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Tag: affordable housing

  • Affordable housing community supports artists, offers onsite health care

    Affordable housing community supports artists, offers onsite health care

    LAKELAND, Fla.  –The Lakeland Housing Authority reports that only three units are available for every 10 families who apply for low-income housing. 

    City officials state that they are making steady progress in addressing the housing shortage, with 17 affordable housing developments completed, totaling more than 1,000 units.

    What You Need To Know

    • Lakeland’s latest developments are Swan Landing and Swan Lake Village by Blue Sky Communities, both of which are affiliates of Community-Assisted and Supported Living (CASL).

    • The Lakeland Housing Authority reports that only three units are available for every 10 families who apply for low-income housing.

    • The city of Lakeland contributed $1.5 million and Polk County gave $2.1 million to bring the Swan Lake Village and Swan Landing communities online.

    The latest developments are Swan Landing and Swan Lake Village by Blue Sky Communities, both of which are affiliates of Community-Assisted and Supported Living (CASL). These developments combine on-site behavioral health services, counseling and financial assistance.

    “Initially, most of our residents come from homelessness, so there’s a lot of trauma there. I can’t imagine living on the streets for 10 years. So when you give when you’re afforded an apartment, it’s a lifestyle change. So there’s a lot of changes they have to make,” said CASL Central Florida Regional Manager Taylor Thomas. “They have to adapt, and that’s something we help them with. We help them to adapt to their surroundings.”

    Swan Landing includes 39 one-bedroom units, 45 two-bedroom units, and four three-bedroom units, totaling 88 apartments for local families. Rents range between $430 to $1,590 a month for those making 30%-80% of AMI. Amenities include a clubhouse with a lounge, leasing offices, fitness center, swimming pool and a playground.

    Swan Lake Village has 84 units consisting of 48 one-bedrooms and 36 two-bedrooms with rents ranging from between $573 to $1,032 a month for those making 40%-60% of AMI.  Forty two units are for Permanent Supportive Housing for persons with a disability.  

    Affordable Housing Community supports artists

    Actor Edwin Watson expresses fulfilment in transitioning from corporate America to the stage, calling it a dream come true.

    He has had steady work for the last decade with roles in ‘Smoky Joe’s Cafe’, ‘Fences’, ‘Crowns’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

    “It was a wonderful experience being on that stage,” said Watson.

    Watson left Lakeland, his home base, and traveled often for shows. In between acting jobs, he secured short-term leases. He says this arrangement worked out for him until the pandemic.

    “I returned to find that the rent had doubled in my apartment and tripled in other places,” Watson said. “Since my salary wasn’t three times the rent, I couldn’t afford it.”

    Watson mentioned that pandemic closures also affected the performing arts industry and that he struggled to find work. He was able to secure affordable housing with community assistance and supported living.

    “This is my home recording studio,” he reveals a closet with his audio equipment.

    Watson went from experiencing homelessness to having a two-bedroom apartment where he can also work doing voice-overs.

    It provides extra income that is helpful when he is not on the stage.

    He mentioned that there are some misconceptions about people in affordable housing programs.

    “That people aren’t working, that people aren’t trying, you know, that they’re just relying on the government. And it’s not that. It’s that everybody has priced us out,” he added.

    He says the life of an actor is unpredictable, but he now has some stability through secure housing.

    The city of Lakeland contributed $1.5 million and Polk County gave $2.1 million to bring the Swan Lake Village and Swan Landing communities online.

    Fadia Patterson

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  • Homelessness in San Mateo County jumps 18% even as more people get shelter beds

    Homelessness in San Mateo County jumps 18% even as more people get shelter beds

    San Mateo County’s homeless population spiked 18% over the last two years, according to the latest official estimate, even as local officials added around 300 shelter beds to help people get off the street.

    The tally released Wednesday identified 2,130 homeless people countywide. More than half lived outdoors, in vehicles or in other places not meant for habitation. The rest stayed in shelters.

    Despite the increase, local officials credited the opening of two shelters in Redwood City and San Mateo with boosting the number of homeless people with a roof over their heads. The county found 985 people were staying in shelters, a 38% jump from 2022.

    “This means fewer individuals in less safe situations such as on the street or in tents,” Claire Cunningham, director of the county’s Human Services Agency, said in a statement. “And shelters provide case management and supportive services to help residents move toward permanent housing.”

    The new numbers stem from the county’s latest biennial “Point-In-Time” homelessness census, taken by a team of volunteers and service providers on a single night in January.

    Across the Bay Area, Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties also conducted counts early this year. Alameda County recently reported its homeless population had dipped by 3% to 9,450 people, though Oakland’s population swelled by 9%. San Francisco, meanwhile, saw its number of homeless residents rise 7% to more than 8,300.

    Contra Costa County’s numbers are expected soon, while Santa Clara County, which took its tally last year, will not count again until 2025.

    The estimates, despite widely seen as an undercount, are crucial to helping cities and counties plan their homelessness response and determine how much state and federal funding they can expect receive.

    Despite unprecedented billions of public dollars spent in recent years to combat homelessness, getting people off the streets remains a grave challenge as rising housing costs, job losses, and mental health and addiction issues force others out.

    Ethan Varian

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  • Southern California has 8 of the least-affordable US cities for homebuyers

    Southern California has 8 of the least-affordable US cities for homebuyers

    Source: RealtyHop

    “How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market.

    The pain: Southern California has eight of the nation’s 20 least-affordable cities for homebuyers.

    The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed RealtyHop’s affordability index for 100 US cities, which estimates how much of a household’s median income would be gobbled up by a mortgage payment for a median-priced home listed in May. The math assumes a 7.13% mortgage rate, a 20% downpayment, and property taxes.

    The pinch

    Los Angeles was No. 1 for its lack of affordability, with a theoretical buyer spending 99% of their income – yes, basically all of it – on the estimated $6,512 house payment. That buys you a $1.1 million house and eats up almost all of the $78,671 in citywide pay.

    No. 3 was Irvine with an 85% slice of pay for a $8,982 payment on a $1.48 million house compared with a $126,861 income.

    Pressure points

    The rest of the Southern California cities in the study ranking among the top 20 least-affordable …

    No. 5 Long Beach: 70% – $4,771 payment on $799,900 house vs. $81,509 income.

    No. 7 Anaheim: 69% – $5,234 payment on $879,999 house vs. $91,356 income.

    No. 8 San Diego: 67% – $5,715 payment on $959,000 house vs. $101,797 income.

    No. 12 Santa Ana: 63% – $4,581 payment on $774,494 house vs. $86,891 income.

    No. 14 Chula Vista: 56% – $4,883 payment on $799,000 house vs. $105,230 income.

    No. 19 Riverside: 53% – $3,768 payment on $631,000 house vs. $86,104 income.

    Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

    Jonathan Lansner

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  • Housing agencies look to help youth aging out of foster care

    Housing agencies look to help youth aging out of foster care

    LAKELAND, Fla. — According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, youth who age out of foster care often lose the support and stability provided by the system, leading to a high risk of homelessness.

