Modesto has fallen embarrassingly short of housing target. That has to change.
As the COVID-19 pandemic begins to wane, local leaders must turn their attention to housing.
The superheated real estate market has left too many of our people scrambling, unable to afford inflated housing and rental costs. Too many end up on the street or in shelters, with little hope for improved living conditions.
The median price for a home in Stanislaus County hit $365,000 in December, up 14% from a year before. The average monthly rent for a 785-square-foot Modesto apartment rose 7% in a year, to $1,369.
Wealthy people will always find places to live. It’s working-class families who suffer most in times likes these, when finding a place within one’s budget can amount to an impossible dream.
To encourage more affordable options, state housing officials a few years ago gave Stanislaus County and its nine cities quotas requiring that 57% of home construction from 2014 through 2023 target people with low and moderate incomes — typically apartments, duplexes and other multifamily units. That would leave 43%, according to the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, for buyers with above-average pay who usually prefer single-family houses.
How are we doing so far?
From 2014 through 2020, 75% of building permits issued in Modesto were for single-family houses, and less than 25% for multifamily units.
In other words, our construction reality is upside down. What little building there is in Modesto, by and large, is the wrong kind.
You can’t blame builders, who work within the confines of the market and policies set by local leaders. High-end buyers are snatching up mostly two-story new houses just north of Vintage Faire Mall, for instance, faster than they can build and sell them starting in the mid-$400,000s.
We appeal to elected leaders, whose job is improving our communities, to find ways of increasing our housing stock, particularly for buyers and renters of limited means.
When it’s unveiled on March 25, leaders should carefully study California’s Roadmap HOME 2030, a plan developed by Housing California and the California Housing Partnership. It purports to “demonstrate how, over the next 10 years, the state can end homelessness, create 1.2 million affordable homes for those struggling the most and ensure that renters can stay in their homes.”
The county and surrounding cities expect to get $196 million in federal stimulus money from the $1.9 billion relief bill, including $107 for the county and $47 million for Modesto. It’s not chump change. That should make it easier for agencies to find other funds for affordable housing.
Other money should help bring unincorporated pockets of land surrounded by city services up to standard so they might be annexed, principally in Modesto but also Turlock and Ceres. Thousands of people in these islands have put up too long without basic services, in some instances sidewalks, sewers and street lights.
Local leaders say they haven’t lost sight of housing needs.
Stanislaus County CEO Jody Hayes described a nonprofit to be formed that will serve as a financial tool for local entities like the Stanislaus County Affordable Housing Corporation and the Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority.
Building on a good foundation
Recent work by the county and Modesto to offer COVID-related rental assistance with $16 million in federal relief money is laudable. The county recently eased restrictions on accessory dwellings, or granny flats, and Modesto leaders say they’re close to announcing similar incentives.
Modesto Councilman Chris Ricci, whose fall campaign emphasized affordable housing, envisions policies that might bring new condos and apartments to downtown Modesto, after several decades of waiting. He also dreams of transforming large, abandoned stores into living quarters.
And Frank Ploof used this opinion page two weeks ago to pitch the intriguing idea of creating a community of pod housing, a quick and relatively inexpensive way to shelter a number of homeless people. A few days after that column, Pallet Shelter, which manufactures tiny metal homes of 64- and 100-square-feet, brought one to Tenth Street Plaza for passers-by to see.
Leaders in Modesto, Stanislaus County and other cities must take care of their own. It’s time that they recommit to housing for all.