‘This is what we need.’ Amid affordable housing crisis, Merced leaders approve key projects
Merced City Council unanimously gave the green light on Monday to trigger a new round of affordable housing projects those involved say will address a major need, while also addressing homelessness among local veterans.
“I know we (often) talk about housing policy in an abstract way. This is very real tonight,” said Development Services Director Scott McBride at Monday’s City Council meeting. “Tonight gets us on the path to the production of the units, so its a big step forward.”
The project involves infill of 10 vacant city-owned lots built into affordable homes by three different development partners approved by City Council on Monday.
Most of the planned developments are on lots zoned as high density land use for multi-family units, primarily scattered around downtown Merced in the area of 18th and I streets.
“That neighborhood in central Merced is in a lot of ways very similar to the proposals. You get a mixture of a lot of style of development,” McBride told the Sun-Star. “I think inherently, it’s a good fit for the character of the neighborhood.”
City officials say the multi-family units also address Merced’s need for more low-cost apartments and more multi-family units.
Since 2010, only about 21% of all city permits have been for multi-family developments, according to data provided by city staff.
Plus, a nearly 60% of residents are renters while about 70% of the city’s housing stock is single-family homes.
“This is what we need,” Councilmember Fernando Echevarria said of the project on Monday. “This is going to get the ball rolling to take a dent out of homelessness.”
Addressing homelessness issues
Developed by Habitat for Humanity of Merced County, Linc Housing and Custom Containers 915 in conjunction with Merced County Rescue Mission, the projects range in size and type.
Linc Housing Inc. is taking on five lots with units geared toward veterans and homelessness prevention. Custom Containers 915 and Merced County Rescue Mission is constructing 20 studio units on one lot, all planned for homeless veterans.
Between the new developments and ongoing construction of its Village of Hope campus for the unhoused, Merced County Rescue Mission CEO Bruce Metcalf told City Council that major strides could soon be made in sheltering some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
“(The projects) should basically be able to put an end to homelessness for veterans in Merced County,” Metcalf said Monday.
Meanwhile, families living in Habitat for Humanity of Merced County’s planned units will come to own the property rather than rent. These sites span four lots with one unit per lot.
City officials say the new infill project is unique in that the diversity of size, style and purpose of each of the affordable housing projects across 10 lots makes for a spectrum of developments that suit different needs.
“One size doesn’t fit all,” McBride told the Sun-Star during a conversation about affordable housing in Merced. “That’s what makes (the project) exciting. You have three types of development projects.”
Affordable housing has 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, though several projects are in the works or, like the Childs Court Apartments, near completion.
This new affordable housing project, however, meets additional requirements stipulated via the state Department of Housing and Community Development surplus land and Housing Successor requirements. For example, units must remain continually affordable for no less than 30 years and at least half must be affordable to very low-income households.
McBride described the project as a creative solution that meets the “huge need” for affordable housing in Merced and across California. Development of the sites could begin around summer of fall, he estimated.
Affordable housing project timelines are largely contingent upon the complexity of funding a project that will be sold for below market rate in a state with a high cost of building. McBride said he’s optimistic that project development could begin in less than a year’s time.
Recent progress with Merced’s housing issues
Although Merced’s housing issues are by no means new, local housing recently reached new levels of strain in August.
UC Merced was forced to delay the start of in-person instruction after officials learned that about 1,000 students, or roughly 10% of the student body, were scrambling to secure housing just days before the start of the school year.
Students trying to find housing found themselves in an impossible situation and many were ultimately offered temporary on-campus or hotel rooms, accentuating Merced’s housing vulnerability and lack of low-cost options.
Merced’s longtime low vacancy rate coupled with the growth of UC Merced and the city being among California’s fastest growing cities poses an ongoing problem for renters and low-income residents. Plus, State Auditor data shows that Merced’s severe cost-burden rating, overcrowding and unavailability are all high.
McBride said the city is on the right trajectory, though.
Affordable housing has come up more often than not during council meetings this year, with residents and officials alike speaking to the city’s housing needs. Many residents and some city officials have floated the concept of using COVID-19 relief funds like the city’s American Rescue Plan Act to fund housing efforts.
The city last month devoted a large portion of a council meeting to addressing its housing issues. City Council, often gridlocked over how to improve the affordability of housing, made headway on a far-reaching plan to improve housing, though some critics maintained that it still excluded key strategies.
The council on Monday also approved conditional letters of commitment to developers for the city’s affordable housing funding plan. McBride said in seeking qualified applicants as part of the request for qualifications process, the city found a notable increase in developers’ interest in Merced.
“I think we’ve shown we’re a pro-development community,” McBride said.
This story was originally published October 20, 2021 at 12:51 PM.
