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THREAD: There’s not enough affordable housing in California. And a huge reason that we can’t fix the problem is that it’s more expensive to build low-income housing here than anywhere else. We found one project that costs $1.1 million per apartment (1/8) https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2020-04-09/california-low-income-housing-expensive-apartment-coronavirus
Sure, land is expensive in California. So are construction materials. But this project, The Pearl in Solana Beach, to an almost comical degree shows how all the state and local requirements for affordable housing make it so costly (2/8)
First, The Pearl is really small. Just 10 apartments. (At one point, it was supposed to be 18.) And it includes a 53-space underground parking garage for the public and residents. This is in a wealthy, small, beach community. (3/8)
The decision to make it so small and with so much parking came from the community. Neighbors didn’t want poor people living near them. They sued. Council members, who voted for The Pearl, wanted to prevent “Cabrini Green” (4/8)
Once the developer was done with the city and the neighbors she had to deal with the state funding bureaucracy, which is so overwhelmed that literal stacks of paper have been piling up in someone’s office. (5/8)
Ultimately, the project is collapsing under its own weight and probably won’t be built now. And while $1.1 million per apartment is the most expensive we found, there are at least six others in the state above $900,000 per unit. Plus, costs to build inland have been soaring (6/8)
Let’s not forget who this hurts more than anyone else. Miguel Zamora, a dishwasher and construction worker, has been waiting for affordable housing in Solana Beach since 1999(!) — the deadline for it to be built under a legal settlement. (7/8)
The project’s likely failure means that Zamora’s family and other families that have been waiting for more than two decades for what was legally promised them will now wait even longer (8/8)
