CITY WRESTLES WITH CHEAPER HOME POLICY BUILDERS MUST BE CONVINCED IT'LL PAY.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- With new homes in Santa Clarita fetching $629,000, city officials are looking at the need for affordable housing.

``The school districts (tell us) it's hard for them to bring in bright, young, newly graduated teachers, (because) they can't find affordable housing,'' said Paul Brotzman, Santa Clarita's director of community development. ``The same is true for companies that have staff at a variety of income levels.

``The city is looking at how do we address housing needs in all different income spectrums.''

Affordable homes could meet the needs of low-income seniors, people with limited incomes who are disabled, or low-income families. A recently approved town home project in the center of town includes affordable housing, and 10 percent of the homes in the 20,000-home Newhall Ranch project must be ``affordable,'' said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for Newhall Land and Farming Company.

Developers could be required to include a percentage of homes or condominiums in their projects at below-market costs, or pay a fee in lieu of providing homes. But insuring the lower-cost homes remain affordable permanently and cannot be flipped for a big profit could prove difficult.

The in-lieu fees could help build homes elsewhere in town. The city could create zones where increased density is allowed, where developers would make a profit on the regular-priced housing and the greater number of total units would compensate them for the potential loss from building below-market homes.

The city may partner with a company whose mission is to develop such projects, and which specializes in building them. Quotes have been sought from several nonprofit companies.

``For our company, generally the issue isn't that having affordable housing impairs the marketability of the market-rate units,'' said Bill Wittie, president of The Related Companies of California.

``As long as there is a sufficient economic incentive to pay for the cost of the affordable housing, then it's something that often is workable. That's different than `Just do it somehow.'''

These developers can use redevelopment funds or leverage money for investment tax credits. Some build small-scale houses that are so well integrated into the community that their quality surpasses neighboring homes, Brotzman said. A myriad of financing options are available, guided by family size and income. To earn state tax credits, developers must set aside a certain percentage of units for households earning 50 percent to 120 percent of the median income. The median income for a family of four in the Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area is $56,200, said Erin Moore-Lay, an administrative analyst for the city.

One funding source is discouraging the practice of holding units for specific groups -- such as teachers, firefighters or police -- because it may result in de facto segregation if the workers' ethnic makeup does not match the overall makeup of the community, she said.

``You've got to please a lot of people to make one of these deals happen,'' Moore-Lay said.

City Planning Commissioner Michael Berger said the conundrum of how to build affordable housing is among the top three issues facing the city. Enticing developers to build units in today's high-priced market in a lucrative way is the challenge, he said. Officials could adopt an affordable housing ordinance as one tool.

``We're trying to determine the appropriate role for the city,'' Brotzman said. ``(How do you) do it in a way that is a solution, not a problem?''

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com

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