CORRESPONDENCE- 75B_Received by Planning Commission

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UNITEHERE? Local 11 August 3, 2020 Chair McLoughlin and Planning Commissioners City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: OPPOSITION to Agenda Item 1: Housing Opportunity Ordinance Amendments Dear Members of the Planning Commission, UNITE HERE Local 11 represents more than 5,000 hard working men and women employed in hotels, restaurants, airports, and convention centers through Orange County, many of whom live in the City of Santa Ana. As you may be aware the hospitality industry was hit very hard along with some many other industries by the COVID-19 health care crisis. As working families continue to face economic uncertainty as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic it is crucial that the City preserve its Housing Opportunity Ordinance (HOO) as a funding source for creating new affordable housing. The creation of housing at all income levels is vital to our recovery. Creating new affordable housing needs to continue to be a top housing priority in Santa Ana. The City of Santa Ana is a renter majority city and despite the City's progress towards meeting its Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocation for very low and income housing there continues to be a great need for housing that is affordable to its residents. The current pandemic has increased the economic and housing pressures on low-income families in Santa Ana. As incomes are decreasing and jobs are being lost, many low-income families are struggling to remain housed. This is especially true for the majority of Santa Ana's low-income households that are suffering with the impacts of housing cost and economic uncertainty. As an example, according to the City's local data, 70 percent of Santa Ana renters are low and very low-income renters. While the city has seen increased production of affordable housing there has been a larger increase of above moderate housing with the city's 2,409 RHNA above moderate allocation being exceeded by 2,677% per The City's RHNA progress reports submitted to the state. With average rents of $2000 - $4000, none of these above market rent units are affordable to most of Santa Ana's working families. The need will be much greater as the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated needs that were already existing in our communities. Housing costs in Santa Ana have been out of reach and will continue to be out of reach in this current economic climate. Households that live in the 92701-zip code, the city's most affordable zip code, must earn $35.68 an hour to afford two -bedroom housing. (National Low -Income Housing Coalition's "Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing in 2020" Report) The proposed amendments further incentivize housing units with market rate rents and are not affordable to the majority of the City's residents. The proposed amendments do not address the city's needs and create further inequity for the city's residents with the greatest housing need. For these reasons that we oppose the following amendments to the Housing Opportunity Ordinance: