Both advocates for unhoused residents and Sacramento elected officials on Tuesday raised concerns over a new, yet-to-be-completed affordable housing plan.
Sacramento City Council and County Board of Supervisors both held workshops on the plan, which is required by the homeless deal the two governments reached in December. The Homeless Services Partnership Agreement specified a 180-day deadline to finalize an affordable housing plan, so the city and county are behind schedule.
The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is leading the plan preparation and asked for feedback in the workshops. The agency explained the two priorities will be to increase both production of subsidized rentals and rehousing services for people experiencing homelessness.
Mike Jaske with Sacramento Area Congregations Together criticized the overview SHRA presented, pointing out the lack of data on how many affordable housing units are needed.
“It seems to be near-term, short-term, marginal consideration about how to improve what we’ve already been doing for years,” Jaske said during the board meeting. “What you need is a real plan that acknowledges the size of the problem and identifies strategies to achieve what we really need: a huge increase in housing development for affordable housing in general and permanent supportive housing for those who need those services.”
SHRA is looking at a five-year period for the plan and could extend it at the city and county’s request, said Director of Housing Finance Christine Weichert. The timeframe lines up with the duration of the homeless partnership deal.
Weichert added the full plan will include requested statistics, such as cost estimates for producing new subsidized rental housing. SHRA aims to release the draft in mid-August ahead of asking for city and county approval in September, Weichert said. The agency on Tuesday gave an overview of potential strategies, such as considering ballot or bond measures, but didn’t get into specifics.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg also raised concerns over the plan’s level of detail. SHRA Executive Director La Shelle Dozier said the agency requested more than six months to work on the plan to do outreach with homeless services organizations. Staff held meetings with groups such as the Sacramento Housing Alliance last month. The agency also plans to incorporate input elected officials shared in the workshops, Dozier said.
Council member Lisa Kaplan said researching affordable housing bonds should be a priority.
“While we have a lot of work ahead of us, we don’t have the money in front of us to be able to do what we need to do,” Kaplan said. “And I think this is something our community, if we are very specific and data driven, is more likely to approve something that has accountability built into it.”
Steinberg said he plans to discuss local funding for housing in his State of the City Address next month. A study by the California Housing Partnership released in May estimated that Sacramento County has a shortfall of about 56,000 affordable homes for low-income renters.
On the county level, Supervisor Phil Serna requested staff consider revising the developer fee waiver policy in order to attract more affordable housing. He suggested a proportional policy through which the developers get more fees reduced if they build units for people making 40% versus 60% of the area median income. The median household income in Sacramento County is about $76,000, according to the latest Census data.
“I think if we get to that level of detail, we can have much more control over the density, the income targeting that we want and that we need,” Serna said.
SHRA plans to bring the full affordable housing plan to the board and council on Sept. 12.
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