Posts Tagged Housing

Potential parking reduction boxes in San Diego

Published: June 26, 2010 | Comments (4)


By Megan Burks

San Diego is stuck in a tight spot when it comes to parking. As the city gears up to change its parking requirements for new construction, debate has centered on whether to house people or to house cars.

Increasingly, state grants that subsidize affordable housing for low-income people are being awarded to “smart-growth” projects that encourage the use of public transit. One way to do that is to reduce the number of parking spaces in residential complexes, a strategy favored by cost-conscious developers and transit advocates.

Info from stock.xchng and the City of San Diego.

But residents in dense and growing neighborhoods take the opposite view: they want to require more parking, not less. Many say space for cars is already limited and that current transit offerings couldn’t shoulder a new wave of car-less riders.

A recent case in Lincoln Park, a low-income and predominantly Latino community in southeastern San Diego, illustrates the problem. The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, a local non-profit, wanted to build 200 affordable housing units in the community but needed a grant from a state housing bond for the project to pencil out.

The Jacobs Center scored 328 on an application for funding from Prop 1C. The qualifying score is 330. Chip Buttner, the group’s president and CEO, said most of the deductions were made because in San Diego, affordable two bedrooms need at least 1.75 parking spaces each, as opposed to one in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The different standards amount to an addition 150 parking spaces for the San Diego project. With California looking to cut carbon emissions, developments like this that allow for the status quo in car use just aren’t as attractive to the grant managers.

Now, at the behest of redevelopment agencies and affordable housing developers like Jacobs, San Diego is reevaluating its parking allotments in a study due out next year. The city is expected to reduce the ratio for affordable housing, and changes could eventually span the entire housing spectrum—potential reductions that worry residents in neighborhoods with little curb space to spare.

Developers favor reduced parking to increase housing

Market Creek Plaza, the partially completed project in Lincoln Park, is a bright, multi-colored compound that stands out among dry-brush hills, warehouses and fading homes. It brought the first grocery store to the area and has raised property values enough for a neighboring medical center to take out loans for expansion and offer hope for new jobs. Trolley tracks and 12 bus routes crisscross the 45 acres of continuous land slated for residential and commercial development by JCNI. It has the makings of a sustainable community center, except too much pavement.

Info from stock.xchng and the City of San Diego

According to Buttner, San Diego’s parking requirements have cost the project about $17 million in grants and set construction back at least a year. Michael VanBuskirk, a private consultant who helps developers write and submit proposals, said Buttner’s assertion that parking requirements weigh heavily on funding opportunities is valid. According to VanBuskirk, funding and government agencies typically ask developers to address sustainable practices in their proposals. Builds that encourage transit use and walking are favored, as are those that qualify for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which accounts for parking ratios.

“A certain level of sustainable design is becoming expected in these projects rather than the exception,” VanBuskirk said.

Charles Davis, the director of project development at JCNI, said the amount of Prop 1C funding San Diego County got as a whole is representative of the preference given to smart growth projects. San Diego brought in just $23 million while San Francisco, a denser city with more efficient transit, won $175 million.

Eliminating space for cars could make San Diego developers more competitive. It could also help alleviate a shortage of affordable housing, said Davis and others. In 2002, the city council declared a housing state of emergency that hasn’t been lifted; the city can only meet about 25 percent of the demand for affordable housing, according to Terri O’Connor, a planner with the group conducting the parking study.

Market Creek Plaza is a multi-colored compound that stands out among dry-brush hills, warehouses and fading homes in Lincoln Park. It has the makings of a sustainable community center, but its developer says high parking requirements are holding it back.

“We have a housing crisis, not a parking crisis,” said Doris Payne Camp of the San Diego Housing Federation.

Camp, as well as Buttner and Davis, said the cost of building parking spaces might be better spent on constructing additional housing units. According to a city report, an individual parking space costs between $1,000 for surface and $22,000 for underground parking. Dave Gatzke, a project manager with Community Housing Works, said the range can actually top out at $40,000 when design and financing costs are included.

Gatzke said most new units in San Diego’s mid-city neighborhoods are stacked above ground-level parking. A parking space for this type of building costs $31,000 to construct, according to Chris Kennedy of Advent Companies, an Orange County development group that has studied parking costs throughout the state. Kennedy said eliminating eight of these stalls would fund one additional unit of affordable housing.

