Issue date: April 21, 1999

Housing shortage: a search for solutions Housing shortage: a search for solutions (April 21, 1999)

**Housing Forum aims to raise awareness, and find ways to increase the supply of homes.

By MARION SOFTKY

As the Silicon Valley job machine sends housing prices through the stratosphere, more people of modest means can't afford to live in San Mateo County, while the poor may find themselves forced onto the streets by soaring rents.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors got a stark view of these downsides to the hot economy -- expensive housing, longer commutes, crowded bridges and highways, and homelessness -- at a meeting on the county's housing crisis March 30.
"Housing is again becoming a crisis," said Maureen Borland, director of the Human Services Agency. Referring to a 1998 county survey of residents on the quality of life, she said affordable housing is the No. 1 issue with residents, followed by traffic.
Ms. Borland presented information prepared by the Housing Forum of San Mateo County, a recently formed group of 130 people and agencies trying to bring housing to the top of the community's agenda, and to find ways to expand and improve the supply of homes.
Among the stark facts she presented: Rental costs have gone up 31 percent over the past two years. The median cost of a home in San Mateo County was $380,000 last May. And currently projected economic growth will generate a shortage in the county of 16,000 to 25,000 housing units over the next 11 years, even all homes planned in local cities are built.
In particular, Ms. Borland said, the elderly, the disabled and working families are facing "extreme pressure" to be able to remain living in San Mateo County.
As more of the poor are pushed out of available homes, the face of communities is changing. "We see gentrification on a daily basis," said East Palo Alto Councilwoman Myrtle Walker.
Soaring home prices are driven by the red-hot job market. Eight of 10 new hires have to find housing outside of San Mateo County, "which creates a long commute and clogs freeways and bridges," said Jim Bigelow of the San Mateo County Economic Development Association.
The association anticipates 58,000 new jobs by 2003 due to 15 million square feet of new building under construction or approved, mostly along the Bayshore corridor, Mr. Bigelow said. "And that does not include hotel or retail expansion, or offices less than 100,000 square feet."
The county supervisors unanimously endorsed the Housing Forum's program to engage the community in seeking ways to provide adequate and appropriate local housing for all who need it.
"Housing affects all of us -- and all means all," said Gary Petersen, airport manager for San Mateo County. Ranging from the number of cars on the road to whether parents and children can live in the community, "each of us in our own way has a personal connection," he added.
Housing Forum

The Housing Forum, San Mateo County's latest attack on the problems of housing, emerged from a group studying the problems of homelessness in the county. Noting that more working poor were losing their homes and more homeless were finding it harder to find housing, participants launched a new group to try and build community consensus to address the county's housing needs.

The Housing Forum of San Mateo County was born from a three-day workshop in November at Raychem Corp. in Menlo Park, followed by a December workshop attended by 130 people representing a host of public, business and non-profit agencies with varied interests in the county's housing problems.

Seven working groups are tackling subjects ranging from information and community-building, to land-use planning, regulations and finances. Appropriately, the forum is being coordinated through the county's Center on Homelessness, headed by Tom Roberts.

Among techniques being examined to increase housing, particularly near public transit, are "in-fill" housing on undeveloped properties near city centers; "mixed use" development, where housing is mixed with commercial development, such as apartments over offices or stores; "below market rate" programs that require affordable units as a percentage of new developments; loan programs; more apartments; and ordinances allowing second units.

As a start, the Forum is surveying the county's 20 cities to find what housing programs they have in place.

Mr. Roberts noted that Menlo Park, for example, has loans for first-time home buyers, rehabilitation loans, a below-market-rate ordinance that requires that 10 percent of units in new subdivisions be reserved for people who make less than 120 percent of median income, and a second unit ordinance. The city also funds agencies that provide shared housing and independence for the disabled.

"We're trying to bring local jurisdiction people together in a workshop to look at different approaches," Mr. Roberts said.

Overwhelming need

The San Mateo County Housing Authority has a waiting list of 12,000 qualified families hoping for one of some 3,400 units of subsidized housing available under the federal "Section 8" program, according to Executive Director Maurice Dawson.

The Housing Authority passes out almost $30 million a year to low-income families who can then seek apartments from private landlords who qualify for the program. People in "Section 8" units then pay 30 percent of their income toward rent; the federal government makes up the difference.

Each year the Housing Authority recertifies the tenants, reinspects the units, and renegotiates the rent.

With high demand and soaring rents, fewer landlords need to depend on the federal subsidies. "The economy is so good, landlords can charge increased rents," Mr. Dawson added. "We're losing about 300 units over a couple of years."

The county has two other sources of subsidized housing, Mr. Dawson explained. The Housing Authority manages two public housing projects with 210 units in Daly City and Half Moon Bay. And some 4,000 subsidized units are available in apartments that contract directly with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Where is the urgency?

"The one thing that's missing is a sense of urgency," said Stephenie Smith, executive director of the East Palo Alto Historical and Agricultural Society. "We need an advocate who will work for people in the community."

Ms. Smith was one of six speakers who described housing problems that are devastating families in the troubled community, as well as elsewhere in the county. She herself just found a home in Mountain View after sleeping on floors for several months.

Keeping people in their houses should be a top priority, Ms, Smith said. "If housing retention had been a priority in San Mateo County, I wouldn't have been homeless."

Charisse Domingo of Youth United for Community Action in East Palo Alto worried about the children of homeless families. "The Silicon Valley boom is just widening the gap between the haves and have-nots, she said.

"The sky has fallen on many of us," said Constance French of the Coalition for Housing Retention. "We are bleeding. We do not need a Red Cross First Aid class. We need a tourniquet."

For more information on housing, call Tom Roberts at the Center for Homelessness, or your local city.