CORRESPONDENCE- 75B_Received by Planning Commission

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0_� August 3, 2020 ■. Chair McLoughlin and Planning Commissioners L/ TINO City of Santa Ana HMLTH 20 Civic Center Plaza ACCL55 Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: OPPOSITION to Agenda Item I. Housing Opportunity Ordinance Amendments Clear Mcmbcrs cif the Planning Commission, Latino Health Access partners with communities to bring health, equity and sustainable change through education, services, consciousness -raising and civic participation. We understand that as working families continue to face economic uncertainty as a result of the ongoing COVI❑-19 pandemic, it is crucial that the City preserve its Housing Opportunity Ordinance (1-100) 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 must 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 totvards 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 inercased the economic and housing pressures on low-income families in Santa Ana. As incomes arc 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 tow -income households that are suffering with the impacts of housing cost and economic uncertainty. As an example, according to tine 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 tine 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 COV1D• 19 pandemic has exacerbated needs that were already existing in our communities_ Housing costs in Santa Ana Il a 6eun Out of reach and will continue to be out of teach in this current economic climate. Households that live in the 92701 zip code, the city's most affordable zip code, must cam $35.68 an hour to affnrd two -bedroom housing. (National L01v Income Housing Coalition's "Out of Reach: The High Cost of ffoto ing in 2020 " RCIN rt) The proposed amendments further incentivizc 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 oppusc the fullowing amendments to the Housing Opportunity Ordinance: