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This election season, every vote is about housing

September 5, 2024

This time of even-numbered years is always a flurry of activity. Beyond the yearly back-to-school activities, candidates are making their rounds, raising money, and jockeying for visibility in front of voters on various issues of concern.

As cofounder and director of Orange County’s YIMBY organization, it is my self-appointed mission to make sure that housing– specifically the shortage of housing affordable to low- and middle-income residents, working families, young professionals, and seniors on fixed incomes– is among the top of issues voters raise with their candidates. Recent polling by UC Irvine’s School of Social Ecology suggests that it is.

The 2023 UCI Poll in OC found Affordable Housing and Homelessness as the top issues of concern for OC residents. This year’s poll showed that 51% of the respondents have thought about leaving Orange County, and 78% said the reason was the cost of housing. High housing costs are a pressing issue not just for those on the bottom end of our socioeconomic ladder, but also for adult children of long-time Orange County homeowners who must tell their parents, “We’re moving; we just can’t afford to live in Orange County anymore.”

What those parents may not know, or perhaps know and don’t want to admit, is that largely this is a problem of our own making. Longstanding NIMBYism and opposition to denser forms of housing has created a shortage in every Orange County city and driven prices so high that our young adults see no future for themselves in the communities where they grew up. Sacramento’s recent combination of carrot and stick legislation has led to more by-right housing approvals, but the housing shortage will not be solved by Sacramento.

We need elected leaders in local government willing to make room for the next generation by approving new townhomes, condos and apartments in their communities. Cities in Orange County have already identified sites for new housing through their housing plans, also called Housing Elements, and most have been approved by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

This fall will give city council members an opportunity to “make good” on the commitments made in their city housing elements and for voters to make room for the next generation by supporting pro-housing council members and candidates. Right now, there are housing developments working their way through the entitlements process, and they will be coming soon to a city council hearing near you!

There are large, innovative projects like Related Bristol (Santa Ana) and the Magnolia Tank Farm (Huntington Beach), which as of this writing are scheduled for City Council consideration on the same night– September 17th. While these high-profile projects are the definite headliners, smaller projects in cities that steadily deliver on housing, like Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park and Irvine are also moving forward. If you vote in those cities AND you care about where your children and grandchildren will live (and you don’t want it to be with you), then tell your city council members you support new housing and want them to approve the projects coming before them.

If you live in a smaller city, where new residential development opportunities come along less frequently (in some cases decades), THIS might just be your year! Aliso Viejo is mulling over a 300+ unit apartment building on an existing commercial parking lot in the city’s aging shopping district. Fountain Valley will consider new townhomes and attached-single-family homes, along with 400 apartments on an 18-acre site, and Los Alamitos will consider the redevelopment of an old office building and parking lot into both for-sale townhomes and affordable rental homes.

Each of these project sites was identified in the city’s respective Housing Element as a way to meet its state housing goal (RHNA). Why does that matter? Because it was the promise of new housing on those properties that lead the State to approve the city’s Housing Element. Without a “compliant” Housing Element, scary things can happen, like Builders Remedy or lawsuits against the city from housing law advocacy organizations. Long-term non-compliance with the state housing law could result in a city having its Housing Element decertified, loss of state funding, and loss of city’s ability to issue building permits for existing residents and businesses. All of these outcomes are undesirable regardless of which side of the political aisle you stand on.

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This election season, remember that city council members not only play a role in shaping your quality of life today, but their decisions to allow or deny new housing will have a direct impact on the ability of your children or grandchildren to remain in Orange County. So, what can you do? Talk to your current council members; send them an email telling them to support the housing developments that are coming before them this fall. Talk to your council candidates. If they say they support housing, ask them where the city plans to accommodate that development. Have they read their city’s Housing Element? How do they plan to engage in the process to bring new housing opportunities to your community?

This fall will not just be a presidential election year with a list of down ballot races. It will be a proving ground for housing elements and a test of our collective will to make room for the next generation. Almost every city in Orange County has gotten into compliance with HCD, and two cities — Cypress and Yorba Linda — actually have their Housing Elements on the ballot for voter approval.

Now the question is, will the sitting city councils follow through on their commitments to permit housing on the sites they identified? Will we – voting residents, parents and grandparents– have the courage to vote out the ones that don’t?

Elizabeth Hansburg is the Co-founder and Executive Director of People for Housing Orange County. She lives in Fullerton where she served on the planning commission. She can be reached at [email protected]

Orange County Register

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This election season, every vote is about housing

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