Merced residents critique five-year housing plan, some say it enforces segregation
Merced City Council recently fielded grievances from community members alleging that the city’s affordable housing plans enforce policies of disparity and segregation.
Comments came as the council reviewed Merced’s Five-Year Consolidated Plan and First-Year Annual Action Plan in preparation of final approval at the Aug. 3 City Council meeting.
“I think one of the saddest things for all of us is when we see a plan like this, we have so much hope about what it can do, the changes it can implement and the people it can touch,” Gabriela Spiva, lead administrator for the group Merced People of Color, said at the meeting.
“There are not only minor flaws, but major oversights that contribute to systemic racism that is in our housing system.”
The Consolidated Plan and Action Plan are documents used to identify long and short term needs for affordable and supportive housing, along with community development. They outline strategies and allocate federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds granted to the city for distribution among the community.
Priorities for the next five years include building affordable rental housing, support for at-risk youth, the homeless and seniors, job creation and neighborhood revitalization with an emphasis on south Merced.
The plan noted that Merced’s poverty rate is twice the statewide average. Unlike most of the country, housing prices have decreased in Merced since 2010, while rent has increased by almost 20%.
Community, council response
Criticism was largely spurred by a lack of affordable housing for low income and impoverished residents being built since the last Consolidated Plan.
Critics also say upcoming low income housing is being concentrated in south Merced, considered one of the poorest parts of the city.
No new affordable housing units have been built in the generally higher income north and northeast areas of Merced due to the areas being non-qualified census tracts, the Consolidated Plan noted. Census tracts show different income levels in areas throughout the city.
Tracts with high poverty qualify for low income housing tax credits, promoting development of affordable housing in these areas. One such planned affordable housing project is the Childs Court Apartments — a 119 unit affordable housing project in south Merced restricted to extremely low and low income households.
Concerned speakers at the meeting asked why more affordable housing is being built near existing similar units, like the Sunnyside and Sunny View apartments, as well as the homeless navigation center.
They also said impoverished residents — largely Latinos and Blacks — are being pushed into a part of town where resources are scarce, enforcing a history of segregationist housing policies.
Concentrating affordable housing in south Merced, which doesn’t have a large grocery store, encourages low income Merced residents to live in food deserts, they said.
“I believe we and the city can do a better job making housing more inclusive, which will benefit the city as a whole,” said Colton Dennis, Merced Multicultural Arts Center director
Councilmember Fernando Echevarria, whose district encompasses south Merced, disputed the critiques.
“Segregation is not an issue with getting development in south Merced,” he said, adding, “I’m in south Merced, I know that we don’t feel segregated.”
Echevarria said the bulk of affordable housing is planned in his district because that’s where the majority of low income residents already live, meaning that the area is an already eligible census tract. He said he is continually working on the food desert issue.
But community members were not convinced.
“You have to look at the history,” Sheng Xiong, a local policy advocate for Fresno-based Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, said to Echevarria. “Our housing policies have been racist . . . So, to question that there is no segregation is really ignorant.”
Affordable housing should be equally distributed in areas with abundant resources and opportunity, Xiong said.
“People living here, especially in south Merced, feel the difference of living there compared to north Merced,” she said. “Segregation evolves and changes, and you have to be able to pinpoint it to call it out,” she added.
Scott McBride, Merced’s director of development services, told the Sun-Star that current affordable housing projects seem fairly well dispersed, with seven north of Highway 99 and 10 to the south.
An evaluation process by a third party made up of former HUD employees screens affordable housing locations to ensure they’re not overly concentrated and resources are distributed in areas where they’re needed, he said.
McBride said speakers at the meeting brought up valid points of discussion, but that it would more appropriately take place in a separate conversation about affordable housing policy rather than HUD allocation.
Councilmembers Anthony Martinez and Jill McLeod both vocalized a desire to examine city policies going forward.
Childs Court Apartments
Located at Childs Avenue and B Street, Councilmember Matthew Serratto said the Childs Court Apartments invest in low income residents by providing quality housing and infrastructure improvements to an area where it is difficult to attract private investment.
Upgrades to streets, streetlights, sidewalks and trees are included with the project, as well as the addition of a park and an electric bus. Development is slated to be done by the Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing, a local nonprofit, and the Richman Group.
“It’s not just a housing project,” said McBride. “It really is a neighborhood transformation project”
Construction of the 4-acre site is projected to begin this October and conclude in May of 2022, according to city documents. The total project cost is estimated at $48.25 million, with the City of Merced contributing about $6.6 million.
This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
