Dozens of Struggling Renters to Host Housing Crisis Town Hall with OC Elected Officials
In 2022, the State of California released its plan – A Home for Every Californian – that Includes creating 1 million affordable homes by 2030. The state is far behind on its goal and, year after year, fails to allocate the funds needed to have any chance of achieving it.
On Saturday, September 21, 2024, Promotores de Salud Orange County (Community Health Promoters of OC) will host a Housing Crisis Town Hall to call for the state to fully fund its own plan to create 1 million affordable housing units by 2030. Dozens of tenants struggling to keep a roof over their heads will attend and share their stories and their calls to action. Costa Mesa City Council member Manuel Chavez, Santa Ana City Council member Jessie Lopez, and staff from County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento and State Assemblyman Avelino Valencia will be in attendance.
WHO: Dozens of struggling tenants and local elected leaders:
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Manuel Chavez, Costa Mesa Councilmember,District #4.
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Jessie Lopez, Santa Ana Councilmember, District #3
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Tony Flores, staff to State Assemblyman, Avelino Valencia, District #68
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Manuel Escamilla, staff to County Supervisor, Vicente Sarmiento, District #2
Other organizations and representatives who will be present include:
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Ruben Barreto and Idalia Rios, Building Healthy Communities Hub.
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Cristian Garcia, Father Earth Three Care
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Sergio Tellez, Coastal Corridor
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Cristian, OC Resilience
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Maite Gonzalez, Pathway to Life Purpose
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Steve Sandoval, The Crossing Church
WHAT: Community townhall calling on the state to make the investment necessary to address the extreme need and meet its plan for 1 million affordable housing units by 2030
WHERE: The Crossing Church, 2115 Newport Blvd, Costa Mesa, CA 92627
WHEN: 2-4 pm
IMAGES: Fifty Orange County residents rallying the community and urging their representatives for relief from the affordable housing crisis.
The group will present the data about the lack of progress in upholding promises laid out in the state’s plan. Currently, less than 1% of California’s General Fund dollars have gone to affordable housing and homelessness programs, while the state spends six times that on its prison system. Instead of funneling a pipeline of unhoused individuals into the state’s prison system by criminalizing homelessness, renters at the Housing Crisis Townhall are urging state leaders to take a different approach by doubling down on efforts to fund affordable housing and get families into homes.
According to a recent report, home prices in the LA-OC area are 10 times greater than incomes. According to the OC Register, “In Southern California, the median house price has jumped 45% since early 2020 and 183% since 2010, state Realtor data show. For example, an Orange County homebuyer with a 3.5% down payment would have to earn just over $420,000 a year to afford payments for a median-priced home. That’s the second-highest minimum income for homeownership out of 179 metro areas.”
Without massive investment by the government to fund affordable housing at scale, more Californians living one paycheck away from homelessness will end up on the streets. Promotores de Salud Orange County, as part of the One Million Homes campaign, is calling on the Governor and our elected leaders to course-correct, reach their own goals, and deliver on their promise of “a home for every Californian.”
Promotores de Salud Orange County are individuals from the community who empower others and are trained to guide and support awareness for better health and wellness.
One Million Homes is a statewide campaign launched in 2024 urging California state leaders to fulfill their promise of building one million affordable homes by 2030. We are made up of around 100 organizations in California – service providers, affordable housing developers, advocates, tenant rights organizations, policy advocacy organizations, and community-based organizations.
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Categories: Local Government, Local News
Affordable housing in southern California is a pipe dream. There is no cheap land, money isn’t free. There is nothing the government can do to change this. Even before Hyden Biden let 20 million people into our country illegally there was no affordable housing in California.
Housing pricing is determined by supply and demand not by generosity and good will towards others. If you want to live in one of the most desirable environments in the United States somebody’s gonna have to pay. Those who can’t afford it simply need to go elsewhere, it’s unfortunate for many but true for everyone. One thing that could help is lowering property taxes but do you think Orange County or the State of California is going to do that? Ha ha ha, heck no.
The cheapest homes in Huntington Beach are now more than one million dollars. Property taxes on a one million dollar home purchased today in Orange County are TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS a year!!! For the privilege of being able to pay those taxes you’ll need at least $120K to get your foot in the door and you’ll need to be able to shell out $7K per month. And that’s for the cheapest homes in H.B.
If you want to create affordable housing, don’t go looking in southern California beach communities, head inland, far inland, like really really far inland. But the brutal TRUTH is . . . Nobody cares enough. They may say they care when it makes them look compassionate or while they’re trying to get elected to office, but that’s just not the honest truth. Nobody wants to give away their hard earned money to those who have just shown up and think they deserve to have affordable housing in Orange County when the rest of us have had to struggle with becoming educated and hard working enough to be able to live here without a handout.
I am charitable to a point but let’s be real! There is no and there will be no affordable housing to any great extent in Orange County, California. Stop wasting peoples time trying to make something happen that never will.
Prices are a function of supply and demand. But all markets are regulated. Supply has been kept artificially low for a long time by zoning laws that favor detached single family dwellings.
California has only recently started to make the appropriate reforms.
John – thank you for that good sense reply. I always appreciate your comments.
Gary – people working in all cities need affordable housing – it makes sense that we create it for everyone of all income levels. And if you think low-income people don’t work harder than everyone else you are mistaken. I also know many highly educated young people who can’t find good places to live that they can afford.
Gary – explain to me why my house purchased 40 years ago for $38,000 in downtown Fullerton can now sell for a million. Something is wrong with the way things are – but it has nothing to do with immigrants – though I notice some would like us to believe immigrants are the reason for everything bad.
Part of the problem are the corporate investors buying up homes.
Sharon – The home you’re living in can sell for a million dollars because that’s what people are willing to pay for it. Prices are driven by supply and demand. When the supply is low and the demand is high, prices go up.
Your home in Fullerton was worth more than $38K in 1984, probably more like $100K for an average starter home back then. Besides supply and demand, the fact that our government prints money at will, diluting the purchasing power of the dollar, has also contributed to everything costing more, including homes.
Gary – I will think about your explanation and thanks for it. However I still think another factor might be the problem of property investors buying up homes. Some turn into airbnbs like one in our neighborhood and others like another in our neighborhood just stay vacant for years. I think they are using it as a tax write off. And the corporate owned apartment complexes are even worse. I worry about all the kids trying to juggle student debt and full time poorly paid positions and nowhere affordable to live. We have to change the equation. I have a rental that I have never raised the rent on – but my longtime tenant raised their own rent. So sweet.
I’m in favor of keeping Orange County as suburban as possible. If I wanted to live in cramped quarters I’d buy a condo in a high rise complex or maybe move to SF or NYC . . . no thank you. Don’t try to encroach into or onto my 60 x 100 foot lot, it’s my little piece of heaven that I can retreat to when everything else is going to hell.