“The way I see it, you can either park people or you can park cars,” Davis said. The developers who spoke with HealthyCal.org said they’re more interested in sheltering people.

Some confused about designated affordable housing

Some residents, however, have said they’re worried that developer support for a parking reduction is actually aimed at bolstering profits. In a workshop hosted by the parking study organizers, several homeowners said they doubt money saved on parking would actually go to more housing.

“There’s this perception that every developer wears a black hat and rides away on an expensive horse,” said Marcela Escobar-Eck, a land-use consultant with Atlantis Group, LLC. “Affordable housing developers are a different breed.”

Because they use public subsidies from redevelopment agencies and state and federal funds, money spared by a potential parking reduction would go toward subsidizing similar projects. What’s more, the amount of rent charged and the type of tenants leased to are restricted for 55 years, Camp said. The owners of these buildings base rent on a fixed percentage of the tenant’s income. According to Buttner, rent typically covers just 10 percent of the cost to build and maintain the units.

Residents at the workshop also said they worry low-income families are the wrong target for a parking reduction, citing neighbors who share dwellings with other families and keep cars for both. While such living arrangements can be observed throughout the city, tenants in designated affordable housing cannot exceed maximum occupancy. Additionally, 2000 Census data suggests car ownership does, indeed, correlate with income; the less money a family makes, the fewer cars it owns. The current study will look at ownership trends, among others, at up to 30 affordable housing sites to further assess this trend, according to the study organizers.

Residents say they’re already over-parked

Despite the data, the daily hunt for prized curb space is still enough for residents to question a parking reduction. Recent gentrification has brought booming business districts and new duplexes to mid-city neighborhoods. Streets are full during peak shopping hours and again at night when residents return home and popular bars open. The San Diego Association of Government’s most recent forecast anticipates the population will grow by almost 50 percent by 2050, with most of the growth occurring in these same urban areas. With infill imminent and parking already at a premium, many residents are calling for an increase in parking ratios.

At midday, streets in this Serra Mesa subdivision are empty. But curbs fill up so quickly in the evening that community members are asking new developments to exceed the city minimum for parking.

About 15 minutes from the stalled Lincoln Park project, another residential development is idling—this time after neighbors complained it provided too little parking. In 2008, residents in Serra Mesa filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego because it didn’t complete a traffic impact study for a new Westcore Properties development, the Palladium. Neighbors said the city didn’t consider traffic patterns and parking needs when it approved the multi-family project, and feared limited parking infrastructure would send new residents looking for parking in front of their homes.

“Try going over there late in the evening, parking is at a premium. People park in the adjacent single-family home area,” said Cindy Moore, the community member who spearheaded the lawsuit.

That’s because Serra Mesa is made up of subdivisions tucked between business parks and busy roads where parking is largely prohibited. A nearby hospital often means nursing and medical students share units while keeping a car each. Meanwhile, families in the more suburban subdivisions need space for multiple cars and recreation vehicles.

“I know my own family and friends and we have at least two cars, if not more,” said Carl Demas, the president of the local community council. “The city is being unrealistic about current patterns. We need an increase in parking.”

With rent set fairly high—about $1,600 for a one bedroom, Demas said—new residents were expected to have similar lifestyles and pavement needs. Though parking would be difficult, residents assumed Palladium tenants would also rely on cars, because services and entertainment aren’t within walking distance and transit is inadequate, Moore said.

“If excellent mass transit and abundant on-street parking were available, reducing the parking requirements might work,” Moore said.

Moore and her neighbors, who collectively raised more than $30,000 for the lawsuit, illustrate a sentiment that echoes throughout San Diego communities, no matter the location or density. In a city where public transit is deemed inefficient (http://www.healthycal.org/transit-cuts-hit-hard-in-san-diego.html), residents aren’t convinced to give up their cars or the pavement beneath them.

The city and Westcore settled with Serra Mesa residents out of court, electing to reduce the number of units and increase the parking ratio from two per two-bedroom dwelling (the city requirement for non-affordable housing) to 2.25. While awaiting an outcome, Westcore lost its funding and the project has since come to a halt, Demas said.

Transit advocates call for “growing pains”

Escobar-Eck, who consulted Westcore, said the settlement “ripped my heart out.” Escobar-Eck is in the camp of public transit advocates who say a parking reduction is necessary to break San Diego’s dependence on driving.

