Mendocino County Grand Jury Says ‘critical lack of affordable and available housing’
Press release from the Mendocino County Grand Jury:
_Mendocino_County_'s_Needs_for_Housing_Requires_Coordination_and_P (3)The Mendocino County Grand Jury has released a report on housing needs.
“Due to the critical lack of affordable and available housing, the Grand Jury (GJ) began investigating what was currently being done to improve the availability of housing in Mendocino County. Planning and Building Services (PBS) functions are currently limited to permitting the development of housing and ensuring that projects meet regulatory standards. PBS is not active in seeking modifications to State standards to meet the local housing needs and have experienced difficulty completing permit applications in a timely manner. All PBS functions are passive without specific direction from the Board of Supervisors (BOS).
The Mendocino County Community Development Commission (CDC) and Rural Community Housing Development Corporation (RCHDC) have been primary sources of developing new housing to address local needs. Of the cities, Ukiah has developed a creative way to adapt to the demand for new housing developments through a trust fund, supported by leasing city- owned property for market-rate construction.
It appears that the County will not meet the State assigned number of new units without local action to remove obstructions to development, increase Agency collaboration and find funds to develop new infrastructure. The GJ believes that PBS should be directed to increase its capacity to serve these functions”.
FINDINGS
F1. The areas around cities have the best developed sewer and water systems for new housing in Mendocino County. Rural areas of the County do not have adequate public infrastructure and amenities to meet HCD projections.
F2. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, PBS has developed more efficient digital options for routine matters which has created a more streamlined process to free PBS to pursue new opportunities for solving departmental issues and verifying State regulations and statistics.
F3. MCOG is designated by the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development to coordinate the housing need allocation process for Mendocino County. By default, this has become the regional planning agency.
F4. Lack of housing forces the price of existing housing to be unaffordable for working families as well as preventing new potential employees to choose to work in Mendocino County.
F5. The Median income of county residents and the higher cost of goods and services does not keep pace with the cost of new single-family homes, which discourages contractors from building here when they can profit from building in other areas.
F6. The current shortage of affordable housing will continue without Mendocino County hiring qualified housing and community development planners. Such assets would assist in locating funding sources for infrastructure improvements, attracting appropriate developers, and informing the BOS what effect proposed regulations may have on the development of new housing.
F7. There is no formal or consistent communication between PBS and its counterparts in the cities of Fort Bragg, Point Arena, Ukiah and Willits which is indicative of the lack of planning on a regional basis in this County.
F8. The prohibitive cost of new construction and limited income of most area residents makes new market-rate projects risky for builders.
F9. The activation of a Mendocino County Building Trust Fund (In-Lieu fund) would give Mendocino County leverage in encouraging proactive development to meet the county’s needs for infrastructure and housing projects.
F10. Federal and State funding is targeted to urban areas and the BOS does not direct PBS to actively seek mitigations on these restrictions to acquire funding for housing projects when State & Federal funds become available.
F11. As a result of restrictions on the use of local budget monies, Mendocino County’s Native American Tribes may only be invited to the table when discretionary funds for housing are available through Federal sources.
The recommendations and the entire report are attached, and will be posted to the Grand Jury’s website: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/ government/grand-jury/2020- 2021-reports
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AND:
People who work in Mendo, Napa, Sonoma and beyond have bought every available home in, you guessed it, Lake County, driving up the cost of housing there for all the honest, hard working citizens…
Ukiah is the damndest thing, people living permanently in 250 square ft old-motel rooms on State Street, homeless lying around everywhere while screaming at themselves, resturants and coffee-places teeming with folks who don’t seem to have much to do at 10AM, and not much to draw folks into town besides Wal-Mart, Costco and Home-Depot…
There’s no homes for sale where 5 years ago there were plenty and they were cheap. Now it’s $600,000 plus.
Every business is staffed by folks commuting in from Santa Rosa or there are “Help Wanted” signs…
In Lake County, houses last 2-3 weeks on the market, and have shot up 40% in a year. Highway 20 has ruts from the commuters flying up to Ukiah and Willits.
Practically no new construction of homes in the area, but plenty of new “greenhouses”…
Newest housing in Lake County: Farmworker apartments in Kelseyville, and Senior/Disabled Apartments in Lakeport… Get them now!
All of you voted for the policies which lead to our current situation, as did your parents.
Reap what you sow.
