New Merced affordable housing project approved amid growing residential shortage
As Merced’s housing crisis intensified this week to the point of upsetting the start of UC Merced’s school year, City Council approved first steps for a new and much-needed affordable housing development in north Merced.
The planned project would create 156 new affordable housing units off Devonwood Drive between Loughborough Drive and Austin Avenue.
City Council on Monday voted to revise the 6-acre site’s zoning designation from single family to multi-family units, allowing the development to be built for high density residential use.
“We need apartments in a big, big way,” Merced Mayor Matt Serratto said in support of the project.
Elected officials and the public alike have frequently noted the city’s longtime low vacancy rate and its shortage of affordable apartments or rental.
Many have asked that more affordable housing developments be built in north Merced — a region of the city widely thought of as having more resources and being generally more affluent.
Affordable housing units have costs fixed so that very low to moderate income-level earners spend no more than 30% of wages on housing. No new affordable housing developments have been completed in Merced since 2014, according to city staff.
The problem is one that plagues California as a whole.
“The entire state is in the midst of a housing crisis,” Merced Planning Manager Kim Espinosa told the Sun-Star. “We desperately need housing and we’re doing everything we can.”
The state is in need of about 180,000 new housing units a year to keep up with population growth, yet it is averaging hardly half that number. The resulting climb in housing costs has largely contributed to California having the nation’s highest rate of poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure.
Merced officials agree that something must be done, but discussions over policies like inclusionary zoning or creating an affordable housing trust fund have left the council split and unable to come to a consensus over how to tackle the issue.
“We are at a point where we just need housing,” Councilman Fernando Echevarria told the public on Monday.
The first City Council meeting in September will largely be devoted to a robust housing discussion looking at what strategies may be most fruitful in Merced.
Underscoring the need for that discussion, the conversation over low-cost housing access flared again this week. The news that Merced Station, an off-campus apartment complex near UC Merced, would delay about 500 tenants from moving in due to construction setbacks sent university officials and students scrambling.
In addition to the students with Merced Station leases suddenly seeking a place to live, UC Merced stated that about 500 other students were also still in need of housing for a variety of reasons all on the cusp of a new in-person semester.
The extent of the student housing crisis led UC Merced to delay the start of in-person instruction.
More about the affordable housing project
The affordable housing units slated for Devonwood Drive are being developed by Los Angeles-based Meta Housing Corporation. The corporation has developed about 8,000 units throughout California, but this is it’s first time investing in Merced.
Many local affordable housing projects, like Sierra Meadows, The Grove, Gateway Terrace apartments and the Childs Court Apartments that are currently under construction, have been developed by Merced-based Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing.
Merced staff say the city is making an effort to expand and diversify its affordable housing developers.
Many steps — like getting building permits approved and project financing in order — must take place before any groundbreaking occurs. But Meta Housing Corporation representatives say they’re invested in the Merced community’s future.
“Meta is a long term owner, so we really do value our presence in the community as a community partner. We’re in it for the long haul,” Meta Housing Corporation Director of Development Loren Messeri told City Council on Monday.
Affordable housing projects are by their nature a long haul endeavor, due to the complexity of funding sources required to finance a project that will be sold for below market rate and the high cost to build in California.
“We would have loved to have been building a whole bunch of them, because we know the needs we have in the community,” Espinosa said. “It is a challenge to try to find (developers),” she added, noting that the city’s role isn’t to build housing, but to attract developers wanting to make an investment.
Merced officials say that it is difficult to predict how long it will take for the pieces of the Devonwood Drive project to come together, but that it will likely be many years before completion.
When completed, however, city officials say the project’s north Merced location will be ideal.
Positioned near shopping centers with stores like Lowe’s, Best Buy and Walmart, Espinosa said the project’s site is apt for multi-family use due to the convenience of resources within walking distance.
In fact, it is for this reason that the land was originally intended for multi-family use more than 30 years ago — but was scrapped because of the former Castle Air Force Base. Loud planes flying over the site caused the city to change the zoning from residential to commercial.
But the area never took off as a commercial site due to the parcel being largely hidden from view by surrounding businesses.
“I always thought it was a good multi family site,” Espinosa said. “When the base closed, that issue went away,” she said of the noise.
After the base’s closure, another developer took interest in building single-family units. Building took some time to move forward, but those homes are now being constructed.
Meta Housing Corporation later came in with the multi-family development proposal, which was approved by City Council on Monday. Espinosa said that move took the site full circle to its originally intended purpose.
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