    What You Need To Know

    • According to the U.S. Department of Housing and urban development, youth who age out of foster care often lose the support and stability provided by the system, leading to a high risk of homelessness

    • HUD’s Foster Youth to Independence program made $13 million available for public housing agencies to address this problem

    • 22-year-old Shiane Bunch says she struggled to find housing since aging out of the foster care system about a year ago, but found Swan Lake, an affordable housing community in Lakeland

    “Looking for housing, especially without a reference, is a struggle,” said first-time renter Shiane Bunch.

    The 22-year-old says she struggled to find housing since aging out of the foster care system about a year ago.

    Then she learned about Swan Lake Village, a new affordable housing development by Blue Sky Communities in Lakeland.

    “I learned they accept foster kids, and it was section 8, so I thought it was good to get in here and take the chance, and I finally got in,” said Bunch. 

    She says it’s the best decision she’s made yet as an adult. 

    “I love it here. It’s beautiful,” said Bunch.

    According to the Community Assisted and Supported Living organization (CASL), some young adults who grew up in foster care may not have completed their education or have the necessary skills to secure stable employment. 

    CASL says this can also be a barrier to securing housing.

    This year, HUD’s Foster Youth to Independence program made $13 million available for public housing agencies, like Swan Lake, to address this problem.

    Vivianne Vanador, a case manager with CASL, says on-site services at Swan Lake offer extra support, like counseling, to help clients transition from foster care to independent living.  

    “It’s like they’re still in that frame of mind as a teenager even though they are in their 20s,” said Vanador. “That’s where I come in.” 

    She helps with things like housing vouchers, finding a job, rides to doctor’s appointments and weekly grocery deliveries.

    “I love the support and guidance that I receive here at CASL,” said Bunch, “Living on my own, I do have type one diabetes, so I was a little scared, but they helped me open my mind.” 

    Bunch says the odds can be stacked against people who’ve been in foster care seeking independence.

    “Especially with the rent. How hard it is now, it’s hard to find a place,” she said. “Foster care wasn’t that great of an experience, but it did help me stability-wise.”

    Now with stable housing and a new job, Bunch says she can focus on building the future of her dreams. 

    She hopes to inspire other young people currently in foster care that they can do the same.

    Fadia Patterson

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  • Home Loan bank dividends are not ‘excessive.’ They’re oddly low.

    Home Loan bank dividends are not ‘excessive.’ They’re oddly low.

    Analyzed from a property rights perspective, the dividends paid by the Federal Home Loan banks to their members are surprisingly stingy, and vary wildly between the different banks, writes Donald J. Mullineaux.

    Andy Dean Photography/Andy Dean – stock.adobe.com

    The 11 Federal Home Loan banks rank among the largest cooperative organizations in the U.S. Like all cooperatives, the Home Loan banks return a portion of invested capital as quarterly dividends. Recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren has joined others in claiming that these payouts are “excessive.” Dividend strategies vary substantially across the banks, but basic economic and cooperative principles suggest that, over the long haul, Federal Home Loan bank payouts have been too low rather than high.

    The Home Loan bank boards of directors establish dividends (expressed as a percentage of capital stock) and must act in the fiduciary interests of members. Amounts not so paid flow onto the Home Loan banks’ balance sheets as retained earnings, where (with capital stock) they provide a buffer against the various risks assumed by the banks and protect the par value of the stock.

    Home Loan bank capital has unique characteristics relevant to dividend decisions. First, the value of each share is fixed at $100 and cannot appreciate. Second, there is no secondary market in Home Loan bank shares, which consequently are illiquid. Third, members have limited claims on ownership of retained earnings and sometimes surrender them without compensation. Finally, each bank guarantees the debt obligations of the others in a “joint and several liability” arrangement.

    These facts imply that the 6,800 Home Loan member banks have weak “property rights” in their invested capital. Strong rights imply that owners have exclusive rights to an asset’s use, can earn income from it and have the right to sell it. Member banks lack exclusive rights to retained earnings (given joint and several liability) and cannot sell their claims (since stock is illiquid). Members can earn income when retained earnings are invested, but the Home Loan banks purchase only low-return assets and investments cannot yield an increase in the fixed stock price. And most members have superior investment options to the Home Loan banks when it comes to investing cash they receive as dividends. If a member voluntarily exits the system or is acquired by an institution in a different district, it surrenders its claim on any accumulated retained earnings. While members cannot sell their stock, they can redeem it with the issuing Federal Home Loan bank. But it can take up to five years to close the transaction.

    Weak property rights erode capital values in this cooperative setting, especially the retained earnings component. Members realize the full value of claims on retained earnings only if a Home Loan bank is liquidated, an extremely unlikely event. Once retained earnings are sufficient to buffer against relevant risks, members should prefer owning capital stock. Stock has stronger property rights because it promises periodic returns and can be redeemed in designated situations.

    So, what do the Home Loan banks actually do when it comes to the dividend/retained earnings tradeoff? All 11 Home Loan banks have similar business models because their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, makes it so. Each must satisfy a requirement that the sum of advances (loans to members) and mortgage purchases exceed 70% of debt obligations. At year-end 2023, the average ratio was 77% and seven of the banks were less than two percentage points from this mean. Consequently, it’s reasonable to expect that the bank boards would follow roughly similar strategies in rewarding members with capital distributions. The data strongly suggest otherwise.

    Data from the Federal Home Loan Banks Office of Finance indicates that the average payout ratio (dividends/net income) at the 11 Home Loan banks over 2022-23 was 46.7%, down from an average of 60% over the prior four years. The 2023 payout range was large, with the high of 67.8% (New York) more than doubling the low at 33.8% (Dallas). Rationalizing these sharp differences is difficult, given the similarity in cooperative business models. A payout ratio of less than 50% signals board preferences for retained earnings over dividends. 

    Over the last decade total Home Loan bank retained earnings grew 129% to a level of $27.9 billion, while capital stock holdings increased only about 34%. Retained earnings ranged from almost $5 billion (Chicago) to $1.4 billion (Topeka), again an enormous difference across a set of similar institutions. Asset sizes vary across the Home Loan banks and over time will influence dividend declarations. But payout ratios have no relation to bank size, and the amount of each bank’s retained earnings reflects a very long history of payout decisions.

    All the Home Loan banks estimate retained earnings required to buffer against a variety of risks in extremely stressed environments. Seven of the banks disclosed these “targets” in 2023 annual reports and they vary sharply. The average ratio of actual retained earnings to the target levels at the reporting banks was 118%, with an enormous low-to-high range of 21% to 275%. There are no regulations addressing retained earnings in the capital structure of the Home Loan banks, but FHFA requires that capital stock be at least two percent of assets to assure that members have sufficient “skin in the game.” And in the system’s 90-year history, there has never been a case in which a Home Loan bank defaulted on its promise of par redemption of stock.

    Property-right principles suggest that capital stock should exceed retained earnings if Home Loan bank boards are behaving in their members’ interests. Indeed, there was 60% more capital stock than retained earnings on the banks’ combined balance sheets at the end of 2023. But the range of capital stock/retained earnings outcomes is remarkably large, from a high of 2.92 (Cincinnati) to a low of 0.57 (San Francisco). Contrary to what property rights arguments imply, two banks had more retained earnings than capital stock. What accounts for the enormous, and anomalous, range of capital distribution results across the Home Loan banks in both the short and long runs? The answers cannot be found in any Home Loan bank-produced documents. 