Thankfully the current rise in inflation will help with this problem, won’t it?
Mile,
As one who often engages in facetious hyperbole I get your well made point. Lumber prices have gone up about400%. If anyone wants to build affordable housing they had better start building mud huts. The problem with that is that we don’t have any water to make mud. Damn…
Thank God California has had the political wisdom to avoid all of the political mistakes that the rest of the nation has been making.
You can 3D print a home in one day and costs about 4000 dollars. And they last 50-60 years! And it’s green!!
https://interestingengineering.com/7-of-the-most-beautiful-3d-printed-houses-and-cabins
How many homes are now Air BnB rentals?
“F5. The Median income of county residents and the higher cost of goods and services does not keep pace with the cost of new single-family homes, which discourages contractors from building here when they can profit from building in other areas.”
“F8. The prohibitive cost of new construction and limited income of most area residents makes new market-rate projects risky for builders.”
These issues cannot be solved by PBS or even BOS. These are macroeconomic based problems originating from Sacramento and DC. Anything the county could do is just making adjustments on the margins. If the housing element in mendo is anything like Trinity’s the affordable housing requirements are pitifully small and not sufficient to keep up the population and economy.
I wish I had a solution but that lays within the over regulation of numerous industries.
There are plenty of abandoned houses, outdated commercial properties, closed shopping malls and warehouses that can be converted to housing IF THE WILL IS THERE to use these resources. And the will is created by the desire of politicians to make such locations appealing and money to convert and sell them. If homes are not affordable it is because there are so few good and steady jobs to pay for all the regulations on building, waste disposal, utilities upgrades and crime control. The political will to make improve the safety and infrastructure of older environments and encourage work that pays well is what is missing. A mass of restaurants filled with recent immigrants will never be steady enough and have profit margin to pay for it. Making more poor people does not make housing more affordable.
Why would anyone want to build housing in communist California? It’s enormously expensive due to environmental and every other kind of regulation (liberals). It’s impossible to kick out dead beat tenants (liberals). Rent controls (liberals), on and on ad infinitum. Thank a lib.
But socialism will fix the problem.
“It’s enormously expensive due to environmental and every other kind of regulation”
That right there doubles the cost of building a house.
It took a grand jury to grandly declare what everybody already knows.
Overpopulation is a big part of this.
I’ve been building houses around here for over 20 years, do you know that the California building code is over 21 million words long… Regulation and requirements make up about 45- 65% of the cost for a new home in California. Add the increase in lumber prices to the equation and the situation is going to get a lot worse in the years to come.
But which regulations are useful and which are not? For example, using ties increases costs but makes the house less damaged in an earthquake and may save lives. A GFCI next to a sink costs money but again may save lives and keep a house from burning down. But I don’t know enough to know if there are ones that are waste of money, not doing good while costing money.
I know that no place in California ever makes any list of lowest cost of living.
Stockton and Fresno come in at 17 and 18 on one list. But you know, Stockton and Fresno.
A quick Google shows the places with the lowest COL are in Ohio, Indiana and Kansas and in the middle of nowhere Texas. Though one in Nebraska or Oklahoma.
Vacation rentals are a bane on local communities.
Many people are able to obtain HUD certificates. Many rentals stay empty for long periods of time because the prospective tenants cannot meet the rental requirements. Three times the rent for minimal consideration. Even the most terrible rental right now you’re looking at twelve hundred bucks a month so who makes $3,600 a month after taxes? Was in the Friedman Brothers parking lot not too long ago a gentleman was loading fence boards in the back of his truck I asked him oh you got a fun project ahead huh? He replied. Oh there’s some HUD tenants on the other side of the fence and I want to make sure it’s really secure cuz they’re so risky. I kind of asked him what do you mean people that are on HUD are risky? I shared it is assisted rentals and they inspect the place once a year to keep it pretty clean and they pay for your damages, your deposits when the clients move out. They’re kind of like a management company how could that be bad? He said what they do all that? He said he never would consider renting to someone on HUD before but then after I talked to him for a little while he said wow I really should check that out. I’ve had 4 tenants in this place in the last year-and-a-half and every time they just tear it up, gotta go to court to get paid, the deposit doesn’t even cover it. He further shared and 2 of them were SHERIFFS!!! Well there you go. HUD is not a bad thing. It is a really huge issue that many landlords will not consider even though you’re technically not supposed to be able to refuse HUD.