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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD <br />affordable housing, faster and cheaper. "The acute affordability crisis we are <br />experiencing in California was decades in the making, and now we're taking the <br />necessary steps to fix it," said Governor Newsom.22 <br />- Although this is a response to a real need in California, the real -world consequences to <br />the "build -build -build" solution are many. One of those can be seen in the State's <br />-. - myopic push for housing as it has mistakenly equated group homes with additional <br />housing options. But housing:is not increased by allowing the unbridled proliferation of <br />recovery and sober living homes. The industry advertises heavily outside of California <br />and brings many of their residents from out-of-state. It is not uncommon for some of <br />these residents to be"kicked to the curb" (referred to as curbing) for various reasons, <br />and because _they are -not local to Orange County, they have nowhere to go and <br />ultimately face homelessness. <br />HCD wields its power to review and approve State housing elements as a threat to <br />deter city and county efforts to regulate group homes. Approval of the Housing Element <br />has a big impact on a'city's ability to enforce its general plan and to control what gets <br />built and where it is -built. Without the HCD's approval of the housing element, a door is <br />opened to developers_to.bypass local zoning ordinances by utilizing a seldom used <br />loophole known as Builders Remedy. Under that law, a developer may sidestep city <br />approvals to construct a housing development if 20% of the project's homes are <br />affordable housing.23 <br />.-State funding programs for transportation, infrastructure, and housing often require or <br />consider a local jurisdiction's compliance with Housing Element Law. These competitive <br />funds can be used for fixing roads, adding bike lanes, improving transit, or providing <br />much needed affordablehousing to communities. In some cases, funding from <br />state/federal housing programs can only be accessed if the jurisdiction has a compliant <br />- _ --- housing element.24 25 - -- ---- ---- --- - - - --- _ <br />By -the time- _the -public -has. organized to bring their concerns to city leadership through a <br />: - - - letter writing campaign; _a-joint.written complaint, or a petition, their level of frustration <br />has likely .been.building_ for quite awhile. How city leadership deals with the concerns <br />and frustration's of.their-constituency is likely to determine whether it will be a <br />collaborativeor an.ad.versarial process to find a resolution. Educating the public on the <br />-- _- reasons that -cities _have_seemingly been unwilling to address the integration of group <br />homes into Orange County neighborhoods is key to the success of collaborative <br />problem solving. <br />_ Cities have:-been:-squeezed:from above by a combination of intense pressure from <br />group home operators citing federal protections for the disabled, and the State of <br />California's efforts to eliminate group home ordinances by withholding approval on <br />cities'.mandated -Housing . Element submission. They are also squeezed from below by <br />ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY 2022 12023 Page 19 of 42 <br />