San Diego County: How much housing needs to be built to lower costs

San Diego County Housing Blueprint Summary

I'll provide a summary of the key points from the Fox5 article about San Diego County's housing crisis and plans to address it:

1. San Diego County has developed a Housing Blueprint to tackle the housing crisis, outlining factors contributing to the problem and strategies to address it.
2. The county needs to build 171,685 new housing units by 2029 (34,337/annum), with 99,000 (1,980/annum) of those designated as affordable housing.
3. The county itself is responsible for building 6,700 homes in unincorporated areas, while the rest fall under the responsibility of individual cities.
4. There's a significant shortage of housing for extremely low- and very low-income households, with only 190 of the planned 1,834 units approved so far.
5. Factors impacting affordable housing development include zoning laws, permitting processes, environmental regulations, community resistance, and high construction costs.
6. The county estimates it will need $151 million in subsidies to build the remaining 1,600 affordable units in unincorporated areas, and an additional $182 million to aid cities' efforts.
7. The Housing Blueprint proposes a five-pronged framework (the "5 Ps") to address the crisis: Promote equity, Produce housing, Preserve vulnerable housing, Protect tenants, and Prevent displacement.
8. Suggested strategies include creating a Housing Strategy Office, pursuing a ballot measure for long-term funding, renewing ADU fee waivers, and adopting incentives for middle-income homeownership units.

This summary captures the main points of the article, focusing on the scope of the housing crisis, the county's plans to address it, and the challenges involved in implementing those plans. 

The County of San Diego's Housing Blueprint

Here is a summary of the key points from the provided pages of the County of San Diego Housing Blueprint:

1)      The Blueprint outlines 8 strategies to address the housing crisis in San Diego County, organized into two categories:

a)       Systems Change Strategies:

i)        Refine the County's Organizational Approach to Housing

ii)       Create New Funding Sources for Housing

iii)     Improve Engagement, Transparency, and Access

b)      Programmatic/Policy Change Strategies:

i)        Focus and Streamline Administration of Housing Funding to Maximize Impact

ii)       Unlock Land for Sustainable and Resilient Development Opportunities

iii)     Provide Solutions for Middle-Income Housing Production and Programs

iv)     Implement Affordable Housing Preservation Strategies

v)       Strengthen and Enforce Tenant Protections and Homeless Prevention Efforts

2)      Each strategy includes immediate actions (1-2 years), medium-term actions (3-5 years), and potential actions for further study. Actions are evaluated for staffing and funding needs.

3)      Key priorities include:

a)       Creating a new Housing Strategy Office to coordinate efforts across departments

b)      Identifying new ongoing funding sources for affordable housing

c)       Focusing on housing for extremely low and very low income households and permanent supportive housing

d)      Unlocking more land for affordable housing development

e)      Preserving existing affordable housing

f)        Strengthening tenant protections and homeless prevention

g)       The Blueprint aims to fund approximately 4,100 new affordable homes over 5 years, requiring an estimated $383 million in local funding.

4)      Implementation will require prioritizing and scaling actions based on available resources. The County will need to integrate the Blueprint into its workplan and budget process.

5)      The strategies align with and support the County's broader Strategic Plan initiatives of Sustainability, Equity, Empower, Community, and Justice.

Appendix A Strategies

Appendix A of the San Diego County Housing Blueprint provides a detailed overview of the 8 strategies and their associated actions to address the housing crisis. Here's a summary:

1. The strategies are divided into two categories:
   • Systems Change Actions (Strategies 1-3)
   • Programmatic/Policy Actions (Strategies 4-8)
2. Each strategy includes:
   • Immediate Actions (Years 1-2)
   • Medium-Term Actions (Years 3-5)
   • Actions For Further Study (no specific timeframe)
3. The 8 strategies are:
   1. Refine the County's Organizational Approach to Housing
   2. Create New Funding Sources for Housing
   3. Improve Engagement, Transparency, and Access
   4. Focus and Streamline Administration of Housing Funding to Maximize Impact
   5. Unlock land for sustainable and resilient development opportunities
   6. Provide Solutions for Missing Middle-Income Housing Production and Programs
   7. Implement Affordable Housing Preservation Strategies
   8. Strengthen and Enforce Tenant Protections and Homeless Prevention Efforts
4. Key actions include:
   • Establishing a Housing Strategy Office
   • Creating a formal Housing Trust Fund
   • Developing public-facing housing data dashboards
   • Prioritizing Permanent Supportive Housing and Extremely Low Income housing
   • Supporting faith-based and educational institutions in using their land for housing
   • Expanding ADU development incentives
   • Creating a countywide dataset of at-risk unrestricted affordable housing
   • Centralizing tenant protections and assistance
5. The Blueprint aims to fund approximately 4,100 new affordable homes over 5 years, requiring an estimated $383 million investment.
6. The strategies and actions are aligned with the "5 Ps" framework: Promote equity, inclusion, and sustainability; Produce housing for all; Preserve vulnerable housing; Protect tenants; and Prevent displacement.
7. The appendix emphasizes that implementation will require prioritizing and scaling actions based on available resources.

