I also can’t fault builders who look for return on investment. Nobody is going to build to break even after 10 years.
Affordability is a loosely used word here. While we attach it to housing, all the other factors are in play. Gas, insurance, food, transportation, etc. 20% higher water rates coming. SDG&E with it’s monopoly. Why this building boom when Ca has lost population? Why this building boom without securing infrastructure needs is a main reason I look to unseat Gloria and Elo-Rivera. I think a main strategy is revenue through property taxes.
As I type, I look and back in 2016 was a series of articles.
Is Affordable Housing in the City of San Diego an Oxymoron?
“Why this building boom when Ca has lost population?”
That very question is why I accuse commentors like Zack and some others for expressing opinions they don’t sincerely hold when they claim an explosion of new housing will result in lower rents.
Praying to the altar of Supply Side Jesus. The invisible hand of the free market will solve everything. Let the developers do whatever they want, and society will be better off. /s
Hi, Joni. Well said. At least I can honestly say I never voted for Gloria. If more people had voted for Barbara Bry, we might be in a far better position (no assurance, of course, given the evidence of the strength of developers to push various City Council members to approve thousands of market rate housing units which a huge percentage of San Diegans will never be able to afford) .
As for the previous commenters question about why we’re building more housing when California is losing population…. there are thousands of people in San Diego who are not leaving, cannot afford to leave, and cannot find any place to live that’s affordable to even middle income residents, much less for very-low and low income workers.
And recently, it appears, Gloria is agreeable to the retraction of hundreds of very-low and low income units that had been part of the original Midway Rising agreement because the developers prefer to build market rate units, continuing to add units unaffordable to a huge percentage of San Diegans.
Has it occurred to anyone that loss of the low-wage earners will exacerbate difficulties in finding employees for low-wage work? Many if not most of those low-wage workers are necessary for businesses that we all depend on and, very likely, business owners who can afford market rate housing also depend on. All of this doesn’t even begin to address the ever-growing homeless population, many of who are homeless due to inability to find or retain housing that they can afford with low wage jobs.
I think the unfortunate reality is, things are not going to get better no matter who the mayor is and who is on the city council.
“As for the previous commenters question about why we’re building more housing when California is losing population…. there are thousands of people in San Diego who are not leaving, cannot afford to leave, and cannot find any place to live that’s affordable to even middle income residents, much less for very-low and low income workers.”
So people are trapped living here? And now it’s our business to get them stabilized? Like I alluded to, affordable housing is transitional through other costs. Water, electricity, gas, insurance, that gets passed along thru consumers renting properties. Landlords aren’t going to eat that. So Gloria’s attention to infrastructure is now pushing water rates up 20%. After the end of a drought, with by the way got us higher rates when we conserved water because there wasn’t enough revenue. Affordability has been an issue for a very long time. Longer than Gloria.
Midway Rising is a money grab for a developer in a prime location. Not surprised those units were tossed by the way side.
“Has it occurred to anyone that loss of the low-wage earners will exacerbate difficulties in finding employees for low-wage work? ”
But if they can’t afford to leave, like you said, how will there be a loss of workers?
At the City Council meeting yesterday, staff from the Planning Dept. said very low income housing, for a family of 4, requires an annual income of $68,900.00. And the mayor’s bright idea of affordable housing requires a salary of $135K. When he says, with a smile, “affordable”, he’s led a lot of people into thinking they were going to find cheap housing. It’s a word game people to make you like him and will vote for him. You’re being “played”. I didn’t vote for him. Listen to Larry Turner, mayoral candidate. He says straight out, he’s for the people and he has viable plans, for what ails SD.
Gloria sat on his little news 8 soapbox yesterday not pleased the HAP went down. He still wants to find a way to push it through.