    Home Loan bank boards (and CEOs, who play key dividend decision roles, but do not hold board seats) may be unaware of how property rights affect capital values or might discount their relevance. Or board members may apply approaches used in their companies that typically are not cooperatives. But standard “principles” for resolving dividend/retained earnings tradeoffs in a public-company setting do not apply at cooperatives like the Home Loan banks. An example concerns what one Home Loan bank cites as the potential “strategic value” of retained earnings. These funds cannot be the source of value creation discussed in MBA classes when the stock price is fixed at $100. And retained earnings are irrelevant to both the prospect and outcome of a merger between Home Loan banks for property-rights-related reasons.

    So why Home Loan bank boards and their top management employ vastly different strategies of rewarding members with capital distributions remains a puzzle. The considerable amount of retained earnings on some banks’ balance sheets reflects a history of “withheld dividends” that, given the relevance of property rights, may not have been in members’ economic interests. If the Home Loan banks were operating in a competitive environment, it seems highly unlikely these sizable differences in payout strategies could survive. Since directors associated with member organizations constitute a majority of Home Loan bank boards, they especially would seem to have a strong incentive to resolve the puzzle.

    Donald J. Mullineaux

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  • Lt. Gov. Driscoll comes to Gloucester to tout 7 housing projects

    Lt. Gov. Driscoll comes to Gloucester to tout 7 housing projects

    Standing in Gloucester City Hall’s Kyrouz Auditorium where the motto “Build not for today alone but for tomorrow as well” dominates a mural above the stage, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll announced funding for projects statewide meant to build supportive housing for tomorrow.

    “With this $46 million announcement we are going to be able to support seven supportive housing developments across the commonwealth,” the former long-time mayor of Salem said.

    The projects will receive $7.4 million in low-income housing tax credits and $38.5 million in subsidy funds for a total $46 million, according to the the Healey-Driscoll administration.

    In Gloucester, the funding will expand the number of units to 29 and services at the historic Pattillo building at 67 Middle St. owned by the YMCA of the North Shore and operated as supportive housing for individuals, in some cases transitioning from homelessness.

    Gloucester native Chris Lovasco, CEO of the YMCA of the North Shore, said the organization has just over 320 units of affordable housing in Essex County. Another 44 units of senior affordable housing are being constructed adjacent to the Pattillo Building on Middle Street, within a block of City Hall.

    The Pattillo building is special because it’s the very first affordable housing project the YMCA of the North Shore created 30 years ago. The project was state-of-the-art at the time with small rooms, shared bathrooms and a common kitchen on each floor for 21 people and was something to be proud of, Lovasco said. But over time, the rooms “have become difficult to manage.”

    “And to now imagine all of those people are going to have their own studio apartment, their own space, the dignity of ownership, we could not be more proud to add another 30% to that unit.”

    It’s expected the $16 million project would start construction in early 2025.

    The administration is supporting similar projects in Lowell, Quincy, Revere, Rowley, Somerville and South Boston, Driscoll said.

    “In all we will have deeply affordable housing for 280 units in those many communities and that’s really going to change people’s lives, when you think about having a place that is not only safe and accessible but also builds in the type of services that you may need,” she said.

    In speaking about the need for affordable housing in Gloucester, state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, D-Gloucester, said if it was not for the intergenerational pass down of homes in the city, “a lot of the people who you see in Gloucester wouldn’t be in Gloucester” because they could not afford to start all over again with a median home sale price of $800,000 to $900,000.

    This month, the Healey-Driscoll administration has been putting a big push on housing, Driscoll said, but the topic is top of mind wherever the governor and she go.

    “The No. 1 issue on people’s minds is housing,” she said, “the high cost of housing, the unavailability of housing, whether you are a young adult, a working family, a senior … or somebody who is really very vulnerable, there isn’t enough housing to meet any demand in any category.”

    More affordable housing is critical to keeping young adults from moving out of state.

    The push for housing has taken on many forms, including the MBTA Communities law adopted under the last administration but which the present administration is implementing “trying to really partner with communities to identify ways they can properly zone for the type of housing we know we need,” Driscoll said

    The administration is pushing for the $4.1 billion Affordable Homes Act housing bond bill as another key to building housing at every level.

    “The state doesn’t build housing,” she said. “We rely on you to build housing, public sector partners in our municipalities to build housing, and we are committed to trying to be the best partner you can have to deliver more affordable homes with supportive service so residents can stay here in their communities, in their beloved communities that they help build as part of that funding program.”

    “We are excited today to support a number of new projects in our supportive housing round,” Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Ed Augustus said. “This really is a best practice.

    “It’s one thing to try and provide housing to folks, that’s always been core and fundamental, but for many of our populations it’s not enough to just provide housing … It’s those supportive services that are critical to allowing them to stay re-housed and then to ultimately thrive and be successful.”

    In addition to the Gloucester project, the funding will support eight two- and three-bedroom units and supportive services for families in Lowell; 34 studios with supportive services for homeless individuals in Quincy; 36 affordable one-bedroom units and supportive services for seniors in South Boston; 56 units with supportive services for families in Revere; 21 bedroom units with supportive services for seniors in Rowley; and 97 units of senior housing with supportive services in Somerville, Augustus said.

    The Rowley project, a joint venture with the Cusack family, is called Windward Crossing, which is a planned new construction project located on Route 1 across from Market Basket, said Kristin Carlson, director of real estate development at the nonprofit Harborlight Homes in Beverly.

    The project will be mixed use, and the component that was funded Monday would be 20 one-bedroom units of affordable senior supportive housing. Other components of the site will include a state Department of Developmental Services group home, a community center and some private condominiums.

    Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.

    By Ethan Forman | Staff Writer

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  • Small biz feels left out of legislative blitz

    Small biz feels left out of legislative blitz

    BOSTON — A top lobbyist for small businesses said that he does not see lawmakers giving a “primary focus” to that sector, with hefty bills on economic development and health care missing an opportunity to lift up Main Street businesses.

    “I think they need to be a top discussion item,” said Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, adding that there was “not enough” targeted legislation for small businesses moving through the State House.

    RAM joined with the Mass. Restaurant Association and the National Federation of Independent Business at a lobbying event inside the capitol on Wednesday, timed about two and a half months away from the end of large-scale lawmaking for this term.

    “This is an election year. This is the year in which we do an economic development bill. Yet, what level of discussion has there been on helping our main streets, helping our small businesses? They are the backbone, they are the majority of our jobs,” Hurst told the News Service.

    He added that he saw “a general taking-for-granted of small businesses out there.”

    Rep. Paul McMurtry, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses, told the News Service he agreed that “sometimes in policymaking, we take small businesses for granted.”

    “And a lot of us in the small business community focus on running and managing and operating that business day-to-day, don’t have time to focus on the policies and legislative issues,” added the Dedham Democrat, who owns and operates Dedham Community Theatre.

