Irvine officials are reshaping their approach to affordable housing developments with a new emphasis on residents — at-risk of becoming homeless — who already live or work in the city.
Although Irvine is one of the county’s leaders in creating affordable housing, city staff members say that the discounted units usually go to people from outside the city.
“Irvine should be incredibly proud of the number of affordable housing units that we do have here locally,” Heather Dion, Irvine’s director of health and wellness, said at the June 10 council meeting.
“The challenge with many of those units is that there are regulatory barriers that are put in place because of financing or other mechanisms that develop those properties that do not allow us to prioritize Irvine-connected individuals and families,” she said.
During that meeting, the council voted 6-0 to make some changes to the city’s affordable housing ordinance to give developers more options when creating low-income housing. The vote also established a community preference policy for the city to prioritize local residents when placing tenants in these units. Councilmember Mike Carroll was absent from the meeting.
The council approved the changes on a first reading on June 10, and a second vote for the item is expected for the council’s meeting on June 24, beginning at 4 p.m.
The vote also comes as the city is rolling out its “Irvine Cares” initiative — a program that would utilize vouchers to provide temporary discounts on market-rate housing units for the city’s neediest residents, among other benefits.
Local Preference For Affordable Housing
Irvine officials are looking to prioritize residents with an Irvine connection and help them get first in line for local affordable housing units.
The council’s June 10 vote looks to expand the options available for developers to help them meet affordable housing requirements in other ways besides the city’s inclusionary housing law — an ordinance requiring 15% of units in new residential developments be affordable for low-income residents.
In Orange County, a family of four making $135,350 annually is considered low income.
That number drops to $84,600 for very low-income families, $50,750 for extremely low-income families and $20,500 for acutely low-income families, according to the California Department of Housing & Community Development’s updated limits for 2025.
If developers choose not to develop affordable units on site, they could pay an in-lieu fee directly to the city instead. For Irvine, the in-lieu fee is $17,000 per unit in the entire development.
Developers in Irvine could now have some additional options when building in the city to help them meet the affordable housing requirement.
New options give developers the choice to offer land or other resources for the city to use toward developing affordable housing instead of the 15% minimum or in-lieu fee. There is also a new option for developers to convert market-rate units for “instant affordability” instead of developing on site.
Developers could also receive a greater density bonus — allowing them to add extra units to a development — if they donate land to the city for future affordable housing.
The changes are meant to accelerate affordable housing developments as the city looks to prioritize locals.
The vote also established a local preference policy that would put residents at the top of the housing list if they already live in the city or work in Irvine at least 20 hours per week.
“What I like about this — the fact that we’re dealing with people who are connected to Irvine — whether they’re going to school here, they live here already, including living in their car in the city, or they work here,” Mayor Larry Agran said at the June 10 meeting.
“The ‘work here’ part of it is so important,” he said. “Not only does it allow a person who works here every day to be able to live here every day, but it also — for that person — eliminates the commute.”
‘Irvine Cares’ Affordable Housing Voucher Program
The city is also working on rolling out the Irvine Cares program — a mix of social services and affordable housing support at targeted areas of the city.
A beginning step of that effort includes housing students from the Irvine Unified School District who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The city has identified 88 families within the district who are currently homeless or housing insecure.
The Irvine Company has agreed to provide the city with 25 existing apartments that will be rent-restricted for housing a portion of these students and their families.
This effort is slated to be funded entirely by Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention state grant funding — Irvine has received over $10 million in these grants since 2022.
[Read: Irvine Rolls Out Affordable Housing Program For Homeless Students]
Another part of the Irvine Cares program is included in the city’s effort to create its final residential village — the Oak Creek Golf Club could be replaced with 3,100 housing units and a new school as the city contemplates that development.
As part of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Irvine Company for the Oak Creek development, the company would provide 1,000 housing vouchers that offer a discount off market-rate rents for two years.
[Read: Irvine’s Oak Creek Golf Club Could Become Housing, Does it Go Against a Voter Initiative?]
But that development’s future remains uncertain as questions surface over whether or not the move violates a voter initiative from the ‘80s.
The voucher program would provide a 65% discount off market-rate rents to house local families immediately with case management services from the city, City Manager Oliver Chi explained at the council’s May 13 meeting.
After two years, those individuals or families would then be given priority placement in a permanent affordable housing unit after their voucher expires. They could also be given a second two-year voucher if necessary, Chi said.
Although the program is meant to house at-risk residents immediately, Councilmember Kathleen Treseder said she was concerned the city wasn’t getting a good deal when it comes to affordable housing for Oak Creek.
The voucher program would satisfy the development’s affordable housing requirements, meaning it would replace any on-site affordable units, and the Irvine Company wouldn’t be paying any in-lieu fees for the 3,100-unit development.
“I do have some pretty major concerns with it, however,” Treseder said. “For me, it has to do with the contrast between what’s being contemplated in this MOU versus our inclusionary housing ordinance.”
If the Irvine Company stuck to the city’s inclusionary housing ordinance, that would result in about 465 affordable units in the Oak Creek development proposal. If the company decided to pay the in-lieu fee, that would result in about $52 million paid directly to the city for future affordable housing projects.
But in this case, the 1,000 two-year vouchers would replace those possibilities if the project ends up moving forward.
Treseder also pointed out that the MOU stipulates that only 200 of the vouchers could be active at any given time.
“I know that there has been messaging to the effect that this is 1000 instant affordable units, but in reality, if you read the MOU, it says very clearly there will only be 200 vouchers, 200 units, allocated to this program at any given time,” she said.
“And in fact, each of the vouchers expires after two years, so this means that the program will end in 10 years or less. After that, there will be no affordable housing units as a result of this MOU.”
Councilmember Betty Martinez Franco also voiced concern about what happens to the families using the vouchers after they expire.
“My worry is that that is not going to be enough, because once that program finishes, there’s going to be need for more,” she said. “What are we going to do then? We need to plan for the future — not just the next two years.”
Cesar Covarrubias, executive director of the Kennedy Commission — an affordable housing-focused nonprofit — said he’s concerned the city might be placing too much value on short-term gain instead of prioritizing long-term affordable housing.
While permanently affordable units take longer to build, he emphasized that they last for 55 years instead of vouchers that expire in two years.
“You have affordability for two years for these units, and then there isn’t new units for those families to move into in two years, so what happens to them?” Covarrubias said in a phone interview. “Because we’re not creating new affordability. And the existing units that are out there, there’s a huge waiting list for those units.”
He said if the city does move forward on the Oak Creek development, they are missing out on opportunities for long-term affordability.
“The biggest barrier for most of these families will continue to be the lack of income to be able to graduate to market-rate housing,” he said.
Agran emphasized the importance of speed to get at-risk residents in Irvine housed immediately.
“I’ve been through all these inclusionary housing programs, getting nonprofits involved, finding some land separate from the market rate development, all of that takes so long,” he said at the May 13 meeting.
“It takes years and years before those units are available to people who urgently need them. This is a way we can, with a yes vote tonight on this, at once address the immediate urgent problems with respect to affordability and homelessness and keep people from slipping into homelessness. We can address these issues right away, and then move on to affordability and building new units.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.