 

San Diego County: How much housing needs to be built to lower costs

fox5sandiego.com

Danielle Dawson

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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — As San Diego County looks to tackle the housing crisis, the building of new units has been a key focus for elected officials.

But exactly how many units across income levels actually need to be built to meet the demand that has pushed costs up?

San Diego County officials broke down the numbers in its Housing Blueprint, a planning document that outlines the factors contributing to the region’s housing crisis and strategies that can help guide how county leaders address these issues.

A final draft of the blueprint, which has been in development for more than two years, was presented to the Board of Supervisors during its regular meeting last week on Tuesday.

How many affordable units does San Diego County need?

According to the blueprint, San Diego County has seen significant growth in the number of households within its boundaries over the last three decades, increasing by about 273,000. However, only 93,000 new homes were permitted for construction during that same time period.

This discrepancy has priced out higher-income households looking to break into the for-sale market, keeping rental unit vacancy rates in the region consistently below 1%. According to the blueprint, a healthy vacancy rate for a municipality is about 5%.

This “stark imbalance between housing supply and demand,” the blueprint says, is one of the main market drivers raising rent prices across income levels — a pace that has acutely burdened low-income households.

Roughly half of the county is considered “rent burdened,” meaning a household is paying more than 30% of its income towards housing costs. This share of income going towards housing costs is closer to 50% for many very low- to extremely low-income households.

To offset these pressures, San Diego County will need to build at least 171,685 new units by 2029 with 99,000 specifically earmarked as “affordable housing” to set it aside for households that meet certain income requirements.

According to the blueprint, 6,700 of these homes will need to be built by the county in unincorporated areas. The remainder are the responsibility of individual cities, albeit with the county’s help in the form of measures like subsidies.

So far, county officials say they are on track to meet this goal for all income levels except extremely low- and very-low income. Only 190 of its planned 1,834 units for these households who earn less than half of the region’s median income have been greenlit, the blueprint said.

“In this environment of scarcity, what little housing that is built tends to be affordable only to higher income households. Without public policy interventions and government subsidy, the private market is not building homes that are affordable to low- and moderate-income households,” the report said, noting that this trend is occurring statewide.

What factors impact affordable housing development?

As the blueprint lays out, there are significant roadblocks to housing development, particularly for the county who are directly responsible for adding units in unincorporated areas.

For one, zoning laws and permitting processes make construction of new units particularly arduous for developers. Environmental laws, which largely bar projects in high wildfire risk zones or ones that create suburban sprawl, similarly can create challenges for housing projects.

Community resistance has also historically been a barrier to efficient development, slowing projects or sometimes derailing them entirely.

Meanwhile, the cost of building itself and scarce public resources for developers pursuing projects for lower- to moderate-income households discourages construction of units that are less guaranteed to turn a profit.

To build the remaining 1,600 affordable units the county is obligated to construct, it will take an estimated $151 million in county-level subsidies to developers, according to the blueprint. An additional $182 million will need to be allocated to aid incorporated cities’ building efforts.

What can the county do?

The blueprint lays out a five-pronged framework with eight general strategies to close the gap between affordable housing demand and supply.

The framework is summarized by five “P’s” in the blueprint: “Promote equity, inclusion, and sustainability,” “produce housing for all,” “preserve vulnerable housing,” “protect tenants,” and “prevent displacement.”

“The 5 Ps Solutions Framework envisions a housing system that addresses the region’s housing crisis at its root: solving for decades of underproduction as well as practices of inequitable access, challenges of housing stability for various vulnerable populations, and more,” the blueprint reads.

Under each of the five “P’s” are strategies are possible interventions that would streamline the existing systems involved in the county’s approach to housing, create permanent revenue sources for affordable housing projects, implement countywide strategies to protect renters from displacement, and utilizing publicly-owned surplus land to build new units.

Among the suggestions outlined in the blueprint include the creation of a “Housing Strategy Office” to coordinate the intra-agency efforts on housing, pursuit of a ballot measure to fund long-term projects, renewal of the county’s accessory dwelling unit fee wavier, and adopt new incentives for new homeownership units for middle-income households.