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February 6, 2017 Mayor Pulido and Santa Ana City Council Members City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza P.O. Box 1988, M31 Santa Ana CA, 92701 RE: Support - 80A. First Street Apartments www1ennedycon nission.org 17701 Cowan Ave., Suite 200 Irvine, CA 92614 949 250 0909 Fax 949 263 0647 The Kennedy Commission (the Commission) is a broad based coalition of residents and community organizations that advocates for the production of homes affordable for families earning less than $20,000 annually in Orange County. Formed in 2001, the Commission has been successful in partnering and working with jurisdictions in Orange County to create effective policies that has led to the new construction of homes affordable to lower income working families. In Santa Ana, there is a significant need to address and provide housing opportunities for all economic segments of the community. Families in our City are extremely rent burdened, as most of their limited income (over 50%) is used to pay for housing costs. As residents struggle to find available and affordable housing in Santa Ana, rents have continually increased. A minimum wage earner needs the equivalent of 3.2 full-time jobs to afford the rent of a typical two-bedroom unit. In the City, the 2016 average rent for a large rental complex was $1,786.00, which was a 3.7% increase from the year before. These rents are far out of reach for many lower income working families in the City, leaving families to make tough choices between paying for their housing or other essential life necessities such as food, transportation, and healthcare. It is clear that Santa Ana's residents need affordable housing now. This is why we support AMCAL's affordable housing project, First Street Apartments. The units will be affordable to families of extremely low and very low income, 30% and 60% area median income; and they will be unavailable to larger families, with half of the project providing three and four bedroom units. A nearby luxury market rate apartment community, Nineteen 01, demonstrates how unavailable housing can be with rents for a two bedroom apartment listed from $2,500 to $3,600 a month. This is why it is necessary that the City move forward in its efforts to provide affordable housing. First Street Apartments was approved as a companion project of The Heritage Village Project to meet the requirements of the Housing Opportunity Ordinance. The Heritage Village Project developer committed to a very important community benefit, the payment of nearly $10 million in in -lieu fees. The City Colmcil committed $8.7 million of these in -lieu fees to AMCAL's affordable housing project, First Street Apartments. As a result of the phasing of the payment of Heritage Village's in -lieu fees, First Street Apartments is receiving $2.6 million from the Heritage Village now and is in need of $6,195,000 in affordable housing funds from the City.