San Diego City Council approves Housing Action Package to spur new affordable housing development

The San Diego City Council Tuesday approved a sweeping Housing Action Package intended to expedite new units constructed across the city to help seniors, students and middle-income families.

Mayor Todd Gloria's Housing Action Plan 2.0 is also focused on helping create single-room occupancy units for San Diegans experiencing homelessness, its advocates say. The council voted 7-1 to pass the plan.

"The lack of affordable housing is central to many of our city's top challenges, particularly homelessness and sky-high rents," Gloria said in a statement. "This series of reforms will boost the supply of homes and reduce the cost of housing, help our businesses recruit and retain talent and put more hard-earned dollars back into the pockets of everyday San Diegans."

The plan includes amendments to the Land Development Code to preserve existing affordable homes and encourage the construction of more new homes.

Councilman Stephen Whitburn said many San Diegans without a home are living in their cars, at the homes of friends and families or in shelters. By creating more low-income housing units, the city could reduce overall homelessness numbers, he said.

"We have a moral obligation to get them into housing," Whitburn said, reminding his colleagues and those listening that many people experiencing homelessness for the first time were seniors who had been priced out of their homes. "They don't need treatment, they need a home."

A nearly identical housing package was rejected by the City Council on Nov. 13, amid concerns over inequity. One of the most debated elements in Gloria's proposal was to allow developers who participate in the city's Complete Communities program to build market-rate and the required units of affordable housing in separate locations.

"The current housing crisis has caused much hardship for so many San Diegans, which in turn affects everyone," said City Planning Director Heidi Vonblum. "These new amendments will help us continue the mission toward building more new homes for San Diegans at all levels of income, while also creating healthier and more stable communities."

Tuesday's revised package limits such off-site building to within the same community planning area and city council district or within three miles of the development. It also revised fee waivers for homes with more than three bedrooms to be deed-restricted to households who make no more than 150% of the Area Median Income.

"HAP 2.0 will also help create jobs," Gloria said in a statement. "When we build more housing, we employ a wide range of skilled professionals including architects, civil engineers, construction workers, carpenters, electricians, landscapers, real estate agents and others who work together to bring construction projects to completion."

More than 100 speakers, both in-person and over the phone, commented on the Housing Action Package. Opinions varied widely, with some describing provisions in the HAP 2.0 as "redlining" — a discriminatory practice used to prohibit minorities from purchasing homes in certain neighborhoods — and others as a necessity to allow San Diegans to continue to live in one of the country's most expensive cities.

"We're sort of rushing to make changes to a program that we haven't fully understood yet and that we really haven't done our homework on the changes," resident Geoff Hueter said.

Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell, who voted no on the package, said the revisions to HAP 2.0 didn't address her concerns.

"This version continues to send affordable units away from new developments," she said.

Councilman Kent Lee cited some sobering statistics on building in the city, stating that production of new units was so far behind San Diego's goals, that the city would need to triple current production and keep those numbers for six years to meet them.

HAP 2.0 is a wide-ranging package with provisions intended to make it easier for developers to create housing units in the city, such as incentives to build more student housing, homes for middle-income people and the homeless. Items in the package also include ways to convert industrial businesses like scrap yards and recycling facilities into housing.

"The lack of affordable homes in our community is directly connected to every challenge we face -- from homelessness, to cost of living, to job creation and retention," Gloria said. "That's why I have brought forward a second series of policy reforms designed to spur the creation of new housing in order to get people experiencing homelessness off the street, bring down rent costs, and put more money in San Diegans' pockets."

"We've been pushing for housing for a really long time. There are a lot of students who have to live either homeless or in their cars” said student Henry Taylor-Goaly.

Former Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe, who voted against the housing action plan in November, now serves as a San Diego County supervisor. The District 4 seat remains vacant.