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The lack of affordable housing in California has achieved an all-time high.
As we all know, the availability of quality housing is critical to the health
of the economy. In some high-cost cities, many middle-class citizens — police
officers, teachers, firefighters, and nurses — cannot find affordable rental
housing, much less buy a condominium or a home.
The financing and intensive management associated with this type of housing
may require more planning and entail greater risk than market rate projects.
Private builders and developers handle these problems by collaborating with
public and nonprofit partners and pursuing creative financing methods. The
result has been the production of a number of successful affordable housing
communities.
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While the outside of SEASONS at the Hoover in Whittier was restored to its orginal
appearance, the inside, seen here, was renovated to accommodate modern apartments
for low-income seniors.
Photo: Will Hare, Jr.
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Strong Incentives
Many of these communities incorporate quality design, marketing, and professional
management and maintenance. Generally, private companies produce affordable housing
for the same reasons they produce any other kind of housing — it is a product
that generates profits. There are some firms, though, that choose to build affordable
housing as a way to reinvest in their own communities and meet the housing needs of
this segment of society.
Since they stand to gain revenue-producing developments and revitalized
neighborhoods, many cities fully support the trend.
LINC
One program addressing the need for affordable housing on a regional basis
is LINC, for Limited Income Communities. LINC is the outgrowth of the Corporate
Fund for Housing, formed by the Southern California Association of Governments
in 1984, and serves as a nonprofit corporation dedicated to building and preserving
affordable housing throughout California.
Since its formation, LINC has entered into a series of development partnerships,
both public and private, to build and preserve affordable housing communities
through acquisition and rehabilitation of expiring Sections 8 and 236 units, as
well as new construction, historic preservation, and purchase of manufactured
home parks.
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