vanishing walnut creek?

THE REALITY BEHIND -AFFORDABLE HOUSING

In the state of California there are 107 jurisdictions that have adopted what is referred to as “inclusionary zoning” for housing ordinances. Contra Costa County and Walnut Creek in particular have become the scientific and social experimental lab for those who are, as Thomas Sowell calls them, bureaucrats in a “Quest for Cosmic Justice.”

We all can agree that everyone should have the freedom to provide themselves with a roof over their heads, however the bureaucrats are redefining that into a new right wherein the homeless and illegal aliens will be afforded the best our taxes can provide and that you, the citizen have the duty to share with those who are financially less-secure.

The government has assigned a "fair share" housing requirement to the cities within California. The cities are mandated to accommodate whatever number of citizens the state has deemed appropriate - in Walnut Creek the number is in excess of 1,000. Economically, on paper these people fall into the categories of extremely low, low or moderate income.

According to Mike Parness, General Manager of Walnut Creek that assessment will occur every 5 years. The city will be required to accommodate at least that number once again if not more and the mandated requirements “may get stiffer.” This is obviously a move to disperse certain California citizens to different areas rather than allow them to reside in large groups.

This large scale experiment might suggest a mixing of the Biblical account of the Good Samaritan with the decree by Caesar Augustus that all people should return to their home villages to be counted.

In this new version, instead of providing direct aid to the needy man, the good Samaritan would have been directed to first go to the capitol to lobby a Roman official for equal housing and health care for this disadvantaged individual. He would then organize a protest march and disrupt the city's daily business, making sure to increase his own insurance coverage just to cover the possibility of the homeless man suing him for providing him with lodgings he thought beneath his dignity.

The state has empowered NGO’s like Association of Bay Area Governments the authority to decide how much housing must be set aside for certain protected or targeted classifications of residents. Walnut Creek's fair share is 1.653 housing units for very low, low, moderate and above moderate income singles or families with an estimated family size of 2.02 people. But Walnut Creek under the pretext of needing these units has been preparing for several years to create a major expansion in the residential and commercial areas of the town turning our pretty suburban streets into canyons of tall buildings. The median price of homes in Walnut Creek is about $569,000. Housing units, designated for low and moderate iincome levels, either brand new or re-modeled apartments turned into condos will begin at the arbitrarily set price of $170,000. This is called affordable housing, but it’s not meant for you. It will however be your privilege to help subsidize - through taxes or levy’s on high end condos - the “affordability” of a home for someone else.

That’s justice after all according to the seekers of cosmic justice.

I recently asked the Santa Cruz based, Freedom 21 opponents of sustainable development to provide me with a definition of “affordable housing.” Here is what Joanne Shaw said:

”Affordable housing is a warm and fuzzy term used to make the idea government subsidized and government controlled housing seem acceptable to the general public. Some ‘affordable housing’ results in government ‘project’ type housing and other affordable housing shows up as units or houses within an ‘inclusionary housing’ development.”

Definition of Inclusionary Housing: Inclusionary housing typically means government controlled housing and zoning with a mix of different income residents residing there. Some pay nearly nothing and others pay market or higher, all living within the same complex or neighborhood.

Further on in her report she provided a definition of low-income housing:

“As to low-income, the term used by Sustainable Developers typically means the grouping of people into "low-income" "very-low income", "extremely low-income", "moderate income", and "above moderate" income. The categorization of different income levels is what HUD and the County use to determine eligibility for subsidized housing programs. The exact amount of money can vary according to the area. What might appear to be low income for Walnut Creek could be high income for, say, Richmond.

According to Mrs. Shaw “every development that I know of that has been built using public/private partnerships includes an element of subsidized housing.”

The Walnut Creek City Council readily admits that its expansion plans contain Affordable Housing with all of the above elements, very low, low, moderate income housing levels in every new or remodeled development. Walnut Creek, as reported in it’s EIR Report states that Walnut Creek's share of the Bay Area housing need includes 289 Very-low Income, 195 Low-Income, 418 Moderate Income, and 751 Above-Moderate Income units. Of course, the city will at the time of any sale realize a 17% share in the sales profits of these residences which is about the amount they are lending the buyer in the first place.

The EIR report further states that According to March, 2005, the median home price tag was $569,000, slightly higher than other areas of Contra Costa. Further rentals go for approximately $1,175 for a studio unit to $1,950 for a three bedroom/.one plus bath with $1,476 being the median cost of rentals. This would be affordable to a moderate income three person family, but unaffordable to those in lower income brackets

So, what happens with the very low to low and moderate designated housing units?

By housing unit it is most likely to be a condo rather than a free standing house. Who actually pays to put a very low to moderate income family into a housing unit in Walnut Creek? You do. You do especially if you are buying one of the above-Moderate income units in the same housing development. The developer holds those units which can only be sold to those qualifying. These are not available to real estate agents to sell.The developer isn’t going to take a loss on that property so you who are buying the higher priced unit are subsidizing the purchase of the lower income unit. Your taxes are used when H.U.D. and or the city subsidizes the developer building the housing development.

Again, who pays?
You do if you are a member of a church that decides to build affordable housing on church property as is being done in the Oakland Diocese in the cities of Hayward, Pinole and Richmond. In that instance the diocese takes out a loan with H.U.D. to build, the developer builds and (in some cases) holds the lease on the property for a certain long period, usually about 10 years. The church rents out the property which then goes to pay off the HUD building loan. The church doesn’t pay taxes of course, but now that portion of the property put into housing development becomes useful to the state. Also Catholic Charities gets subsidies to provide welfare to work training for those housing residents eligible.

And, what happens to the housing unit bought by this low income person/family? Does that home owner have the financial means to provide upkeep on the unit? Who pays the monthly fees for exterior upkeep, painting, gardening, repairs? Probably you do. What about the inside of the housing unit, the interior upkeep? In Walnut Creek , below market sales price is currently $274,000 for a two bedroom new or converted condo unit. 80% financing would mean that loans on the unit total $219,000. At 6% annual fixed interest, 30 years, the monthly payments would be approximately $1900.00 including Home Owners Association fees.

It is shameful that truly affordable housing, including housing for lower income people, is precluded from being built due to interference with, free-enterprise and genuine voluntary cooperation between people. In Santa Cruz the same people who created the current housing problem are the ones implementing the phony solution designed to control us.

posted by Diane Lily @ 12:17 PM