How Many Is Too Much? : Court wisely rejects simplistic answer to housing density question

How many people should be allowed to live in a house or an apartment?

A complex question, to be sure, involving issues of health and safety. For this reason, the 4th District Court of Appeal last week did the right thing in striking down a simplistic Santa Ana ordinance that would have imposed strict limits on the number of people who may live in housing units.

The case was being watched carefully by cities throughout California that want to adopt similar ordinances that exceed state standards for occupancy. But the court said that while it recognized that its decision would frustrate these efforts, it would otherwise be forced to take a “curbside seat at the parade of horrors” that would ensue as people were made to leave their homes.

In rejecting what it called a “piecemeal solution” to the serious problem of overcrowding, the three-judge panel took the extra step of having the opinion certified for publication. That’s significant because it means it can be cited as a precedent as other cases arise around California.

The Santa Ana case was rightly viewed as an important test of the state’s occupancy standard, which permits up to 10 people to live in an average-size one-bedroom apartment. Santa Ana’s 1991 ordinance would have halved the number of occupants allowed.

Similar ordinances have been adopted in other cities throughout California, including Orange and Dana Point. Legal challenges to those laws can be expected. Had Santa Ana’s ordinance been allowed to stand, it would have had an unfair and disproportionate impact on the city’s poor residents, who are mostly Latino and heavily immigrant.

Cities like Santa Ana are reeling from population increases that lead to such problems as crowded schools, poor sanitation, crime and the day-to-day wear-and-tear on streets, sewers and other public works.

The appellate court’s decision is a signal, however, that cities cannot expect to address these serious problems by simply exporting residents to the next town or forcing them out of their homes and into the streets. Part of the burden of overcrowding stems from the inability or unwillingness of government at all levels to address the vitally important problem of providing adequate affordable housing. This is where the efforts of cities now must go.

Of course, imposing stricter limits on how many people can live in a house or apartment is simplicity itself. But in the long run it solves next to nothing.