“In Southern California, we think it’s a right to have free parking—so much that we’re willing to drive around for 20 minutes to find a spot,” said Elyse Lowe, the executive director of Move San Diego, a nonprofit group that works to improve transit and increase ridership. “People don’t think about how much parking actually costs.”

“Parking [availability] and the pricing of parking is how we will see behavior change,” Lowe continued.

In addition to easing the development of affordable housing, supporters of a parking decrease said parking is a significant piece of moving San Diego toward smart growth and more robust transit. Lowe said residents may experience “growing pains” with infill and a subsequent parking shortage, but that the struggle could aid in changing people’s transportation habits.

“I think it’s important to look at how we’re evolving as a region,” Gatzke said. “As prices get higher and we see the environmental impacts of the fuel we use, we need to think about how we want to get around in 20, 30 and 50 years from now. Parking is a part of that equation.”

Study aims to strike a balance

Bill Keller, a business owner in downtown San Diego, said he would also like to see a greater reliance on public transit and walking. But he said he also recognizes that the downtown area, where cafés and services are concentrated, “is a different animal than other parts of town.” Keller said he hopes the city’s parking study will result in requirements that are tailored to individual neighborhoods.

The city is, indeed, looking at efficiency-based parking standards for affordable housing that vary according to proximity to transit and tenant demographics like age, O’Connor said. The changes are expected, however, to represent an overall decrease in affordable housing parking, according to Lowe, who sat on the committee that pushed for the current study. A 2007 study by the San Diego Housing Commission and planning division has already recommended a decrease to affordable and market-priced housing alike, suggesting that changes could eventually affect housing beyond the affordable designation.

The study is scheduled for completion in January 2011, with data from neighborhoods as varied and as Lincoln Park and Serra Mesa. A second public workshop for the study is scheduled for Sept. 21.

“It’s not a one-size-fits all,” Keller said. “It’s a tough issue because both sides are right.”

 

New foreclosure rules blessed by Senate banking panel

Published: April 8, 2010 | No Comments

Legislation to give California homeowners more protection as they modify their loans is moving through the state Senate. Senate Bill 1275 has won passage in the Senate Banking committee and is now headed for the judiciary panel.

Paul Leonard, director of the California office of the Center for Responsible Lending, calls the bill a “modest proposal” that would do a “world of good for Californians who are faced with losing their homes.”

The bill would require all lenders in California to follow procedures the Obama administration recently announced for lenders who are part of the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Among other things, those rules require loan servicers to evaluate a borrower’s eligibility for a loan modification before they begin foreclosure proceedings.

The measure would also require loan service companies to file a “declaration of compliance” certifying that the company has followed all state procedures required before foreclosing on a home. If the company does not file the notice or misrepresents its actions, those failures could be grounds for financial penalties or even reversing the sale of a foreclosed home.

The bill is being carried by Sens. Mark Leno and Darrell Steinberg.

 

SB 1275

Published: April 5, 2010 | No Comments

Bill: SB 1275, Sens. Mark Leno and Darrell Steinberg

Topic: Foreclosures

Summary: Sets new rules for California loan servicing companies to follow before they begin foreclosure actions against homeowners behind in their payments.

Full committee analysis: Click here. For full text of the bill, go here.

To see other legislation we’re tracking, click here.
 

San Diego tenants get no help fighting rats, mold

Published: April 4, 2010 | Comments (2)

By Megan Burks

Appalled by the substandard living conditions they found in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, community organizers told residents last year that they would take their concerns to the city—literally. Armed with storage-sized freezer bags full of roaches and rats from houses and rental units, healthy homes advocates presented their findings to the San Diego City Council and asked for better housing code enforcement.

The group called for regulation of mold and vermin infestation to help combat the disproportionate level of housing-related asthma in City Heights. According to the National Latino Research Center, residents of City Heights are three times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than others in San Diego County.

The council delayed action, asking for more information from Proyecto Casas Saludables, the organization spearheading efforts to improve living conditions in City Heights, and other stakeholders.

But the information the council needs could be as close as the California Health and Safety Code, which the city’s Neighborhood Code Compliance office said it already enforces. But the city’s enforcement leaves out several components of the state code, including regulation of insect infestations, mold, mildew, rats and other rodents, according to information on the city’s web site.

According to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, such negligence could be grounds for legal action against the city if shortfalls aren’t remedied.

Doug Hensel, the assistant deputy director of codes and standards with the department, said cities are obligated to uphold the code, which delegates enforcement to city housing or health entities.

Rosalie Leon, a supervisor with Neighborhood Code Compliance, said no agency in San Diego deals with mold or infestation complaints. That’s because the code doesn’t specify mold as evidence of substandard housing, said Alan Johanns, a program manager with the city’s Environmental Services Department, which doesn’t oversee housing code compliance. Instead, the code vaguely regulates “dampness of habitable rooms” and “inadequate sanitation.” What’s more, the code’s language suggests that a health officer–not expressly an inspector–is responsible for determining whether the unit has a cockroach, vermin or rodent infestation.

San Diego doesn’t have a health officer. Residents with these housing problems and other health queries are referred to the county government, which often cannot help. The County Department of Environmental Health regulates mold and vermin, but only for residents under the county’s jurisdiction. Complaints from city residents are looped back to the city.

Leon said residents with mold and vermin problems can also contact the California Indoor Air Quality Program for help. Funding cuts, however, have forced the program to discontinue its phone hotline. Residents can still email their concerns, but response time is slow; the program did not respond before press time.

Though Casas Saludables and other affiliated organizations said they do not have plans to take legal action against the city, they said red tape like this makes policy change necessary.

The residents most affected by substandard housing are also most likely to be refugees and immigrants with limited knowledge of local government services. Virginia Angeles, the director of Casas Saludables, said many of the residents she worked with qualified for Section 8 housing subsidies and feared their landlords would retaliate if they complained. That’s why Casas Saludables works to train residents to become promotoras who educate their neighbors on housing issues and help press for repairs at a grassroots level.

Valerie Camacho, a City Heights resident, said her lungs have been “pretty much obliterated” by living conditions in City Heights and the Imperial Valley. Although she did not want to comment on her current apartment, she said that generally, landlords in the area neglect their properties.

“A lot of the landlords don’t live in City Heights and never have and never will,” she said. “I don’t think they understand what it’s like to live with the realities. The majority of them live in North County and City Heights is just a cash cow to them.”

Alan Pentico, a spokesman for the San Diego County Apartment Association, said negligent landlords “are the exception and not the rule.” He said the association supports better code enforcement, but cautioned against mandatory inspection policies because of the cost to landlords and the city, and the privacy rights of tenants.

“There is already a process in place and it’s just a matter of following through,” he said.

Community organizers said the Asthma Coalition of Los Angeles County is a model for the kind of reform they’d like to see in San Diego. Los Angeles began mandatory three-year inspections after working with the coalition to alleviate childhood asthma, but Casas Saludables has not expressly pushed for mandatory inspections.

Currently, the city of San Diego conducts inspections only at the behest of tenant or community complaints. The Housing Commission, which oversees public housing, also does not conduct regular inspections of its properties, except to take inventory of fixtures when tenants move in, said commission spokesman Terry Rogers.

“Housing is crucial to make the difference for City Heights,” said Angeles. “It’s connected to everything.”

Though outdoor air pollution and health care disparities are other factors that plague the community, housing stock in the area is much older than in other parts of the county. According to the 2000 Census, only 17 percent of the housing in City Heights was built after 1980, compared to 32 percent and 36 percent in the city and county, respectively. This leaves residents susceptible to lead paint, old carpeting and leaky plumbing, all of which have been linked to asthma.

More than 80 percent of residents do not smoke or keep pets and said they clean on a regular basis. Still, nearly 80 percent had roach infestations and over half reported signs of mold, according to the National Latino Research Center. Of those with roach problems, nearly half had asthma.

“The single most determining factor for a person’s health is their zip code,” said Camacho.

Despite gaps in enforcement, the City of San Diego is addressing community health issues in City Heights with its Housing and Urban Development Healthy Homes grant. Awarded in 2007 and scheduled for renewal this summer, the grant allows the Environmental Services Department to fund voluntary inspections and follow-up education and repairs for low-income families affected by, or at-risk for, asthma. Since 2007, the program has worked with 225 households and educated hundreds more, said Johanns. The renewal will award $875,000 and is expected to serve 150 households.

Johanns said the program will complete a report later this year that he hopes will affect policy change and provide suggestions for more enforcement funding. City authorities and advocates alike said funding is the main hurdle for better housing regulation.

“In a perfect world, the government should and would enforce all their codes and regulations, but we are not in that world,” said Steven Kellman, an attorney with the Tenants Legal Center. “Based on such a limited budget and funding, the Neighborhood Code Compliance will have to work with a triage method.”