    NFIB’s Christopher Carlozzi told the crowd in a State House meeting room that Gov. Maura Healey’s so-called Municipal Empowerment Act “should be on a lot of your radar screens.”

    The governor’s bill would open the door for increases in local-option meals and occupancy taxes, and Carlozzi said he saw “quite a few mayors and town officials” at the bill’s committee hearing who were ready to embrace the new revenue tools.

    “If you’re a restaurant, if you’re in hospitality, we don’t want consumers to find a reason to go to New Hampshire, or go to Maine, or go to another state and vacation. We want them spending their dollars in Massachusetts,” Carlozzi said.

    While Healey’s bill is still pending, top Democrats haven’t advanced it and have shown little interest in the local option taxes, apart from a potential new tax on high-dollar real estate transactions to fund affordable housing investments.

    Sen. Bruce Tarr listed off other “challenges” that face small businesses, including the cost of workers’ compensation and Paid Family and Medical Leave contributions.

    “There are so many issues when every day you’re running a small business and it’s Thursday night, and you’re thinking about making payroll for Friday,” Tarr said, “and you’re wondering, ‘How am I going to get through that next day, or that next week, with all of these different things that are coming at me?’”

    Public policy affects both the “very flat to down sales” numbers as well as the “very high costs” that local shops must deal with, Hurst said.

    “And particularly for small businesses, some of the costs out there are just choking them,” Hurst added. “It’s one thing, if you’re big companies or you’re very profitable margin type of companies, whether it be biotech, health care, technology, banking and so forth. They’re doing OK, but their customers are not. The small businesses are not. So we have to start focusing on, what can we do to help them?”

    While that could be a “major thrust” of the economic development bill, he said he sees legislators’ eyes attracted to areas like biotech and climate technology.

    “I mean they’re perfectly important for our economy, but there should be an equal thrust on helping our small businesses survive and thrive,” he said.

    Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, said lawmakers were faced in the near-term with “a number of vehicles” that could carry small business priorities, including the Senate budget bill scheduled for debate next week. Senators have filed 1,100 amendments to the bill, including around 110 from Tarr, some dealing with the sales tax or health insurance purchasing cooperatives.

    The Retailers Association passed out a list of four priority bills at the event, though one of them — related to insurance purchasing cooperatives — has already been effectively relegated to the dustbin by a joint committee.

    Sen. Michael Moore’s bill (S 687) would allow insurers to “provide members of small business group purchasing cooperatives with year-end incentives based on administrative efficiencies resulting from the group purchase of coverage,” according to a summary.

    The Joint Committee on Financial Services sent it to study in February. It remained one of the focuses of the lobby day, though, and Moore told the crowd he would potentially file the language as an amendment to the pending economic development bill.

    The Millbury Democrat said he expected action on the eco-dev bill “over the next month and a half or two months,” a timeline that could have Democrats scrambling like they did two years ago when they couldn’t agree to a bill at the July 31 deadline.

    “There’s a big health care bill [in the House] this week,” RAM’s Hurst told the News Service. “How much of that is focused on lowering the cost of health insurance for small businesses? Not seeing much on that, right?”

    Other priorities on the Retailers Association list included bills dealing with credit card surcharging (Rep. James Murphy, H 1101), workers’ compensation premium payment schedules (Sen. Susan Moran, S 695), and a proposed “vendors’ collection allowance” to compensate businesses for collecting and remitting taxes (Sen. John Velis, S 1957).

    The credit card surcharge bill is in House Rules, the workers’ comp bill was sent to Senate Ways and Means in March, and the vendors’ allowance bill is still before the Joint Committee on Revenue.

    Ahead of their lobbying stops around the building, Jessica Muradian of the Mass. Restaurant Association also prepped attendees on opposition to the tipped wage ballot question. The head of the Restaurant Association is among the plaintiffs in a pending Supreme Judicial Court challenge to the question’s certification to appear before voters.

    Muradian said that “we will find out by the end of June if we won that case or not. If we win it, then there’s no more ballot question. If we don’t win it, we fight on and we win it at the ballot in November with your help.”

    Moore has conducted his own unscientific poll of restaurant workers, he told the business owners.

    “I have, on occasion, been out and asked and tried to survey some of them. and when you actually explain what the law will do, they do understand this is going to hurt them, that their wage is going to go down,” he said, adding that policymakers should focus on the tipped wage issue “because I don’t think a lot of people really understand what the effects are going to be, and also the employees who are benefiting from the current system.”

    For McMurtry’s part, he sees a number of small businesses, including his own, still affected by negative implications of COVID-19. He said the Legislature should “put some focus on the small business community” as local outfits continue to emerge from the pandemic.

    McMurtry told the News Service that business at his 97-year-old cinema is “still challenging” post-COVID, but he’s staying the course.

    “We get the right movie, we do well,” the Dedham Democrat said.

    By Sam Doran | State House News Service

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  • China is expected to announce new measures to fix its property crisis, spur growth

    China is expected to announce new measures to fix its property crisis, spur growth

    China announced a slate of fresh measures Friday to reinvigorate its ailing property industry after the latest data showed housing prices have slumped nearly 10% since the start of the year.

    Among other things, the central bank said it would reduce the minimum down payment for mortgages and remove the floor on interest rates for first and second homes.

    China’s housing market has slumped after a crackdown on excessive borrowing by property developers several years ago, dragging along a wide range of other businesses — such as home furnishing, appliances and construction — and slowing growth in the world’s No. 2 economy.

    Dozens of developers, whose legions of high-rise apartments have transformed urban landscapes across China, have defaulted on their debts. Many projects have just stalled, unfinished.

    He Lifeng, a vice premier, said officials would roll out policies to suit each city and “fight the tough battle of dealing with the risk of unfinished commercial housing.”

    “We will solidly advance key tasks such as guaranteed housing delivery and absorption of existing commercial housing,” the official Xinhua News Agency cited He as telling a top level teleconference on property policies.

    The effort to entice more families to buy homes has gained momentum after earlier moves such as interest rate cuts and government-backed financing failed to lure buyers into the market at a time when developers are struggling to deliver housing already promised and paid for.

    Housing is a mainstay of investment for Chinese, given the low level of interest rates paid by banks, and many potential buyers might be waiting for the market to bottom out before considering new purchases. Also, layoffs and other disruptions from the pandemic have left many people wary of spending.

    The announcement by the People’s Bank of China said that effective Saturday, the interest rate for first-time housing provident fund loans for under 5 years will be cut by 0.25 percentage point to 2.35%. The rate for loans over 5 years was reduced by 0.25 percentage point to 2.85%.

    Minimum down payments for loans for first homes will be 15% of the purchasing price. For second homes, it will be 25%, it said.

    Earlier Friday, officials of the National Bureau of Statistics acknowledged that domestic demand — spending by consumers and businesses — remained “insufficient” and said the government was considering further ways to revitalize the property industry after housing prices sank 9.8% in January-April from a year earlier.

    “The complexity, severity, and uncertainty of the current external environment are significantly increasing. There is insufficient effective domestic demand, high business pressure, and many risks and hidden dangers,” said Liu Aihua, a spokesperson for the bureau.

    “The foundation for recovery needs to be strengthened,” Liu said.

