CORRESPONDENCE- 75B_Received by Planning Commission

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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 www.kennedycommission.org Ordinance Amendments 17701 Cowan Ave., suits 00 Irvine, CA 92614614 949 250 0909 Dear Members of the Planning Commission, The Kennedy Commission (the Commission) is a broad based coalition of residents and community organizations that advocates for the production of homes affordable for extremely, very low and low -families earning less than $25,000 annually in Orange County. Formed in 2001, the Commission has been successful in partnering and working with Orange County jurisdictions to create effective housing policies that have led to the construction of new homes affordable and investments to improve quality of life for lower income working families. We write to express our strong opposition to amending the Housing Opportunity Ordinance ("HOO") as proposed. 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 policy for creating new affordable housing opportunities. The creation of housing at all income levels is vital to our recovery. Creating new affordable housing units 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 CA Department of Housing and Community Development2 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 ' City of Santa Ana 51 Cycle Housing Element, 2014-2121 2 City of Santa Ana Housing Element Progress Report 2019, April 2020