For now, Angeles said Casas Saludables is focusing on getting more funding and working with the community before it goes back to the city council. Hensel said the legal department with state housing authorities would need to be contacted for it to enter into discussions with the City of San Diego.

“We don’t just go out with a heavy hand at first,” he said. “We have and we will, but usually they just don’t really know what their responsibility is.”

City Heights residents grow their own remedies

Rich Macgurn scooped soil away to reveal a weed-like plant fanning out along the ground.

“This one dilates the bronchioles,” he said.

He revealed unsuspecting roots and more plants that could be passed over as weeds.

“These can be steeped in hot water for tea that boosts the immune system and opens the airways,” he continued.

Macgurn, who has a degree in herbalism, is reinventing the community garden. In City Heights, where residents are more likely to suffer from asthma, diabetes and obesity than in many parts of San Diego County, the community garden is as much about relief as it is sustenance.

Opened just over a year ago, the City Heights Community Garden provided plots of land and workshops for residents who want to grow vegetables. But Macgurn and garden coordinator Valerie Camacho also grow herbs and roots that can treat ailments common among residents. At periodic workshops, attendees are given handfuls of gumweed and astragalus, along with an information sheet–a prescription of sorts to take home to their wheezing kids or aging parents.

Camacho said the goal of these herbal remedies is to build up strength and resistance in the body, but she said she’s noticed the garden strengthening community ties, as well.

“Having this space is really important because everyone in this community knows someone struggling with a serious health issue,” she said. “It gives people a place to talk about issues.”

What’s more, Camacho said it gives residents who are new to the country a place to share experiences and learn from others who have successfully navigated health and legal systems in San Diego.

“It becomes about building self-sufficiencies,” she said.

 

Price of ‘progress’: displacing low-income tenants

Published: March 31, 2010 | 1 Comment

By Joy Hepp

Residents of the Boyle Heights community in East LA already know how to protect their community from outside dangers. Years of protests in the 1980s halted the construction of a nearby prison; legal action spearheaded by Councilmember Jose Huizar staved off the expansion of a hazardous waste facility; and efforts by Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle helped to rehabilitate gang members by giving them opportunities that they hadn’t found on the streets.

Now residents of this historic neighborhood are learning how to hold onto the neighbors and customs that have provided its rich cultural heritage.


To see a video version of this story, click here.

The largely Spanish-speaking community is still feeling the repercussions of losing more than 900 families that were displaced when the city of Los Angeles remodeled a major housing development a decade ago. Many believe that a similar exodus will occur when the city approves similar plans to convert Wyvernwood, a 1,187-unit, 70-acre property eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, into an upscale development with room for up to 4,000 condominiums. A 2008 plan suggested by the developer would set aside 600 low-income units. Community members are wondering what will happen to the residents of the remaining 587 units.

A statue of ranchera singer Lucha Reyes looks out over Mariachi Plaza as a film crew sets up for a music video shoot. Photo by Joy Hepp.

Community leaders say the economic downturn has given them the chance to educate and organize Boyle Heights residents so they will be part of the planning process for Wyvernwood and other potential projects. The financial slowdown has also given non-profit organizations time to ensure historic properties remain accessible to current residents.

The East LA Community Corporation (ELACC), a nonprofit group that works to build low-income housing and organize existing residents, has been given the go-ahead to renovate and convert the “Mariachi Hotel” into affordable single men’s housing units.

The landmark building overlooks Mariachi Plaza, a place where local musicians have come to look for work for since the 1960’s. Because of the area’s proximity to the Pico-Aliso Metro stop, it’s quickly becoming a place where the musicians are in danger of being priced out.

Gentrification is not a foreign concept in Los Angeles. Yet while now-hip neighborhoods like Venice and Silverlake have been transformed by market forces, in Boyle Heights the government is driving the change.

“Public investment and public entities are coming in and assembling land that a private developer would never be able to on their own,” explains Maria Cabildo, president of the community corporation.

The most recent population shuffle happened in the late ‘90s when the city of Los Angeles demolished both the Pico-Aliso and Aliso Village low-income housing projects. More than 940 families were displaced and there was a net loss of 661 affordable housing units. In addition, the construction of the Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, the expanded Rudy de Leon/Hollenbeck Police Station, and the expansion of the General Hospital have displaced more than 1,000 families.