    The State Council, China’s Cabinet, was due to hold a news conference later Friday focusing on the property industry.

    One of the key strategies being rolled out involves local governments buying apartments that have going unsold due to weak demand, to be rented out as affordable housing in trial programs that appear to have become national policy.

    The financial news outlet Caixin reported that the housing ministry, the central bank, other government agencies and state-owned banks were setting up a joint task force to brainstorm ways to revitalize the industry.

    China’s economy grew at a robust 5.3% rate in the first quarter of this year, but that is relatively slow for a developing economy, and signs of weakness have persisted.

    The report Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed factory output was up 6.7% in April from a year earlier and investment in fixed assets such as factory equipment climbed 4.2%.

    But housing starts fell almost 25% year-on-year and sales as measured by floor area were down 20%. Financing for property projects fell 25%.

    Retail sales rose only 2.3% in April.

    Officials said they expected demand to rebound as the government carries out policies aimed at getting households to sell off old cars and appliances and buy new ones.

    ___

    Associated Press researchers Yu Bing and Wanqing Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.

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  • Study: St. Pete historic home values increased at a higher rate

    Study: St. Pete historic home values increased at a higher rate

    ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A nonprofit organization called “Preserve the ‘Burg” in St. Petersburg recently conducted a study on the economic impact of historic properties in the city.

    According to Place Economics, homes located in St. Petersburg’s historic districts have experienced higher rates of increase in value compared to the rest of the city.

    What You Need To Know

    • A nonprofit organization called “Preserve the Burg” in St. Petersburg recently conducted a study on the economic impact of historic properties in the city

    • According to Place Economics, homes located in St. Petersburg’s historic districts have experienced higher rates of increase in value compared to the rest of the city

    • Historic district home value rates increased at 119.3% per square foot compared to 85.2% for other St. Petersburg homes

    • Preserve the ‘Burg Executive Director Manny Leto says between 2010 to 2020, jobs on Central Avenue grew by more than 50% compared to the city’s 17% job growth during the same time

    Historic district home value rates increased at 119.3% per square foot compared to 85.2% for other St. Petersburg homes.

    Alec Smith is a specialist architect in historic preservation and renovation. This type of work requires compliance with building codes that are specifically designed for historic properties.

    “These are just kind of some snippets of a project we were working on for a new accessory dwelling unit behind a historic home,” he said while sharing his sketches.

    He draws up his designs in his office, which is situated in his historic home that he renovated.

    “It’s over 100 years old. We are located in Historic Kenwood,” said Smith. “Our home has more than quadrupled in value since owning it in the last 12 years.”

    Alec is not the only homeowner benefitting from his investment.

    A study by Place Economics says home property values in St. Pete’s historic districts have increased at a higher rate than the rest of the city.

    According to the study, lower rent in older buildings on Central Avenue has contributed to the success of small businesses.

    Preserve the ‘Burg Executive Director Manny Leto says between 2010 to 2020, jobs on Central Avenue grew by more than 50% compared to the city’s 17% job growth during the same time. 

    Leto says the study also looked at how historic buildings can help with affordable housing.

    “When we’re talking about affordable housing, we often talk about new, but another component of affordability is keeping your existing stock,” said Leto.

    Principal Donovan Rypkema of Place Economics argues that the idea that additional regulations for historic preservation harm property values is disproven by the study.

    “The other side, however, is of all the city-level studies we’ve done. St Petersburg has the lowest share of them under the protection of the local preservation order,” said Rypkema. “That means most of the historic resources here have no protection at all. They’re at risk of being torn down tomorrow.”

    He explains that the study provides evidence that can be used for advocacy and policy decisions. Meanwhile, Smith supports preserving old structures that give character to the evolving community.

    “I think, you know, with a little bit of love, these homes can last for another hundred years easily because of the quality of materials that were put in them originally,” he said. “You know, those materials don’t exist anymore. We cut down all the forests to build these beautiful homes, but we should take advantage of the old-growth lumber that is built into these homes to keep it to maintain them.”

    Smith says when dealing with historic homes, it’s a guaranteed investment in a solid foundation.

    Discussions about preserving historic communities will continue at the Pinellas Historic Preservation Summit on May 17.

    Fadia Patterson

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  • Workers displaced by shooting priority for new Half Moon Bay housing project

    Workers displaced by shooting priority for new Half Moon Bay housing project

    The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to provide nearly $6 million for much-needed affordable housing for farm laborers, which would prioritize families displaced by a mass shooting last year that killed seven people.

    The money will be used to purchase manufactured homes for farmworkers. At least 19 families who were displaced by the shooting in Half Moon Bay will be given priority.

    A total of 28 of the 45 to 50 units at Stone Pine Cove, a 22-acre property zoned for multiple affordable housing buildings, will be set aside for agricultural workers.

    “Every family deserves a safe and healthy place to live,” said Supervisor Ray Mueller, who represents District 3, where a majority of the county’s farmland is located. “We must absolutely create opportunities for farmworkers to live in San Mateo County, as well as invest resources in stabilizing the agricultural economy that provides for farmworking jobs.”

    The money is coming from the state-funded Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant.

    Last month, San Mateo County resubmitted its housing plan, officially known as the “housing element,” with updates emphasizing farmworker housing as one of its top priorities.

    Ryan Macasero

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  • Plans for Lecanto development on pause as questions remain

    Plans for Lecanto development on pause as questions remain

    LECANTO, Fla. — Plans for a new housing development have been put on pause.

    What You Need To Know

    • Citrus County Planning and Development Commission (PDC) have voted to pause construction of a new development called ‘The Crossings’

    • ‘The Crossings’ is a proposed large-scale residential-commercial project located off County Road 491, offering housing for teachers and government workers
    • The 207-acre plot sits off of Lecanto Highway, but it’s a project that has received backlash from local homeowners
    • Commission members have said the plans for the project are too vague and want more answers before making any recommendation to county commissioners

    Earlier this month, Citrus County Planning and Development Commission (PDC) voted in favor of temporarily stopping ‘The Crossings’ development because the developer said he needs some more time to answer questions about it.

    ‘The Crossings’ is a proposed large-scale residential-commercial project located off County Road 491. It would offer more housing for teachers and government workers. The 207-acre plot sits off of Lecanto Highway.

    But it’s a project that is getting some backlash from neighbors.

    “The development itself doesn’t sound horrible, but it’s going to be literally in my backyard and that’s my concern,” said Cheryl Howard.

    Howard lives on King B Street, which neighbors the site of the proposed development. She says she and her family moved to Citrus County for the comfort of wide-open space, an idea that might now be in jeopardy.

    “We came from Collier and Lee County which has a huge population down there. It’s kind of overtaken by out-of-staters,” said Howard. “We wanted to give our kids a chance to have a little bit more space and freedom.”

    The 207-acre development would sit next to the Lecanto school complex north of the emergency operations center. It would provide about 400 single-family homes, 300 townhomes and 300 apartments — but butting up right next to Howard’s property.

    “Our animals are 20 feet away from the property line and they’re going to be 10 feet on the other side and that’s going to interfere,” Howard said. “We have a slope in our yard on the backside of the property that slopes, and I’m concerned about their water running off, their ran runoffs. We already have our own problems with washouts.”

