Orange County residents are getting a look at their cities’ report cards to state leaders on how much housing they’ve built.
And while some cities are pushing ahead with development, others are running into roadblocks.
So far, on the lean end, HB hasn’t built anything and Fullerton has only built one home, according to their disclosures.
On the other hand, cities like Irvine and Santa Ana have issued permits for over 2,200 housing units apiece.
While not every city has released their annual status reports, Voice of OC reviewed disclosures for the unincorporated county and 21 cities including Santa Ana, Irvine, Anaheim, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Fullerton.
Altogether, they’ve approved nearly 9,000 new housing units in the past year, with just over 9% of which are set aside for people making below or very below the area’s median income.
To view if your city has submitted a progress report, click here.
Cesar Covarrubias, executive director of the Kennedy Commission, said the reports in the last three years show a robust production in above moderate housing and progress in building affordable homes with a big boost due to motel conversions to permanent supportive housing.
“That’s where a lot of the efforts have gone and we are seeing that but we still are lagging behind on multifamily housing for low income families who are struggling to remain housed in our county,” he said.
The progress reports split housing numbers into two categories – deed restricted and non-deed restricted.
Covarrubias said deed restricted homes have to be affordable for a period of time – typically 55 years – and nonrestricted means the affordability of the homes could change tomorrow.
Most of the affordable units approved over the past year were non-restricted.
The group also says there are discrepancies in the data.
Rosaline Aragon, a community organizer with the Kennedy Commission who helps track these progress reports annually, said Friday that the cities of La Palma, Villa Park, Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano and the County of Orange have changed some of the housing counts from previous years.
“They’ve removed a lot of their affordable housing units for low and very low,” Aragon said.
Covarrubias said they’re going to follow up with the cities to see why there have been changes.
Where Are Homes Being Built in OC?
The progress reports come as state officials put increased pressure on local leaders across California to zone for more homes to address a statewide housing shortage and affordability crisis.
Every city in the state is required to zone for a certain number of housing units in their city in what’s known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA, which also requires that cities track how much housing actually gets developed in the city.
Right now, city leaders are three years into the housing cycle, and have five years left to hit their development targets.
This cycle, city officials in Orange County have to adopt housing plans that, taken altogether, will have city officials zone for over 180,000 new homes – and 75,000 of them have to be designated for very low and low income families.
Of the cities reviewed by Voice of OC, Huntington Beach built the least housing.
While the city approved over 500 permits for new homes last year, around a quarter of which were for low-income residents, none of them were built by the end of 2023.
That comes as city leaders have refused to submit a housing plan to the state, arguing as a charter city they don’t have to submit to state housing mandates, and are currently being sued by Attorney General Rob Bonta to force them into compliance.
[Read: Huntington Beach Reignites Fight Against State Housing Law]
They were followed by the city of Fullerton, who approved 458 permits for new housing but only saw the completion of one single family home last year according to their disclosures.
On the other end of the spectrum, the cities of Santa Ana and Irvine led the way in housing construction last year, approving nearly 4,800 new housing units between the two and actually building just under 2,500 units combined.
Santa Ana has already surpassed the total number of housing units it needed to approve by 2029, but most of the units are priced at the “above-moderate,” category, meaning they don’t count as affordable housing.
Irvine is also on track to meet its goals, having already exceeded the goal for its moderate and above moderate priced housing and sitting just under halfway done on its units for very low income residents.
Will Two More OC Cities Require Affordable Homes in Developments?
In this cycle, Anaheim officials have been tasked to zone for 17,453 homes – of which 6,164 have to be for very low and low income families.
Officials there last week voted unanimously to submit their housing plan report card to the state, approving 965 permits for new homes in 2023 and building 534 homes.
Over 787 of the homes approved last year are for above-moderate income families and are not affordable housing.
About half the people who live in Anaheim are on a public health plan.
Last week, Anaheim officials also reviewed the findings of a commissioned study on policies they can implement to boost the development of affordable housing production in their city.
But City Councilmembers pushed back on one of the suggested policies that housing advocates have long tried to get Anaheim officials to consider – an inclusionary housing ordinance.
Ordinances like this require developers to provide affordable housing in their developments or pay the city a fee which will go into building those homes elsewhere.
Other cities in OC have implemented these requirements like Santa Ana, Huntington Beach Irvine, Brea and five other cities in OC
And officials in Costa Mesa are moving forward with a similar ordinance there as well.
A majority of city council members in Costa Mesa Tuesday are expected to finalize a second vote on an ordinance that requires developers to build affordable homes in future housing projects.
[Read: Costa Mesa to Require Affordable Homes in Residential Developments]
As of Friday morning, the state has not received a 2023 annual housing plan progress report from Costa Mesa officials.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Anaheim had issued permits for over 2,200 housing units last year, but the city issued 965 permits. We regret the error.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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