Not long after the new units were built, developers began to take notice of the neighborhood’s proximity to downtown Los Angeles and the unique architecture dating back to the early 20th century when Mexican, Russian and Japanese immigrants all called the area home.

“Suddenly you could rent out a one bedroom apartment in Boyle Heights for $1,000 a month,” Cabildo says.

In 2008 organizations like ELACC were inundated with calls for help from residents who claimed their landlords were trying to illegally evict them or significantly raise the price on their rent-controlled properties.

Twenty-one-year-old Claudia Gomez says she lost several neighbors during that period because they were not aware of their legal rights. One family bought property elsewhere, lost it in foreclosure and are currently living with family members.

“They tried to do the same thing with us, but because my mom got involved. Now they’re afraid of my mom,” says Gomez, who, along with her mother, is active with Union de Vecinos, a grassroots community organization that got its start when a group of residents wanted to fight to preserve their low income housing. Despite her family’s victories, there are still battles to be fought. There’s a persistent mold problem in both her family’s home and in its adjoining unit. Traffic is a concern on nearby Wabash Avenue, a thoroughfare that runs in front of Evergreen Ave. Elementary school, so Gomez organized a group of neighborhood moms and elementary school children to make signs urging drivers to slow down.

Cabildo believes this type of neighborhood unity is in danger when residents are priced out of low-income housing. Oftentimes residents who eke out a living cutting hair or collecting recyclable goods also provide important links and services to the community.

“The strength of social networks helps you get by,” Cabildo says. “In our community people are really dependent on neighbors for things like help with kids after school. You’re not paying a market childcare rate because you have that relationship where you’re kind of helping each other in different ways.”

Strong social networks have also been integral in fighting gang violence. In the 1990s Father Gregory Boyle started Homeboy Industries, a non-profit job placement program that was founded in the heart of the old Pico-Aliso projects. According to Union de Vecinos director Leonardo Vilchis, figures like Boyle and other neighborhood elders were “able to negotiate from the point of authority with the gang members.”

“Now all these families that used to live here are dispersed all across the city in places that look like what used to be here without a network of support, without the leadership and without the ability to intervene and reduce these conditions,” Vilchis says. Residents believe a similar story may unfold if the city of Los Angeles gives Wyvernwood’s redevelopment proposal the go-ahead.

Some members of the community are more enthusiastic about the prospects of big-time development. Around the time properties started selling for $300,000, architect and founder of Barrio Planners, Frank Villalobos told LA Weekly he thought gentrification was “great.” This comment raised a lot of eyebrows with community leaders, but Villalobos stands by it.

“You have other multicultural groups in Los Angeles today, and so when I referenced gentrification, you have to define who is the gentry, and the gentry of course is other minorities that are moving in,” he explains.

Regardless of which groups are moving in, the area is set for even more change. Barrio Planners is working with a developer to create a multi-story mixed-used property to be built on the site of Mariachi plaza.

“I would like to see that we develop things that match the community …and we don’t end up with the typical stores,” he says. “That’s the intent, but the market place will find what’s doable. Unfortunately, what drives our society are the ones who come in and invest.”

For now, the economic downturn and the efforts of community organizers may be keeping gentrification at bay. Located across the street from the proposed Mariachi plaza development is Primera Taza. With espresso made from beans imported by a local Guatemalan business owner and muffins made in a neighborhood bakery, the coffee shop and art gallery is the kind of locally owned business everyone can get excited about.

On a recent Friday afternoon a reporter quizzed the barista preparing her Mexican mocha. “Do you ever see any hipsters in here?”

She replied, “What’s a hipster?”

Video and reporting by Joy Hepp. from Daniel Weintraub on Vimeo.

 

Santa Ana foreclosure fix moving slowly

Published: February 18, 2010 | No Comments

By Adam Elmahrek
Voice of OC

In January of 2009, during the height of the economic crisis, federal officials steered nearly $6 million to the City of Santa Ana to buy and restore foreclosed homes and provide down payment assistance to borrowers.

This home in South Santa Ana is among four previously foreclosed homes bought, fixed up and sold by the city of Santa Ana through grants provided by the federal Neighborhood Stabilization program. The city his happy with its progress since it first received money in early 2009. Critics, however, question the effectiveness of the program.

Santa Ana’s top housing official is happy with the results.

Yet since then, only five homes have new families, and only two borrowers have been helped. Five other properties are currently in escrow.