    Being on Howard’s property, you can see what she means. The family is secluded on their very own farm.

    “I think it will really impact our peacefulness, our little slice of heaven. I call it that. We came here to build that for our children and I think that would really impact that,” says Howard.

    Howard says she’s not against the idea of development, just this location in particular may not be an ideal fit.

    “Animals, agriculture, schools, they’ll all be affected by it,” she said. “It’s just, like I said, fine to have a development come to our area. We need some nice homes, but this is the worst spot to pick.”

    Some commission members have said the plans for the project are too vague and want more answers before making any recommendation to county commissioners.

    No date has been announced to revisit the issue.

    Calvin Lewis

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  • Colorado legislature: Same-sex marriage amendment to go to voters; Senate passes oil and gas measures

    Colorado legislature: Same-sex marriage amendment to go to voters; Senate passes oil and gas measures

    The Colorado legislature convened Saturday for a final weekend of work in its 2024 session, which is set to end Wednesday. Major pieces of legislation are still pending, with lawmakers expected to debate gun regulations, housing, land-use policy, transportation, property tax reform and other priorities in the final days.

    This story will be updated throughout the day.

    Updated at 1:30 p.m.: A proposed Constitutional amendment to remove defunct language banning same-sex marriage will go to voters this November after a referred measure passed the Colorado House on Saturday.

    The proposed amendment would remove a ban approved by voters in 2006. It has been unenforceable since 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide with its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. A majority of voters will need to approve the proposal this November for it to take effect.

    Senate Concurrent Resolution 3 needed at least two-thirds support in each chamber to pass. It passed with bipartisan support in the Senate but near party lines in the House, where Democrats hold a supermajority.

    The Senate formally passed Saturday a bill to limit minimum parking requirements near transit areas. House Bill 1304 was substantially amended from its more expansive introduced version to overcome filibuster threats from Democrats and Republicans. The House and Senate will need to agree on changes before it goes to the governor’s desk. It is one of the suite of bills aimed at increasing density and public transit working its way through the legislature. Advocates argue this bill will remove costly parking spots and increase affordable housing construction.

    The Senate also formally passed a pair of bills to reduce emissions from oil and gas production and levy a per-barrel fee to pay for transit and wildlife habitat. The bills were introduced this week, with the aim of easing simmering tensions between environmental groups, legislators and the industry and dueling legislation and ballot initiatives affecting the industry. They will now go to the House for consideration. The proposals will need to pass by Wednesday, when the legislature will adjourn.

    Nick Coltrain

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  • LA Developers Weigh Parking in Making Decisions to Build Under ED1

    LA Developers Weigh Parking in Making Decisions to Build Under ED1

    While Executive Directive 1, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ attempt to expedite affordable housing approvals, has generated interest from developers, there has been at least one major point of contention: parking. 

    Or, rather, the lack of it when it comes to proposed ED1 projects: the vast majority of the ED1 plans don’t offer on-site parking. Land use research firm ATC Research found that 73 percent of ED1 projects, totaling about 9,100 proposed units, have no on-site parking.

    Mayor Karen Bass introduced ED1 in December 2022 to exempting affordable housing developments from lengthy environmental reviews and cutting the approval process to under 60 days.

    With these projects, developers don’t have to build parking, bringing costs down. 

    “Developers are finding that in order, given the restrictions on rent, and construction costs today are really high, that the only way they can make a pencil is not to have parking,” said Chris Tourtellotte, who runs development for LaTerra Development.

    But the question is: will developers be able to lease an apartment complex in Los Angeles without parking?

    “What happens when you have no parking? It’s harder to rent the units,” said Moses Kagan, who runs Adaptive Realty and currently manages about 130 buildings in L.A., some of which have no parking. “As soon as your tenants start to earn more money, they move out, so you get more turnover. Over time, it’s harder to push your rents up, because you’re sort of constantly dealing with people turning over.”

    L.A. is synonymous with parking — just watch any movie about L.A. and you’ll notice a lot of driving. 

    For some, not building parking is the only way for the projects to pencil. And the issue of parking is emerging as a key factor in whether developers take advantage of ED1. 

    For developers that are jumping on the ED1 bandwagon right now while the program is still in its early stages, getting rid of parking is no brainer given high construction costs.

    “The reason why a lot of these projects have no parking is because of the nature of private developers that are doing these projects, because they’re taking the biggest risk,” says According to Ben Lee, an agent at Marcus & Millichap, who has sold a number of sites entitled under ED1.

    Lee notes that these smaller developers, who he calls “cowboy” investors, that are using ED1 are taking on more risk because costs are high and the program is new, — no projects have been built, yet. More risk-averse builders and institutional investors are still evaluating how these ED1 projects pan out. 

    At the end of the day, it’s about finding the cheapest land, and the cheapest way to build. 

    “The reason why these developers are doing it in South LA without parkings because the dirt is the cheapest there,” he said.

    “Developers are finding that in order, given the restrictions on rent, and construction costs today are really high, that the only way they can make a pencil is not to have parking,” says Chris Tourtellotte, who runs development for LaTerra Development.

    For most, parking is just a part of the overall calculations and assumptions the builders are making.

    Some developers are using the ED1 program as a way to expedite projects that previously looked to score incentives under the city’s Transit Oriented Communities, or TOC, program.

    The city introduced Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) Affordable Housing Incentive Program in 2017 as a way to incentivize affordable housing, with the incentives correlated with proximity to public transport. The program offers density bonuses, height increases and fewer parking requirements for residential projects that have a certain number of affordable units.

    “A developer who has bought a piece of land and has a sunk costs into the TOC entitlement strategy that doesn’t pencil anymore is using ED1,” Lee said. 

    Developers are not necessarily flocking to ED1 because it removes parking requirements, but is an alternative route to getting a project approved. 

    Some developers don’t see parking as an issue long-term. 

    “There’s such a lack of affordable housing in the city of L.A., that people would still be glad to find an affordable unit with rent restrictions, and then either get rid of their car and take the bus or Uber or taxi or ride their bicycle, or park their car on the street,” Tourtellotte said.

    “With fully autonomous self-driving vehicles and robo taxis, less and less people will own cars, because cars won’t really be in park.”

    Daria Solovieva

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  • Why California Deems Santa Monica a Pro-Housing Community

    Why California Deems Santa Monica a Pro-Housing Community

    When Megan Watson, who runs development in Los Angeles for Grubb Properties, started planning an apartment project in Santa Monica, she prepared for a challenging road ahead. The city had a history of giving developers a hard time.

    Grubb first applied for a 60-unit building at 700 Santa Monica Boulevard in August 2022 and resubmitted its application for 99 units in July, after the city of Santa Monica signaled that it was making changes — it wanted to start taking developers’ concerns and zoning issues seriously and get more housing built. 

    In eight months, Grubb got the green light to build an eight-story building with 89 market-rate apartments and 10 affordable units.

    “This was probably our fastest entitlement that we experienced in the state,” Watson said. Eight months would have been a speedy timeframe for any California city, she added. Approvals sometimes take up to two years if there are appeals involved.

