Not so affordable

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- When Jo Bessell learned last year that her Domingo

Drive apartment had been sold, she knew her rent would increase. Over the

28-plus years that she’s lived in her two-bedroom abode, Bessell’s rent

had steadily climbed from $275 to $1,160 per month.

But then Bessell’s new landlord informed her that he would tack on

another $465 to her monthly bill, adding that at $1,625 she’d still be

paying less than the going market rate.

With that January increase, the 83-year-old is now spending more than

two-thirds of her monthly income from Social Security and mutual fund

dividends on rent.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Bessell said, adding that she’s

dipped into money she had set aside to cover her funeral.

“I don’t buy any clothes,” she said. “I don’t entertain any more. I

was able to do all these things very easily. . . I just have to watch it

very careful now.”

Bessell’s not the only one facing the problem, according to those in

the city who have tried to bring affordable housing to Newport Beach for

years.

“There are a number of seniors. . . that are having extreme trouble

meeting the rising rents,” said H. Ross Miller, who chairs the advocacy

group of the Friends of the Oasis Senior Center.

City officials have acknowledged that Newport Beach’s growing senior

population, which currently makes up about a quarter of residents,

demands more affordable housing.

“Every year that goes by, there’s an increase in need,” said Mayor

Gary Adams. “We’ve got the money, we just need to put it together. It’s a

shame that we haven’t been able to do it.”

While cities don’t actually have to build affordable housing units,

state law requires them to have programs in place that facilitate such

developments.

The housing section of Newport Beach’s general plan requires

developers to set aside a certain percentage of apartments as affordable

housing.

In some cases, city officials can accept money from developers to

subsidize affordable housing projects. The One Ford Road development, for

example, brought more than $2 million into city coffers.

Other developers, such as The Irvine Co., have agreed to bring

affordable housing to the city themselves.

In return for constructing more than 850 market rate homes in areas

such as the Upper Castaways, Harbor Cove and a stretch of land east of

MacArthur Boulevard, the company still owes the city 172 affordable

housing units.

Together with other city officials, Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who

chairs the city’s affordable housing task force, met with company

officials Friday to talk about a proposal to build affordable housing on

Bayview Landing at the corner of East Coast Highway and Jamboree Road.

The two sides didn’t reach an agreement, but Ridgeway said that he

hoped the project could get under way within a few weeks. Company

officials said Monday that they were looking forward to further

discussions with the city.

But even if the company moves ahead with the project, it would take at

least two more years of planning and construction before seniors could

move in, Ridgeway said.

The time frame for a project that could make use of the city’s

affordable housing funds is even longer, Ridgeway said.

While city officials are preparing to send out requests for proposals

to developers later this month, there aren’t many sites to build such a

project.

Developers are “very well aware of the money that’s available to

subsidize a project,” Ridgeway said. “But they can’t seem to shake out a

project.”

Still, pursuing affordable housing developments is the city’s only

option, said Adams, adding that rent control programs that exist in other

cities would not makes sense in Newport Beach.

“It’s not consistent with the philosophy of a free market that exists

in Newport,” he said.

Back on Domingo Drive, Bessell is considering her options as well.

Her son, Ted, an Emmy-award winning actor and director, had planned to

build a house for her in his Bel Air backyard, but those plans came to an

abrupt halt when he suddenly died in 1996.

Preferably, she’d like to stay where she lives right now.

“It’s faded, but it’s clean,” she said. “It’s been my home for 28 and

a half years and in my stage of life, why would I move?”

Bessell’s other son lives in Massachusetts and she’s considered

heading back to the East Coast, where she grew up.

But she said that she’s worried about leaving her doctors, who have

also told her that the harsher New England climate might have detrimental

effects on her ailing health.

Bessell said she’d consider moving to an affordable housing apartment

in Newport Beach -- “if it’s not a dive,” that is.

“Rather than that, maybe I should go back to where my roots are,” she

said.