New criteria for housing approved

Barbara Diamond

The City Council added seniors on Tuesday night to the preferred

applicants for the affordable housing on Glenneyre Street.

“That was not the original intention of the Affordable Housing and

Human Affairs Committee,” said the Rev. Colin Henderson, a committee

member. “It was supposed to be for people working for low wages.”

The City Council voted 3 to 0 to add seniors 65 or older and

people displaced by a city-sponsored projects to the preference list

-- each criterion given two points -- and banned smokers from the

list.

Related Management Co., a subsidiary of project developer, Related

Cos. of California, had recommended three criteria for preference:

two points for applicants who work in town, two for applicants who

live in town, two points and one point for applicants who lived in

town within the past two years, but were forced to move out due to

the cost of renting.

The council voted to tighten the management company’s

recommendations by requiring local employees to work 25 hours or more

to be eligible for preference points and stipulated a date of Sept. 2

for those applicants who claimed residency.

Only applicants who are 65 or older, work 25 hours or more in

Laguna Beach, have lived here since Tuesday, but were displaced by

the development of Treasure Island, and meet the low-income

requirement would qualify for the maximum eight preference points.

“Alice Graves would be very concerned about this,” Henderson said.

“And she would have been at the meeting Tuesday night.”

The late Alice Graves, who chaired the city committee that deals

with human affairs and affordable housing, tenaciously fought for

affordable housing for “the working poor,” a phrase she regretted but

said she used for lack of a better one.

Graves, who conducted surveys to prove the need for affordable

housing for low-income workers in town and lobbied on their behalf,

argued that seniors already had housing reserved for them. Workers

with small salaries either shared places with others or lived out of

town.

Laguna Beach has 84 low-cost rental units reserved for seniors: 72

at Vista Aliso and 12 on Broadway, with a waiting list of about 200

that’s not restricted to Laguna Beach residents. There is also a

condominium project on Third Street for seniors-only owners, with

caps on the selling price.

The Glenneyre Street project will add 26 low-cost studio

apartments to the city’s inventory of affordable rental units and

fulfill the goals in the housing element of the Laguna Beach General

Plan.

“Approximately 200 names are already on the waiting list, and we

haven’t advertised yet,” said Pat Barry, Community Services director.

“We expect a significant number of applications.”

Seniors were added to the preferred tenant criteria at the

insistence of Councilman Steven Dicterow, who chaired Laguna Beach

Seniors Inc.’s drive for funds to construct a senior center.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson, who also has worked on behalf of the

seniors, and Mayor Toni Iseman supported the addition. Councilman

Wayne Baglin and Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman recused themselves from

the discussion and the vote, citing possible conflicts of interest

because of property they each own within a 500-foot radius of the

project.

Baglin asked City Atty. Philip Kohn on Tuesday night to

investigate ways that would allow the councilman to vote on the

affordable housing project, which he said would not affect the value

of a condominium he owns on Third Street.

City Manager Ken Frank proposed the Sept. 2 residency deadline to

exclude applicants who might move into town in the next couple of

months to help them qualify for the affordable housing project. Frank

also proposed the addition of preference points for the people who

were displaced by city-sponsored projects.

“There are only two that I can think of: Treasure Island and the

Community Center on Third Street,” Frank said.

The council preference-point formula was to be forwarded to

Related Management Co., which will manage the project.

“I think we would be fine with seniors,” said Christine Polowski,

West Coast compliance manager for the project management company. “It

is not an issue, as long as it is approved by the state, county and

HUD [federal department of Housing and Urban Development], which

helped fund the project, and doesn’t conflict with regulatory

agreements.”

The city’s Affordable Housing and Human Affair’s Committee, which

met the Thursday before the council meeting, was not informed of the

changes, Barry said.

The council authorized staff on Tuesday to work with the

management company to begin the application process.

A deadline for applications will be announced when the units are

advertised. Applications will be randomly numbered, and preference

points will be assigned to each application. Applicants with the

highest preference points will be screened in order of application

numbers. All applicants must meet the income cap, set annually by the

county, based on the median salary for a one-person household in

Orange County, currently $52,900 a year. Six of the 26 units in the

Glenneyre Street project will be reserved for tenants with an income

of 30% of the median, currently $15,900 a year, and 20 units for

tenants with an income of 40% of the median, now $21,200 a year.

The management company will select the tenants but have encouraged

city staff to be there to observe the process.