    But it wasn’t just the city’s speed that impressed Watson — it was how Santa Monica was now talking about building housing. She sat in on a number of City Council meetings, where planners and council members “recognized that the best way” to meet state housing goals was to allow for density. 

    What Watson experienced turned out to be a wholesale shift in how Santa Monica approaches new development. In February, a month before Grubb scored its approval, Gov. Gavin Newsom designated Santa Monica a “pro-housing community,” citing the city’s efforts and progress made through an affordable housing program. 

    Grubb’s approval appeared to indicate that the designation meant something real, an important change at a time when politicians and developers around the country are aching for opportunities to build and wondering how to change local hearts and minds around new projects.

    This may be a surprise to anyone who has been trying to build in the city of Santa Monica over the last few decades, as shown by baffled reactions to the pro-housing designation on social media.

    In 2016, for instance, voters were presented with a ballot measure that would have required citywide votes to construct buildings taller than two stories. A sizable minority — 44 percent — of voters were in support, though the measure failed to pass.

    “Santa Monica has been well-known as a place that is not friendly to housing development or really any kind of new development,” said Adam Deermount, a West Coast-based portfolio manager at lender Nikols Mortgage Fund. “It tends to be very NIMBY-dominated.”

    “If you were to ask a group of 100 developers familiar with development in Southern California to name three development-friendly cities in Southern California, I don’t think any of them would mention Santa Monica,” he added.

    The shift to encouraging housing development did not come out of nowhere. 

    “If you were to ask a group of 100 developers familiar with development in Southern California to name three development-friendly cities in Southern California, I don’t think any of them would mention Santa Monica.”
    Adam Deermount, Nikols Mortgage Fund

    The city had to learn the hard way: After failing to get a state-approved housing plan together by October 2022, it faced a deluge of builder’s remedy projects, which threatened to add more than 4,000 units to the city’s housing stock. Builder’s remedy serves essentially as a penalty for cities that do not get state-mandated housing plans in order by a certain deadline. 

    “It scared a lot of people into realizing that this wasn’t a game with no consequences,” Santa Monica City Council member Jesse Zwick said of the builder’s remedy projects. ”If the city continued to sort of thumb its nose at the state, there would be a real loss of local control over our zoning code.” 

    Santa Monica has been making gradual progress, city data shows, though actual development has been uneven. Out of around 9,300 housing units proposed since 2010, about 3,000 have been approved.

    The number of units built in Santa Monica shrank last year, though the proportion of affordable housing increased. 

    In 2023, 331 units were completed, including 148 affordable units, compared to 539 total units a year before with 92 affordable units, according to city housing data.

    And developers want to make their mark on the oceanfront city — for example, Tishman Speyer, the New York-based development giant, filed plans to build 620 units across three acres in Downtown Santa Monica in early 2022. Tweaking city code may make it easier for these players to do so. 

    Moment of reckoning 

    In 2021, the state tasked Santa Monica, like every other California city, with planning for new homes. For Santa Monica, that meant adding roughly 1,000 units a year by 2029 — which Zwick called “ambitious.”

    With Santa Monica’s “reputation of being hostile to business interests in general, and perhaps those seeking to create more homes in particular,” this would be tough, Zwick said. 

    There were also real penalties for cities that didn’t make adequate plans, Zwick added.

    Santa Monica failed to get its housing plan approved by the state by October 2022, leaving it open to builder’s remedy projects. By May 2023, 16 had been filed. 

    The city reacted fast. By streamlining certain housing approvals and incentivizing building housing on parking lots in residential zones, it got its housing plan approved by the state, closing the window for builder’s remedy projects. The City Council approved a more comprehensive rezoning that allowed taller mixed-use buildings along its commercial corridors. The approval process was no longer discretionary, but by right as long as the zoning allowed for it. 

    “There’s no discretionary process whereby people like me can either say yes or no, based on their own personal lives — and that provides a lot of certainty to [developers] hoping to operate and invest in Santa Monica,” Zwick said. “As a council member, I don’t want to be voting yes or no on individual projects.” 

    It wasn’t just the builder’s remedy and state pressure fueling the City Council’s appetite for reform. A slump in tourism and the growth of e-commerce and working from home have all had a negative impact on Santa Monica’s budget, according to Zwick.

    For the city, it’s become more important to win over businesses and investors and “make it easier on people seeking to put their money in Santa Monica,” he added. 

    Rewarding intent

    Housing advocates describe the pro-housing designation Santa Monica received as part of a high-level, forward-looking reward system for the cities complying with the state’s housing law. 

    The program, which first appeared in California’s 2019 budget, allowed  the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development to label cities as “pro-housing” starting in July 2021, according to a report from the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

    Alex Ramiller, who co-wrote the report, described the program as “a proverbial carrot — the state’s way of encouraging local jurisdictions to go out on their own and to do things that are good in terms of promoting housing production.”

    “It scared a lot of people into realizing that this wasn’t a game with no consequences.”

    Santa Monica City Councilman Jesse Zwick on builder’s remedy

    But because the program is so new, Ramiller and other Berkeley researchers found it difficult to quantify the impact of the pro-housing designation. Did the label actually mean the city had added more housing? 

    “The pro-housing designation program is more about intention and future housing production rather than about past or present production,” Ramiller said. “So it’s not intended to necessarily be a backwards-looking measure.”

    While the designation does open doors to funding, for Santa Monica, the stamp of approval seems to be more about reputation. The city has only applied for $1 million in emergency rental assistance through the prohousing program, but is “continuing to monitor other available potential funding opportunities,” according to the city spokesperson.

    “I’m encouraged by it,” said Sonja Trauss, who founded nonprofit Yes In My Backyard, which advocates for housing development. “Like any government program, it’s not perfect, but I think there’s a lot of potential there.”

    Final hurdles

    Santa Monica still has obstacles when it comes to proving it’s truly interested in building more housing. 

    In November 2022, Santa Monica’s residents — notably not the City Council — voted for Measure GS, which provided for a 5 percent transfer tax on property sales of $8 million or more, with funds going to homelessness prevention, affordable housing and schools. 

    The real estate industry argued that the tax has crippled sales and new development, in similar fashion to Measure ULA in the city of Los Angeles.

    “The mansion tax was not Santa Monica’s finest moment, from a housing production standpoint,” said Dave Rand, a land use attorney and partner at Rand Paster Nelson, who has worked on about 50 cases involving projects in the city. “But they have built a number of other things that are significant in the way of moving housing forward.”

    An initiative to exclude multifamily sales from the tax could appear on Santa Monica ballots in November. 

    Within city government itself, “you have decision-makers who are very pro-housing,” Rand said. 

    Still, the city has more perceptions to change, Zwick said.

    “I’ve talked to people from small contractors to big developers who tell me, ‘Oh, I did a project in Santa Monica once and I’ll never do one again,’” Zwick said. “I think that is changing in terms of the climate we’re creating. But there is still a matter of getting that message out.”

    Daria Solovieva

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  • Affordable Housing Development Breaks Ground in Orlando

    Affordable Housing Development Breaks Ground in Orlando

    There was recently a groundbreaking ceremony for 52 at Park, a 300-unit apartment complex for lower-income families and individuals in Orlando.

