Different paths to affordability
Measure A complicates the housing process

Monterey County Herald
Posted on May 20, 2007

By ALFRED DIAZ-INFANTE
Guest Commentary

CHISPA has navigated through the complexities of planning and financing affordable housing for the past 27 years. It is never easy to develop affordable housing, with land and materials costs as high as they are. It always requires additional funding from state or local governments to ensure that the housing is affordable to working families in Monterey County.
Measure A will further complicate an already complicated process. Therefore, I find it ironic that some Measure A proponents claim the initiative will result in more affordable housing. The fact is that less affordable housing will be provided under Measure A. Chris Fitz, executive director of LandWatch, says Measure A provides "800 fewer" affordable housing units.

Providing 800 fewer affordable units means that about 3,500 people will be denied a decent, safe and affordable place to live.

These people will still live in our community, but they will continue to rent garages, double up in homes, or work here only long enough to take their skills to other counties that value their skills enough to house them.

Measure A also would eliminate a 100 percent affordable-housing overlay policy that streamlined the approval process for affordable housing located near public services and urbanized areas. This "affordable overlay" housing is affordable to families earning up to $114,000, which represents 90 percent of households in Monterey County. The overlay policy was supported by a diverse group of local organizations, including organized labor, affordable housing advocates, business and community organizations.
Monterey County voters helped pass a state housing bond, Proposition 1C, last November with the clear expectation that some of that funding would find its way toward construction of affordable housing for Monterey County working families. Passage of Measure A would compromise our ability to access those funds.
The state requires a certified housing element as a condition of providing funding for affordable housing.
Measure A invalidates the previously certified housing element that is part of the county's general plan. A legal analysis commissioned by Monterey County concluded that "the restrictions imposed by the initiative would clearly stymie, if not completely thwart, the county's ability to comply with the comprehensive housing element ..."

Measure A supporters can talk all they want about how their plan permits affordable housing in Castroville or Pajaro, but without a valid housing element, it is just all talk. Measure A's most vocal proponents have no experience in financing and developing affordable housing.

Measure A further decreases affordable housing because it allows developers of small subdivisions (19 units or less) to pay an in-lieu fee to buy their way out of developing affordable housing as part of their development. Currently, builders of five units or more have to actually build the affordable housing on site.

Proponents of Measure A make an issue of the permanency of affordable housing. This is not an issue. Most affordable housing that will be built will be rental housing. The financing structure of affordable rental housing and the county require the housing to be permanently affordable.

CHISPA's experience with ownership of affordable housing is that a vast majority of homeowners do not sell their homes. These families are deeply rooted in their communities and do not sell simply because of the equity they have earned in their home.

Affordable housing is one strata of housing that is always occupied by local people working in the local economy. But for those of us who build affordable housing for agricultural and hospitality workers, senior citizens and people with special needs, a complicated and difficult task will be made almost impossible if Measure A passes.

More than units are at stake during this coming election. Measure A will negatively affect the lives of working families and our future.

Vote no on Measure A. What really matters is that we create more opportunities for our local residents to have access to affordable housing. If you are considering a Yes on A vote because you think it will provide more affordable housing, please reconsider.
Measure A is overly restrictive and will certainly make it more difficult to achieve this goal.

Even if you are not personally worried about how you will afford housing in this area, you can be sure that friends and family members are thinking about it every day.

Alfred Diaz-Infante is president and CEO of CHISPA. He served on the county Planning Commission from 1993-98. He is on the boards of the National Steinbeck Center, California Coalition for Rural Housing and Common Ground Monterey County. He chairs the Salinas Library Commission.