Item 30 - Uncodified Ordinance Amending the List of Parcels

Home Browse Search

• Affordable Housing Production. Provide financial assistance to support the production and/or rehabilitation of affordable housing for extremely low-, very low-, and low-income families (e.g., Program 21). • Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction. Adopted a rent stabilization ordinance to preserve affordable housing through regulating rent increases and establishing just cause eviction regulations (e.g., Program 33). • Down Payment Assistance. Assist low-income households with down payment assistance loans to facilitate ownership opportunities (e.g., Program 34). • Supportive Services. Allocate funding to agencies that provide services to people experiencing homelessness or that are at risk of becoming homeless (e.g., programs 37, 38, and 39). Issue 5: Environmental Justice Areas An environmental justice community is an area of the city where residents have the highest risk of exposure to pollution in the air, water, and soil. Residents in these areas also tend to be burdened by socioeconomic and health issues, such as higher rates of language barriers, poverty, and asthma. Such areas also tend to experience lower rates of investment and improvements from individuals, private companies, and public agencies. All of these factors can lead to unequal opportunities to lead a healthy and prosperous life. There are 24 census tracts in the city that are considered disadvantaged or environmental justice (EJ) areas (Figure 46 and Figure 47). To address EJ issues, the City underwent an extensive multiyear engagement effort as part of its comprehensive General Plan update, with the last year focusing on engaging EJ communities and listening to their experiences and issues regarding environmental health and quality of life. The campaign consisted of a multilingual EJ Survey (electronic and hard copy) and 10 virtual and 1 in -person community forums, each focusing on a specific EJ area in the city. Feedback can be generally grouped into the following categories: improving air and water quality; improving public city facilities; improving infrastructure; providing healthy food options; providing safe and sanitary housing; increasing physical activity; and fostering civic engagement. The City has developed over 75 policies and over 70 programs that are informed by the feedback received from the community and that address pollution and population variables in the CalEnviroScreen model that are in the upper quartile rank in the identified EJ areas. With the completion of the General Plan, the City has begun the process of addressing the disproportionate environmental burden that residents in these communities have experienced. All of the efforts can be viewed on the City's NIES webpage: https://www.santa-ana.org/departments/neighborhood- initiatives/ Issue 6: Education and Workforce Development As stated in Issue 4: Household Income, median incomes in Santa Ana lag behind the county. Moreover, as discussed above, more than half of Santa Ana households are in the low or moderate income categories (Table 15). This is despite Santa Ana residents being in closer proximity to jobs compared to the county as a whole and having more access to those jobs through transit connections (Figure 53 and Figure 54). This suggests that access to jobs is not an issue; rather, the issue lies in access to higher paying jobs. Higher paying jobs often require higher levels of job skills and educational attainment. However, nearly all of Santa Ana tracts scored in the lowest TCAC education quartile score. Additionally, a majority of the tracts in the city, with a