San Diego

San Diego County Moves Forward With Affordable Housing Trust Fund

San Diego County’s decision to spend $25 million on building affordable housing moved forward Tuesday as supervisors agreed to begin negotiating with seven developers.

The Innovative Housing Trust Fund was created in June 2017 to build housing that would guarantee affordability for its residents for 99 years. 

Following the unanimous vote, staff will begin the process of negotiating and awarding money from the trust fund to build 500 affordable rent-restricted units.

The projects would be located in Vista, Poway, San Marcos, Otay Mesa, San Ysidro and Southcrest. 

The developers include Chelsea Investment Corporation, Solutions for Change, National Core, Townspeople, Mercy Housing and Wakeland Housing & Development Corporation.

Staff will report back to the board by December to update the board on negotiations. After that, loan documents will be finalized. 

It’s estimated there will be a 12 to 24 month construction period once the loans are approved.

Construction would begin between 2019 and 2020. Occupants would move in sometime between 2021 and 2022.

“The frustrating part is how long it takes,” said Supervisor Greg Cox. “I hope we can do what we can on our end to move the process along as quickly as we can.”

One thousand unit is just a small fraction of what is needed to solve the housing crisis in the region. 

Low-income families in San Diego are spending about 69 percent of their income on housing, according to a report released in May by the California Housing Partnership Corporation.

The report reveals that renters in San Diego need to earn more than three times local minimum wage, $11.50 an hour, to afford the median asking rent of $1,992.

Most retail employees, nursing assistants, teachers and construction workers make less than half of the necessary income, according to the report. 

CHPC said the creation of new affordable homes is the only way to help the housing crisis.

The County of San Diego would need about 144,000 more rental units to meet demand, according to their report.

Contact Us