Irvine Is Required to Help Meet The State’s Low Income Housing Needs. What Is Irvine’s Share?

November 12, 2019, 9:40 pm America/Los_Angeles

Every 8 years, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HUD) determines the affordable housing needs for the state based on new growth projections and the existing need for housing. The state is divided into regions with each region being assigned a specific number of affordable housing units to construct. Irvine is located in the Southern California region which is made up of 191 cities, 6 counties, and 1 tribal government area. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) determines how the region’s assigned numbers are to be assigned within the region. Affordable housing unit assignments are divided up into the following categories:

Very low income
Low income
Moderate income
Above moderate income

SCAG has reportedly eliminated the “above moderate income” housing classification and has distributed these numbers between the lower income classifications.

In October 2020, HUD’s 6th cycle for the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) distribution assigned 1,344,740 units to SCAG. The next step for SCAG is to finalize the methodology for determining the distribution to the government entities within its jurisdiction. Under SCAG’s recommended methodology, Irvine is predicting that it will be assigned 20,700 affordable housing units. The methodology for determining the housing assignments includes determination of:

The amount of acreage within the jurisdiction of the government entities
Job accessibility (job availability) and transit options to commute to jobs
Share of future population growth indicating future housing needs

The City of Irvine has objections to the distribution methodology, including:

The total acreage of accessible land should be a determining factor rather than total acreage since much of Irvine’s land is not accessible for development due to being permanently protected open space, flood channels, and local parkland.
Irvine has few job centers and thus Irvine household members have jobs in multiple cities other than Irvine.
Irvine has transportation infrastructure deficits.
It is the number of future households rather than the size of the future population that determines housing needs.

Note: On 11/7/19 the Planning Commission chose to refer the SCAG RHNA number assignment to the City Council with the recommendation that the City Council do everything within its power, including legal action, to make sure that the RHNA assignment “does not happen”.

6 Comments

ParisM
November 13, 2019 at 9:29 am
20,700 affordable housing units? How is this going to he accomplished? With so much construction going on here in Irvine, affordable housing will and should be a top priority. But often Irvine is given more allotment for affordable housing than any other city in Orange County. This is unfair, and I wrote the OC Register about this years ago. In my opinion, affordable housing needs to be spread out evenly and fairly within the county. Last but not least, at some point, all of this construction and building needs to come to an end. Noise, pollution, trucks everywhere. The quality of life in Irvine is being compromised by all of this.
deefox
January 13, 2020 at 1:18 pm
It seems to me Irvine needs MORE affordable Housing so with the new guidelines, what seems to be the problem? Shea, Kuo and Carroll are against anything that requires them to be accountable for our housing needs. Remember, they answer only to FivePoint and what is in their best interest. To say Irvine has to much new construction going on is because of this new council. They build for profit and low income housing is not as profitable to them. They need these regulations so they are held accountable. They try to distract from what this is really all about.
- Irvine Voter
  January 13, 2020 at 2:16 pm
  As usual, Dee Fox blindly hates the City Council but makes no sense. All construction in Irvine is “because of this new council?” Really, no units or development agreements or master plans were approved under any prior City Councils? Please provide evidence for this claim. I’ll save you the time, you can’t because it is a blatant lie from the Agran Misinformation playbook. Agran and his majority approved over 50,000 units in the General Plan, many of which are still being built, but all new construction is because of the new council? Got it. And the Irvine Company got the lion share of all of those units and FivePoint has 10,000 of the total in a City of 239,000 people, but they “answer only to Fivepoint.” What planet do you live on Dee? Your bias is very clear.
  
  And you oppose development and new construction in Irvine but cheer the State of California telling Irvine to build 20,700 additional affordable housing units because it will “hold them accountable?” Reading your comments is like trying to follow a tennis game with several balls being used at the same time. You make no sense other than we clearly understand that you hate Shea, Kuo, and Carroll and used to hate Fox until she flipped on the cemetery issue and now you like her. Got it.
- Scott Hansen
  January 14, 2020 at 8:40 am
  My feeling is these housing projects take years to plan and build. Since Councilmembers Kuo and Carroll are new to the Council, it’s hard to criticize them for perceived issues with what’s being built now. Current construction would have been zoned, plans approved, financing secured, etc. long before Carroll and Kuo ascended to the Council.
  
  I do sense city staff, Mayor, Council, developers, and housing activists will face challenges in coming years – as will many other California cities. Generally speaking, the State requires cities to zone for affordable housing, but the system relies on developers to actually build it. In some cities, housing activists are teaming up with developers to find ways to make building affordable housing profitable for the developers. A win-win scenario when it works.
deefox
January 14, 2020 at 12:28 pm
Exactly Scott….when it works. I don’t see that happening with this Council, especially since Carroll was hand selected by Shea. And Kuo just goes along with the majority….he is of no relevance. And as for the Irvine Voter who refuses to acknowledge themself, is stuck in the past and blames it all on previous councilmembers. However, this person seems to forget, Christina Shea was seated there also. And who is now Mayor? Her obvious affiliation with FivePoint is of great concern for Irvine. FivePoint is a defendant in a major lawsuit for falsifying documents and building homes on radioactive land for profit. Yet, this Mayor continues to make deals with this developer at the expense of all the homeowners in Irvine.
ParisM
January 14, 2020 at 12:50 pm
Dee Fox, where is the site located that 5 Points built on radioactive land for profit that is in litigation? Regarding Kuo, he received $250,000 to run for city council. I wonder where that money came from?