Former Housing Secretary Cisneros Keynotes SCAG's Annual Housing Summit; Local Leaders/Planners Candidly Discuss Housing Shortages, Obstacles to New Construction.

News Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2002

Local leaders from throughout Southern California discussed concerns and identified strategies for overcoming the region's ongoing housing woes with former U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Henry Cisneros, California Housing and Community Development (HCD) Director Julie Bornstein, and other federal, state and local housing leaders at the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Third Annual Housing Summit today.

Restructuring municipal finance, streamlining zoning requirements and encouraging mixed-use developments were among the strategies identified at today's summit, which was organized by SCAG's Community, Economic and Human Development (CEHD) Committee. Several of the day's presenters noted that the region and the state are currently building only about one-half of the housing units that are needed to keep up with current and projected rates of growth.

"What makes today's summit unique is that it is truly a dialogue that allows us as elected officials to stop and think about some of the challenges we face together as a region," said Bill Alexander, Mayor of Rancho Cucamonga and CEHD Committee Chair. "We're here to learn from each other, share ideas, forge a new understanding and begin working together."

Secretary Cisneros discussed how housing policy serves as an economic stimulus. "There are no strategies that provide greater potential for economic opportunity than those redevelopment efforts centered around the concept of home ownership. By developing smaller-scale, mixed-income housing in areas where community redevelopment efforts are underway, we can go a long way toward reducing poverty, creating new home ownership opportunities and fostering economic growth in communities throughout Southern California."

State Assemblyman John Longville (D-Rialto) addressed the audience of local elected officials, city administrators and planners about the need to develop a regional housing agenda. He cited the importance of collaboration among Southern California's multiple communities to identify common solutions to the housing crisis. He also noted the important relationships between housing costs and economic stratification in certain portions of the region. "We must do more to create links between housing construction and economic development in order to reverse the trend of residents moving further away from their jobs, clogging our freeways and costing our region enormous amounts of economic productivity."

"There's no doubt about it, we are losing ground," said Betty DeSantis, Councilmember of Westlake Village. "Safe, adequate and affordable housing is becoming further out of reach for more Southern Californians than ever. We cannot meet the housing challenge without resources, and we must find ways in which local governments can secure the resources required to meet ever-growing housing needs."

HCD Director Bornstein praised local leaders for their strong support of Proposition 46, a $2 billion bond measure approved by the voters in November to fund an assortment of affordable housing programs. She cited a number of new state programs to support multi-family housing development, provide emergency housing assistance, and facilitate a more equitable jobs/housing balance.

Through a series of panel discussions and interactive housing allocation exercises, summit participants identified a number of strategies to address the regional housing crunch, including:

-- The need to better coordinate housing development with transportation, water resource management, and other local planning efforts.

-- Identify additional state funding for infrastructure and local government general plan development.

-- Changes in municipal finance and revenue so local governments have the resources necessary to develop adequate housing stock.

-- Support greater mixed-use and in-fill development, particularly in urban areas.

-- Reducing zoning restrictions that can add to housing costs.