Why Modesto builders don’t construct affordable homes
During my four years on Modesto City Council beginning in 1999, I earned an inaccurate reputation for being anti-growth, anti-developer, anti-housing and anti-business. I was considered the worst council member ever by some in the building industry.
My objectives in behalf of the citizens of Modesto ran counter to builders’ interests. My goals were for affordable housing to be built, builders’ projects to pay their own way, and eliminate all government subsidies for a profitable building industry. These goals were considered anti-business by critics.
”Affordable housing” refers to the construction of homes for hard-working wage earners making $10 to $15 per hour, a common wage among local full timers. I asked home builders why they could not build some affordable homes for local residents as well as the mansions targeting wealthier Bay Area families.
One builder said investors don’t want apartments because rents in Modesto were not high enough at the time. He said that when rents hit $900 per month, apartments would be built. When rents reached that point, were many new apartments built?
Another builder said he does not build multistory units because he does not know how. What happened to the builder of Ralston Tower?
About every 10 years, Modesto revises its General Plan after City Council review. The plan always has generous amounts of acres zoned for affordable housing, but it never gets built. Time after time, successive city councils ignore the General Plan, grant countless variances, change zoning to accommodate developer requests, and give subsidies to home builders who don’t build affordable housing.
The net effect of poor policy implementation is to cause the homeless population to grow. Area rents have risen so much that local full-time workers struggle to keep their homes.
When I served on the City Council, a study uncovered a $35 million deficit in the Village I infrastructure fee structure, meaning home builders were being subsidized that amount. How many affordable homes and apartments have been built in Village I? How many could have been built with $35 million?
Every time I see a homeless person camped out by the freeway, I feel great loss over my inability to convince a majority of the council that we were not serving well the entire community. Disappointment continues as each successive council has failed to recognize the problem with city development policies. No action has been taken to correct or improve them.
Modesto’s big failure
Before residential home builders gained influence over a majority of the City Council — prior to the Dick Lang administration of the 1990s — Modesto stuck more closely to its General Plan and affordable homes were built. Former Mayor Peggy Mensinger warned what would happen if a majority of the City Council came under the influence of the home builder lobby. She was right.
When the home builder lobby gained influence over the council majority during the Lang Administration — as seen in campaign contributions — affordable homes went by the wayside, builders had their way with the city via huge infrastructure subsidies, and the number of homeless has increased ever since.
Looking at other cities of Stanislaus County, if your community does not have affordable housing currently being built, then you have the same problem as Modesto. Eventually, you will also have a homeless population, if you don’t already.
This year, Stanislaus County has an estimated budget surplus of $150 million. The state of California will have at least $26 billion. Wouldn’t it be nice if the policy were to construct affordable housing rather than subsidize mansions? What if the surplus was loaned out for the construction of affordable housing?