“We have approximately half our funds spent and I believe we are ahead of the game,” said Shelly Landry-Bayle, Housing Manager for the Santa Ana Community Development Agency. “So far, we are very satisfied with our progress.”

Some in Washington obviously agree with Landry-Bayle. In January, the city was given another $10 million from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

But a local economist and a Santa Ana realtor think otherwise.

“They could have taken that money, dropped it from an airplane over Santa Ana and it would have helped more people,” said Donald Booth, Professor of economics at Chapman University.

'I think the program is too little too late,' said Phil Schaeffer, a Santa Ana realtor who has worked in the community for 20 years. 'The impact on the foreclosure situation has been negligible.'
The housing bust has clobbered Santa Ana. At some points in recent years the city has been home to as many as 1,500 foreclosures. The federal money is to be used to buy up foreclosed homes and multi-unit buildings, then refurbish and resell them so previously stable neighborhoods don’t become blighted. A smaller portion is set aside for down payment assistance.

“I think the program is too little too late,” said Phil Schaeffer, a Santa Ana realtor who has worked in the community for 20 years. “The impact on the foreclosure situation has been negligible.”

To date, Santa Ana has spent $3.1 million of its grant funds, according to HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan. The city has thus far provided Voice of OC with an accounting of $3 million of that spending. The money has gone, among other things, toward purchasing the homes, rehabilitation and administrative costs.

Also part of the $3.1 million in total spending was $1.4 million spent on the acquisition and rehabilitation of a 14-unit, low-income housing complex on Durant St. Rehabilitation of the housing complex is not yet complete.

Finally, $108,797 in developer fees was paid to ANR Industries, the Santa Fe Springs-based contractor that won the city bid to do the work.

Sullivan said Santa Ana is ahead of the curve compared to other cities involved in the program. However, Sullivan acknowledged, because the cities take out mortgages on the properties they purchase and refurbish, they have to compete with private investors for loans from banks.

Private investors are not bound by contingencies required by the program such as a 1 percent loan discount for the borrower and strict environmental regulations. “The bank asks itself, ‘who do I want to sell the house to? An investor that comes to me with cash, or a community that has all these obligations?’” Sullivan said.

At the rate the program is going now, it would take 10 years for Santa Ana to wipe out 10 percent of the foreclosure problem, Booth said.

In addition to the small number of properties fixed up, there has been confusion over responsibility for repairs that have been done by ANR Industries.

In at least one case, ANR Industries sold a condominium unit even though damage was obviously visible on the exterior of the home. An unsightly scar blemishes the stucco wall near the window facing the neighborhood, and the wooden fencing around the patio remains unpainted.

George Jordan, Vice President of ANR Industries, said exterior repairs like stucco damage and wooden fencing are typically the responsibility of the Homeowners Association.

“We always seek to correct as many of the issues as possible,” Jordan said. “We don’t always have the liberty to make those repairs.”
The HOA for this property, South Coast Terrace, has been struggling financially and halted any piecemeal property repairs, according to Board of Directors Member Wallace Rodecker. But Rodecker said ANR Industries could have made the repairs if it wanted to.

The down payment assistance portion of the program has also shown few results. Landry-Bayle said just two borrowers have taken advantage of the down payment assistance leg of the federal program. Obligations attached to down payment loans made through the program – complex terms for a borrower to negotiate for on his own – have stifled interest, Landry-Bayle acknowledged.

“It’s a little hard for someone with no experience negotiating discounts with banks to do so,” Landry-Bayle said. Despite the limited impact across the city, families that have moved into the refurbished homes said the program has made a difference in their lives.

Anthony Malfavon, 34, bought a home through the program and was ecstatic about what he called a piece of the American dream.

“I just feel truly blessed,” Malfavon said.

But experts like Booth and Schaeffer remain skeptical.

“You could have taken all that money and distributed it to 100 people and gotten them all nice homes,” Booth said. “So far, it looks like a complete waste.”

This story was produced by HealthyCal partner Voice of OC, a new online news site covering Orange County that will go live in March.

 

SBx8 27

Published: February 15, 2010 | No Comments

Bill: SBX8 27, by Sen. Alan Lowenthal

Topic: Housing.

Summary: Designates the Multifamily Housing Program at the Department of Housing and Community Development to distribute the anticipated $193 million in federal funds received from the National Housing Trust Fund to build affordable housing in California. This bill would create 2,965 jobs, according to the senator’s office
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Status: Pending on the Senate floor.

Full analysis: Go here.