RDA Affordable Housing program gives a helping hand to those who
need it most As real estate prices, including rent, continue to
exceed people
’s ability to meet their payments, cities and developers have
come together to provide residents with decent and affordable
housing. Morgan Hill is well-praised for its efforts in helping
low-income residents live in the community by investing in
affordable housing projects. But the waiting list f
or such units is long, with some units having a waiting list of
as high as 1,600 households.
As real estate prices, including rent, continue to exceed people’s ability to meet their payments, cities and developers have come together to provide residents with decent and affordable housing. Morgan Hill is well-praised for its efforts in helping low-income residents live in the community by investing in affordable housing projects. But the waiting list for such units is long, with some units having a waiting list of as high as 1,600 households.
An obvious need for cheaper housing
When Silicon Valley’s explosive growth came to a screeching halt about three years ago, Roxana Valverde lost her job and the $1,200 a month apartment in Gilroy she shared with her boyfriend and 2-year-old son JR.
With nowhere else to turn, Valverde, who was pregnant with her second child, separated from her boyfriend and moved in with her grandparents. However, the arrangement was short lived. She found herself in a quandary – unable to get along with her relatives and unable to find another home she could afford. The prospect of being alone with two children and no job scared her.
“Then I remembered the Depot,” Valverde, recounted. She was referring to Depot Commons, an affordable housing project developed by the city in 1995 using Redevelopment Agency funds. Valverde had qualified for a Depot Commons unit before, when she lived in Morgan Hill, but declined the low-income housing because her job in San Jose with a wholesale travel company was going well.
This time, she took the chance and applied again for the low-income rental unit. Three months after she filled out her application, she was notified there was a unit available for her. Valverde and her two children moved into a one bedroom in the housing complex at the corner of 5th and Depot.
Depot Commons, which cost the city $440,000 of RDA money to build, is one of many affordable housing projects in Morgan Hill. The complex is a shared housing development with three single-family homes designed to house four three-person families in the very low to low income levels. The fourth unit is an on-site daycare center, with an upstairs apartment for the daycare provider.
Valverde pays $450 a month for one bedroom in the house she shares with three other single mothers and their children.
Now, almost a year to the day she moved to Depot Commons, Valverde, 33, is back on her feet. In November of 2004, Valverde completed a pharmacy technician program at Silicon Valley College and a month later, she got a job at Salud Para La Gente, a nonprofit migrant clinic in Watsonville. In August, she is moving to Hollister, where she has qualified for Section 8 housing and will live in a two-bedroom duplex. She is ecstatic.
“I will finally own my own home,” she exclaimed.
Valverde’s story exemplifies the mission of affordable housing: providing homes that working families can afford.
A needed service in an expensive county
Only 22 percent of Santa Clara County residents can afford a median priced home, according to information provided by the city during Affordable Housing Week last May. In the county, the median price of a home in April was $619,000; in Morgan Hill, the median home cost $865,000.
Housing is considered affordable by the U.S. government if it accounts for 30 percent or less of a person’s income. With the average rent for a two bedroom apartment in the county costing $1,313 a month, a renter earning less than $47,268 could qualify for affordable housing.
The median income in Santa Clara County is $105,500 for a family of four. A family earning less than the median could also qualify for some level of affordable housing.
A model for affordable homes
“Morgan Hill is recognized as one of the leaders in answering the need for affordable housing,” according to Poncho Guevara, director of communications for South County Housing.
The nonprofit company is the developer of Depot Commons and Villa Ciolino, a Morgan Hill affordable housing development that received one of four 2002 National NAHRO (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials) Awards for Best Affordable Housing Project in the nation, along with the Helen Putnam Award for economic development from the League of California Cities that same year.
South County Housing, based out of Gilroy, is one of Morgan Hill’s top affordable housing developers.
“We’ve had a great long-term relationship with Morgan Hill leaders in creating affordable housing opportunities. The City of Morgan Hill has stood out as one of the great pioneers in working with nonprofit housing developers like ourselves,” said Guevara.
South County Housing has partnered with the city in building about 325 affordable housing units in the last 20 years.
