Above: Nexstar Media Wire video on whether to buy or rent a home.
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.
Starter homes in San Diego: How much do you need to make to afford one? 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.
How to find affordable housing in San Diego County 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.
San Diego’s median rent dropped slightly in August, report shows 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.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Local News