    Lincoln Avenue Communities (LAC), a mission-driven acquirer and developer of affordable housing, broke ground on the future site of 52 at Park during a ceremony with LAC leaders, local lawmakers and partners. 52 at Park will provide 300 affordable housing units to individuals and families in Orange County earning no more than 60% of the Area Median Income.

    “Lincoln Avenue Communities is proud to grow our portfolio of affordable housing developments in Florida,” said Jordan Richter, LAC vice president and regional project partner. “Once completed, 52 at Park will provide hundreds of high-quality, affordable homes in one of the state’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas.”

    The property will include eight residential buildings, with all units expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

    “The City of Orlando remains committed to ensuring that everyone who wants to call Orlando home has access to quality housing that is safe and affordable,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “Through the power of partnership by working alongside Lincoln Avenue Communities, we look forward to welcoming the addition of 300 new affordable apartments and continue to leverage funding and offer incentives to make it easier for developers to build affordable housing in Orlando.”

    52 at Park will offer amenities including a fitness center, pool, clubhouse, central laundry and a playground. The property will also include a sprawling solar installation that will offset 100% of the community’s electricity usage, making it one of the first affordable housing communities in Florida to provide full solar offsetting.

    “LAC is committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability and resiliency of our developments,” said Cricket Cleary, LAC director of development. “52 at Park represents a major step toward a new generation of high-quality sustainable housing in Florida, and throughout the country.”

    The project was financed through an issuance of tax-exempt bonds from the Orange County Housing Finance Authority; a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity investment from Freddie Mac, syndicated by Berkadia; a Construction Inflation Response Viability Funding loan from the Florida Housing Financing Corporation; construction and permanent loans from Deutsche Bank, serviced by Berkadia; and solar energy credit equity.

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  • 20 least-affordable US cities to buy a home are all in California

    20 least-affordable US cities to buy a home are all in California

    “How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market.

    The pain: Twenty U.S. cities with the highest home-price-to-income ratios are all in California.

    The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a housing affordability yardstick by Construction Coverage, which tracked median home prices divided by the median annual household income for 384 cities including 79 from California.

    The pinch

    If going 20 for 20 at the top of this “unaffordability” ranking wasn’t painful enough, look at California’s share of this city-by-city scorecard this way …

    • 93% of the 30 costliest cities were from the Golden State
    • 83% were in Top 40.
    • 78% were in the Top 50.
    • 69% were in the Top 75.
    • 61% were in the Top 100.
    • 51% were in the Top 150.

    Or ponder the statewide pain like this: A California home costs 8.4 times income ($765,197 vs. $91,551) compared with 4.7 times nationally – $347,716 price vs. 74,755 income.

    Pressure points

    Here are California’s Top 20 …

    No. 1 Newport Beach: Cost ratio of 25.4 times – $3.2 million price vs. $127,353 income.

    No. 2 Palo Alto: 19 times – $3.4 million vs. $179,707.

    No. 3 Glendale: 15.2 times – $1.2 million vs. $77,483.

    No. 4 Los Angeles: 12.5 times – $953,501 vs. $76,135.

    No. 5 El Monte: 12.3 times – $733,107 vs. $59,368.

    No. 6 Costa Mesa: 12.2 times – $1.3 million vs. $103,891.

    No. 7 El Cajon: 12.1 times – $801,111 vs. $66,045.

    No. 8 Inglewood: 12.1 times – $757,106 vs. $62,601.

    No. 9 Hawthorne: 11.9 times – $872,568 vs. $73,515.

    No. 10 Sunnyvale: 11.8 times – $2 million vs. $169,781.

    No. 11 Irvine: 11.6 times – $1.4 million vs. $123,003.

    No. 12 Huntington Beach: 11.3 times – $1.3 million vs. $111,122.

    No. 13 Torrance: 10.9 times – $1.2 million vs. $108,406.

    No. 14 Garden Grove: 10.6 times – $917,752 vs. $86,975.

    No. 15 San Jose: 10.5 times – $1.4 million vs. $133,835.

    No. 16 Anaheim: 10.4 times – $881,544 vs. $85,133.

    No. 17 East Los Angeles: 10.3 times – $660,277 vs. $64,156.

    No. 18 Long Beach: 10.3 times – $825,502 vs. $80,493.

    No. 19 Oceanside: 10.2 times – $850,185 vs. $83,271.

    No. 20 Tustin: 10.2 times – $1.1 million vs. $104,427.

    By the way, No. 21 is Arizona’s Flagstaff with a 10.15 cost ratio – $646,425 vs. $63,612.

    The ‘bargains’

    California’s most “affordable” cities on this scorecard include …

    No. 233 Visalia: 4.6 times – $372,140 price vs. $81,362 income.

    No. 177 Bakersfield: 5.3 times – $380,862 vs. $72,017.

    No. 169 Palmdale: 5.5 times – $495,928 vs. $90,330.

    No. 160 Stockton: 5.7 times – $430,810 vs. $76,231.

    No. 149 Fresno: 5.8 times – $370,798 vs. $64,196.

    The nation’s cheapest city, by this math was Jackson, Mississippi, with a 1.4 cost ratio – $57,808 vs. $40,631.

    Quotable

    A sobering tidbit, nationally speaking, from the report: “On an inflation-adjusted basis, household incomes increased by just 4.5% since 2000, while home prices increased by 59%.”

    Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

    Jonathan Lansner

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  • Housing need at center of Polk’s State of the County

    Housing need at center of Polk’s State of the County

    LAKELAND, Fla. — Polk County is wedged between two fast growing cities: Tampa and Orlando.

    The area has seen booming growth as people look for housing as well as more affordable cost of living options.

    What You Need To Know

    • Polk County State of the County address

    • The address, featuring multiple local officials, is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.  Thursday

    • Officials said the top issue for Polk County is housing for its continued growth

    And affordable housing is one of the big challenges Polk County faces in its future. That’s why it will be one of the central messages during the State of the County address on Thursday. 

    The address, featuring multiple local officials, is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office’s PROCAP Room in Winter Haven. 

    Polk Commission Chair Bill Braswell, one of the speakers, said in the past year, the county has chipped away at county service issues like trash collection and emergency response times.

    Braswell said that happened while officials were able to lower property taxes.

    But available affordable housing is the continuing challenge, Braswell said, adding that people moving to Polk need more options.

    “I look at things like, we call them snuggle wides, they are half of a full-size mobile home, kind of like a mini-home,” Braswell said. “This mini-home thing is really popular. but we could house a lot of people and at very low rent if we could get somebody to come in here and develop out some of these properties.”

    And population growth is not going away.

    In fact, in an estimate last year from State Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, she wrote, over the next 5 years, Florida could see 300,000 new residents per year.

    That’s a net gain of around 800 people, per day, through 2029.

    Jason Lanning

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  • Gov. Kathy Hochul’s landmark plan aims to combat NYC’s affordable housing shortage

    Gov. Kathy Hochul’s landmark plan aims to combat NYC’s affordable housing shortage

    Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul.

    Photo by Dean Moses