Anaheim residents may soon be able to apply for up to $50,000 in assistance for a down payment on their first home and others could apply for up to $5,000 to prevent them from being evicted through two programs under the city’s newly minted housing trust fund.

The new programs come as Anaheim’s elected officials continue to call for a portion of tourism tax dollars collected to market the Disneyland Resort be used to support housing needs for the people working at the theme park, the resorts hotels and business.

The new programs mark a shifting dynamic between the city council and Disneyland resort interests. 

In a report last year, California auditors concluded that Visit Anaheim improperly used tourism tax dollars – which they consider public money – by giving over $6 million between 2012 to 2022 to the local Chamber of Commerce, which then used the money to lobby elected officials and support political campaigns. 

[Read: Anaheim Institutes New Oversight on Tourism Bureau After Searing State Audit]

The tourism tax comes from an additional 2% tax that Anaheim hoteliers placed on hotel rooms and is aimed at improving transportation in the resort area and promoting the city.

Last week, city council members voted unanimously on a plan to allocate millions of dollars towards a first-time homeowner buyer program, an eviction protection program and an initiative to create more affordable homes in a city where more than half of residents are renters.

“It’s going to be one of the more transformative programs that any Council has done in Anaheim to really move the needle on housing,” said Mayor Ashleigh Aitken about the city’s housing trust fund at the May 29 city council meeting.

The programs and their administration will be funded through $16 million – almost all of which comes from Disney after city council members approved a proposal to expand the theme park and sell off three public streets, including Magic Way, to the entertainment juggernaut.

[Read: Anaheim Approves $2 Billion Disneyland Forward Expansion]

As part of the agreement for the expansion, Disneyland executives agreed to give the city $30 million that would go to a housing trust and be used for affordable homes – an amount local advocates at the time said won’t do enough to create affordable housing.

During approval of the expansion, Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava publicly asked Disney President Ken Potrock if they would be willing to direct a portion of tourism dollars to be used to support housing resort workers – an idea he said the entertainment juggernaut supports.

[Read: Will Tourism Dollars Help Fund Anaheim’s Affordable Housing Trust?]

During Thursday’s council meeting, Aitken said Visit Anaheim CEO Mike Waterman made a commitment that by next year a portion of tourism tax dollars generated will be used to help address housing needs for Disney Resort workers.

She also said it would be a great tool to market the Disneyland Resort area.

“I would just really hope that as an organization, even if it is a formula that is not something that you’re getting 100% of what you want, if you’re getting 80% that you’re going to back what the overall goal is, which is housing for Anaheim Resort employees,” Aitken said during a separate discussion on tourism tax dollars. 

“To say, when you come to Anaheim, you’re not only promising your conventions a positive experience and a world class experience, you’re doing something morally right for the community and giving back. And I think that’s a really great selling point.”

“You have my commitment to make sure we get this done by the end of this year,” Waterman responded.

Funding For Anaheim’s Housing Trust & Programs

Months after officials approved Disney’s expansion project, city councilmembers voted to create a housing trust to help fund programs like eviction protection assistance, down payment assistance for homebuyers and gap financing for affordable homes.

[Read: Will Anaheim Force Developers to Build Affordable Homes?]

Last week, the city received the first $15 million from Disney for the city’s affordable housing needs. The city expects to receive the second half in five years.

The remaining $1 million comes from a federal grant and must be used towards building homes.

Under the plan, $5 million will be allocated to an initiative to build affordable homes, another $5 million will be allocated to downpayment assistance for homebuyers, $4.5 million will be set aside to be allocated at a later time and $1 million will be for eviction prevention grants.

The remaining $500,000 will be used to administer the programs.

The initial proposal would have allocated $9.5 million towards the Build More Initiative that would be used for gap financing for affordable homes, buying sites for future development and preparing sites for future development.

The proposed allocation would have supported the production of 250-300 affordables in Anaheim, according to a city staff report.

Councilwomen Natalie Meeks and Rubalcava said more money should go towards the first-time home owner downpayment assistance program than the Build More Initiative.

“We’ve focused on building more rental units for many years,” Meeks said. “I don’t know if it’s achieving the results that we want, or that serves – will serve our city long term.”

Between 2018-2023, over 5,100 homes were built in Anaheim – of which 92% were for above moderate income families, 4% for very low income families and about 2% were for low income families, according to a state database.

Orange County’s median income for a four-person household is close to $128,000, roughly $13,000 above what’s considered low income, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. 

A four-person household making less than $72,000 a year is considered very low income. 

Meeks and Meeks also questioned if a $50,000 loan for the downpayment assistance program was enough to support residents.

Under the program, people living or working in Anaheim would be able to apply for a $50,000 loan to use towards the down payment for buying their first home.

To qualify, the homebuyer’s household income can not exceed 150% of the area median income for Orange County.

The homebuyer must also show they can contribute between 3%-20% of the purchase price of the home towards the down payment plus closing costs, according to the staff report.

Staff estimates that the $5 million will help 100 people buy a new home.

Meanwhile, the eviction prevention program will provide up to $5,000 in one time grants to help people on the brink of losing their home to pay their rent.

To qualify for the program, residents must show documentation of pending eviction, household income can not exceed 50% of the Orange County Area Median Income and the money will be paid directly to the landlord.

For more on the qualification requirements on the programs, click here.

The $1 million allocation is expected to help 200 households.

Editor’s note: Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.