Cities across Orange County are thousands of units behind on their goals to build more affordable housing according to new reports filed with state regulators showcasing housing construction over the past five years. 

Cities only have until 2029 to hit their current goals laid out by the state’s Housing and Community Development Department, requiring they zone enough space for new housing under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation. 

The housing developments are divided by income levels, based on the area’s median income.

In Orange County last year, four-person households were considered extremely-low income if they made less than $50,750, while making less than $135,350 was considered low-income. 

The median income sat around $136,600.

The new income limits set by state officials haven’t been released yet. 

While cities have to zone for housing in order to get state funding and avoid lawsuits from regulators, they have much less control over how much housing actually gets built. 

Which Cities Are On Track? 

Santa Ana is the only Orange County city with over 100,000 residents that’s on track to hit its housing goals, according to their recent disclosures. 

The city’s already issued enough building permits to hit their development goals for low income housing, and is 70% of the way there on their very low income housing developments, bringing over 800 new units online since 2021. 

Overall, the city has beat its goal of permitting for over 3,100 units by 2029, with over 4,757 units having already received permits.

Irvine leaders have issued permits for over 7,400 new housing units, but over 90% of those are for above market housing. 

The city still needs to approve permits for another 16,000 units worth of housing, most of which falls between the low income and moderate income range. 

The Lag On Approving New Housing 

The cities of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Garden Grove, Tustin, Westminster, Fullerton, Fountain Valley and Anaheim are all behind on their state housing goals. 

Surf City has signed off on just under 1,500 new units since 2021 amid a series of legal battles with the state, with city officials arguing that housing mandates are unconstitutional due to their status as a charter city. 

They’ve lost at every level of both the state and federal courts, and are currently under a court order that strips away much of their zoning powers around housing until they get a state approved plan in place. 

[Read: Huntington Beach Continues to Lose Lawsuits Arguing Charter City Rights]

But even for cities following the state’s guidelines, development has proven difficult. 

Fullerton leaders have permitted only 1,384 of their 13,209 required units.

Sunayana Thomas, Fullerton community and economic development director, stated that many of the delays have been based on the market, and less on council decisions during the council’s March 17 meeting.

“Our job is to pave the road, to streamline efforts, to simplify zoning requirements and others so that projects can happen here,” Thomas said. “I think, to the extent that we’re able to, we have done that. And so the rest is up to the private market.” 

Many other cities didn’t even talk about their results as they approved the reports to state leaders – city council actions commonly known as “receive and file.” 

Anaheim leaders have issued permits for just 3,048 of the 17,453 housing units required. Around 544 units are for the low income category, leaving them over 3,000 more low income housing units to hit their goals.

Westminster has finished off 935 units of the more than 9,700 goal, most of which were for moderate or low income housing. 

Garden Grove leaders have permitted nearly 2,300 new units since 2021, over 92% of which were for above moderate income housing. The city has nearly 17,000 units remaining to hit its goals. 

Costa Mesa has issued permits for 643 housing units, most of which were for very low or low income housing, but they still have over 11,000 more housing units to allocate. 

Tustin leaders are 8% of the way done with their housing goals, and haven’t hit the 2% mark on zoning for low and very low income housing. 

Newport Beach has issued permits for 352 housing units, nearly half of which were for above moderate income housing. They have over 4,400 housing units left to hit their goal according to their general plan. 

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.