Update: Council OKs new type of affordable housing on 38 southeast Modesto lots
A different kind of subsidized housing — for purchase rather than rent —won approval Tuesday night from the Modesto City Council.
It voted 7-0 for the 38-home project on McClure Road, just north of Yosemite Boulevard. The nonprofit developers hope to sell them for $380,000 to $400,000 each.
The buyers will get help with down payments and monthly mortgage installments. The project has $11.7 million in state and federal funding and support also from the Stanislaus Community Foundation.
It will be for households making up to 80% of the county’s median income — a cap of $76,000 a year for a family of four. A shortage of homes has pushed typical sale prices close to $500,000.
“I think these additional 38 units are going to make 38 families very happy,” Councilmember Rosa Escutia-Braaton said before the vote.
It came about five weeks after the Modesto Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval. No members of the public objected at either meeting.
Modesto-based Stanislaus Equity Partners conceived the project with Self-Help Enterprises of Visalia. The funding includes $7 million from investors who get federal income tax credits in exchange for reduced payments from home buyers. An additional $4.2 million is from a state program that helps with mortgage costs. The city kicked in $500,000 left over from federal aid during COVID-19.
The foundation could aid the financing through its new Housing Solutions Fund. That amount is not yet known. The developers also have not determined the interest rate and other mortgage terms.
Stanislaus Equity Partners formed in 2021 to support affordable housing and small business in the county. Self-Help Enterprises dates to 1965 and works on housing, water and related needs around the San Joaquin Valley.
The first 17 homes could be ready by February 2027 and the other 21 by mid-2028. The developers have not yet announced the application process. They aim for first-time buyers and will provide counseling on household budgeting.
The owners could resell the homes only to other households at or below 80% of the median income. But they would not have to move if their own earnings exceed that threshold in the years after they qualify for a house.
“We’re trying to build generational wealth,” said David Becerra, senior project manager for Self-Help Enterprises. “That’s their home. They can stay there as long as they want.”
The project is called McClure Meadows. The homes will be about a quarter-mile walk from Cost Less Food and several other businesses. Residents will use a new cul-de-sac off McClure rather than direct access from Yosemite, which also is Highway 132.
The council rezoned the four-acre site from “highway commercial” to single-family homes, matching the neighborhoods just to the north.
The McClure Meadows houses will have three or four bedrooms and about 1,100 to 1,400 total square feet. The city staff helped trim the cost by allowing smaller-than-standard lots. Each home also will have one rather than two off-street parking spaces.
Most affordable projects have been new apartment buildings or converted motels. Some of those units are studios reserved for people at just 30% of the median income.
The McClure project seeks buyers who are closer to the median and need full-size houses. Housing experts call this the “missing middle” — people who cannot afford market-rate homes but do not qualify for most subsidies.
Houses in Stanislaus had a median sale price of $485,000 as of September, the California Association of Realtors reported. A household needed at least $122,000 in annual income to cover the median mortgage payment of $3,050 a month
