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| <back | home Affordable Housing in SLO County? by Judy Vick My daughters were 11 and 13 and tired of sharing a cramped, small bedroom. I was fond of our little apartment on Los Osos Valley Road, but I knew my girls were hitting adolescence, and a little bit of extra room was necessary for our collective sanity. I was a single mother, finishing my master’s degree in clinical psychology at Cal Poly, working two jobs trying to make ends meet. After much thought, I decided to see if I qualified for a home loan. As a first-time, low-income buyer, I qualified for a low-interest loan. It took every bit of my savings and my tax return to make the down payment. I remember taking a long, thoughtful run out at Montana de Oro, contemplating the costs and the risk of such a large purchase, $143,500, for a two-bedroom cabin in Baywood Park. My realtor had called me early in the morning before work, “Judy, you have to come see this home.” “Is it a three-bedroom?” I wanted to know. “No, but once you look at it, you’ll find a way to make it work.” Oh, I wanted my girls each to have a room of her own, but my curiosity got the best of me. I drove over to take a look. As I walked down the wide street, with 20-foot easements and giant cypresses lining the street, I stopped caring about the number of rooms. The charming location took my breath away. I remember walking down the street to the bay with my girls the day we moved in, marveling at how fortunate we were to be able to afford a home. It is a different story for anyone looking to buy a home here today. Families with two working parents are having trouble affording a condominium, let alone a single-family residence. This problem of skyrocketing home prices affects us all. Our workforce can’t find housing, our homeless population is growing, and this includes hundreds of homeless children whose situations affect their performance in our public schools. Affordable housing solutions need to be a priority in planning and policy decisions and we need to protect existing affordable housing, especially our mobile home parks. You hear all our elected officials say this. So why aren’t things improving? Hubert Humphrey said, “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” Our County government should do more. Even though our general plan includes a recently adopted housing element that gives decision makers the discretion to require affordable housing as a condition of approval for new development, time after time they choose not to. On the County Planning Commission, District 5 Commissioner Sarah Christie’s motions to include such conditions routinely end for lack of a second. County staff has tried to deflect public criticism by promising to draft an “inclusionary housing ordinance” which would make affordable units a mandatory component of any new subdivision. However, it also includes an “opt-out” loophole, allowing developers to buy their way out of the requirement by cutting a check. We can do better. If the board allows this loophole to remain, it will be “business as usual” on the housing front. Exclusive gaited communities, trophy home subdivisions and investment-driven condominium conversions will continue to dominate the market, while funds accrue in an account that will never keep pace with the escalating costs of land and construction. It is so much easier for developers to pay their way out of their obligation. But it is not the best way to address our housing needs. Numerous studies have shown that when a mix of housing types is integrated into communities from the start, it results in higher social, economic and education indicators. As Donella Meadows wrote in her book, Beyond the Limits, “A sustainable society is one that can persist over generations, one that is farseeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not to undermine either its physical or its social systems of support.” I believe, if we require it, developers will find a way to work affordable housing into their plans. Hundreds of communities around the country have adopted strong inclusionary housing ordinances that developers have adapted to successfully. Even in the superheated real estate market of Southern California, inclusionary housing is providing attractive homes for working folks alongside houses far beyond their means. But we can’t rely exclusively on home ownership as we address our County’s affordable housing challenge. Maintaining an adequate stock of rental units is also critical. This means we must enforce what little existing multi-family zoning we currently have in our general plan. County policies allow applicants to build single-family homes in multi-family zoning. Every time this happens, our community loses an opportunity to provide affordable rental units. This is a loophole that is long overdue for closing. Condominium conversions also put renters on the streets. When apartment complexes convert to individually-owned condominiums, it creates an economic windfall to the owner of the apartment complex, but unless the county adopts strong policies to ensure that at least some of them will remain affordable, they will be swallowed up in the escalating market. County supervisors, planning commissioners and county staff make the decisions that affect us all, day in and day out. Our communities need a stronger voice for affordable housing. That is one of the reasons I am running for District 2 Supervisor. The pressure to maintain “business as usual” is enormous. We need strong leadership on the Board of Supervisors, leadership that is in touch with the real life challenges, hopes and dreams shared by the people who make up the backbone of our community. Leadership that will be a strong voice for those who absolutely contribute to our economy and our way of life and cannot find an affordable home. I hold out hope that we can and should do a better job of planning for our future. This begins with making it possible for the residents of San Luis Obispo County to have safe, affordable places to live. Judy Vick is a family therapist for County health and human services programs and serves on the S.A.F.E. Team, a collaboration of County departments and non-profit agencies meeting the needs of families with children at risk. Judy recently led and won an appeal to the County Board of Supervisors to deny the unsafe placement of a cell phone tower near homes and daycare centers in Los Osos. Judy Vick is running for District 2 Supervisor! She will also have an evening to present her campaign on March 22 as well as facilitating a discussion after a cell phone tower documentary called Bad Reception: The Wireless Revolution in San Franciso on March 31. Both events (sponsored by HopeDance) start at 7pm and both are at the SLO Public Library. www.votevick.com judy@votevick.com (805) 441-8644 <back | top^ |