City's affordable housing policies need to be examined
Jun 23, 2008
Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to the "Affordable housing owners refute stereotypes" article published on June 17 Morgan Hill Times. It's unfortunate that legitimate questions about our city's below market rate housing policies cannot be asked without an immediate backlash against those posing the questions.
Our committee, "Citizens for a Balanced Community" has never insinuated that lower income families are contributing to a variety of city problems. What we have said is that our current affordable housing policies need to be examined to discover the true effects that they are having on our city today and in its future.
As a resident of Morgan Hill for more than 27 years I have clearly seen our city change ... and it's not for the better. Our current policies may or may not have a cause-and-effect relationship on the eight items we asked city staff to review in the memo dated June 3; however we would never know if staff did not investigate them. How can you study the effects of the proposed initiative that more than 3,400 people signed, without having a benchmark to start from? The council is conducting a fact finding mission to discover the current and long-term effects that the ballot initiative the "Citizens for a Balanced Committee" sponsored will have on the city. It's not unreasonable to review the current policies.
Sue Bohn is not the average person as she says in the article. She is special. She purchased her home drastically lower than the "average" Morgan Hill Homebuyer during the same time period. Her home was subsidized by the landowner who sold the land, the home builder that built the house, and the market rate homebuyers that live in her community.
Bohn makes an excellent point which has been overlooked by the city council, City staff and the Morgan Hill Times. It's the American dream to own your own home, but not everybody is financially capable of this; which is why I believe there are rental properties. Home ownership is a progression; it's absurd to assume that you should start with your dream home. Typically people step up with each new level of housing.
"Citizens for a Balanced Community" has stressed the importance of move-up buyers and the potential negative impacts that our current policies are having on them. Ron Altamirano is the perfect example. Due to the 45-year deed restriction attached to the below-market-rate homes, such buyers are essentially trapped in their homes. They can't take full advantage of the home's appreciation that occurs over the years. They do receive a small portion of the appreciation, but in our opinion it's not an equitable share. We would like to see a wealth building component attached to such homes so that the buyers can use the equity in their homes to move up to a larger home at some point in their life. This would then open up the unit to another family. Unfortunately families that move into such homes never leave because they are trapped by the deed restrictions.
To clarify my position on the lost property taxes I think it's important to note that when I referred to "the city" it was in a global context, the community overall (i.e. school district, library, public works projects and the city). Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes, whether he agrees with the $664,000 estimate, admits that our community is losing revenue due to the loss in property taxes. According to your article, Mr. Tewes states that the buyers in housing built by non-profits do not pay any property taxes ... none at all! This further exacerbates the lost revenue our community is experiencing.
Jan Lindenthal is an expert when it comes to subsidized housing and the creation of below market rate homes. One of her concerns is the conglomeration of below market rate housing in one particular area. Our proposed ballot initiative will not put all of such housing in one area, as it has been portrayed. The current development criteria for the 20 percent set aside of our annual housing allocation, which is geared toward developers like Jan Lindenthal currently provides a mix of housing types. These developments consist of 25 percent market rate and 75 percent subsidized housing. She, along with other below market rate housing developers, is already spreading out the housing types within these developments. I completely agree with Ms. Lindenthal that each community needs to do its "fair share." We are doing more than our fair share. We are doing an extraordinary amount in relation to other comparable cities.
The Regional Housing Needs Allocation is not a "mandate," it's a goal, commonly referred to as RHNA. According to RHNA our city should be growing at a faster rate than it currently is. Due to our growth control, which "Citizens for a Balanced Community" strongly supports, we are unable to meet our RHNA growth goals. If we cannot meet our RHNA goals with our market rate housing due to our growth control, why are we trying to meet the RHNA goals for our BMR housing?
"Citizens for a Balanced Community" supports affordable housing, such as the proposed developments in the downtown core of Morgan Hill, which will be by nature "affordable" due to their size, location and type of construction. We do not support the extraordinary amount of subsidized below market rate housing units.
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