Guevara said, “Affordable housing provides families that need assistance a nice place until they can stabilize their income and save, and then in four to five years, perhaps they can move on, buy a home.”
Erasing blight, brightening lives
Affordable housing is a major objective of the city’s Redevelopment Agency and administered through the Business Assistance and Housing Services (BAHS). BAHS Director Garret Toy said the city embarked on these projects to help its citizens in the early 1980s.
Toy said 20 percent of the gross property tax increment is devoted to RDA affordable housing programs. From 1981 through 2000, about $20 million was spent on affordable housing from approximately $100 million collected in taxes; from 2000 through 2010, of an estimated $147 million collected, he says the city plans to spend about $32 million on affordable housing units.
Much of the money has been spent on erasing significant blight in the community. In Villa Ciolino, the RDA invested $2.375 million, or about $56,500 per unit in the $9.8 million project. It’s the highest per-unit investment the RDA had ever made for affordable housing, according to an RDA report. In 2001, the affordable housing project for very-low income residents replaced a blighted, run-down, crime-infested trailer park and cluster of apartments on Ciolino Avenue, at the corner of Monterey Road and West Dunne Avenue.
Since 1986, the city has embarked on about 21 RDA projects at a cost of approximately $30,000 to $50,000 per unit; approximately $26.6 million has been spent on affordable housing projects, not counting housing rehabilitation loans and senior housing projects. Of 894 units, 539 are reserved for very low income households; 284 for lower income households; and 71 for median/moderate income households.
“The city receives indirect benefits,” according to Toy. “It’s a way we can keep citizens here in our community, and indirectly, the city benefits by having citizens live here, shop here and support the community.”
Studies show affordable housing benefits communities by producing jobs and reducing traffic congestion. Reducing commutes leads to a better quality of life and more income for local businesses. Expenses on social services like group homes, shelters, and emergency room visits, are also reduced.
Enticing developers to think affordable
As an incentive for developers, those that build more affordable housing have a better chance of being selected to develop other residential areas in Morgan Hill, Toy said.
Developers also receive relief from property taxes and access to low income loans, according to Jeff Oberdorfer, executive director of First Community Housing, the developer of Murphy Ranch, a $5.3 million RDA project completed this year.
“These are good benefits given the high cost of construction and land values,” he said.
As part of the growth management program, Toy said the city has developed a ratio in which it has allowed a certain number of housing units to be developed. Toy said currently 250 housing units are up for development and about 20 percent or 50 will be affordable homes.
Toy said, “It’s amazing, because most cities don’t provide this. The city has done a good job at providing mixed ownership and mixed use projects, featuring ownership and rental units with some commercial, making them blend well, and providing for all different needs.”
A helping hand, not a handout
Imelda Rodriguez, 41, a native of Morgan Hill, is a resident of one of the apartments at Villa Ciolino, and like Valverde, sings praises for the development and the city’s commitment to affordable housing.
About two years ago, Rodriguez was homeless. She unknowingly subleased a room from a couple that rented a house in Gilroy, and when the landlord found out, he kicked her out. With two children, ages 13 and 11, she went to live with her sister, who had a one bedroom apartment in the area. By taking them into her home, her sister in turn violated her lease and they were all evicted from the apartment.
Rodriguez applied for a unit at Villa Ciolino and in five months, she was notified of a vacancy there.
An in-home care service worker for the state, Rodriguez works long hours, six days a week, but she is happy in the one bedroom apartment she shares with her children.
“It is beautiful here!” she said. “There’s no noise, kids play in the day time, but by 7pm, it’s so quiet. We love it here.”
As Villa Ciolino answered Rodriguez’s need for a roof over her head, Depot Commons answered Valverde’s need also.
“I feel so blessed. Things happened, but I was able to re-establish myself and now I’m back on my feet and ready to move on, thanks to the city for creating Depot Commons,” she said.
For Valverde, the city’s affordable housing programs gave her the help she needed, when she needed it most.
“It’s not a permanent situation, and shouldn’t be looked at that way,” she said. “Things happen, you need to re-establish yourself, and it’s a place which allows you to do this. Get yourself back together, save some money, so you can move on.”
