HOUSING AGENCY RESISTED; AFFORDABLE RENTS BEST LEFT TO COUNTY, CITY SAYS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Although the city needs more affordable housing for low-income residents - senior citizens, single parents and the disabled - it would be too costly for the city to take over that function from the county.

That's the recommendation city staff will make Tuesday during an informal study session of the Santa Clarita City Council.

The council asked the staff to look into the pros and cons of establishing its own city housing authority, a move estimated to cost Santa Clarita about $329,000 per year, said Dennis Luppens, a management analyst with the city Department of Administrative Services.

Programs pertaining to government-subsidized housing are handled for the city by the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission Housing Authority. In that capacity, the county monitors and inspects 218 units for people of ``very low'' income, 337 units for low-income residents and an additional 113 units reserved for those of low to moderate income, Luppens said, quoting 1995 data - the most recent figures available - gathered by the county Housing Authority.

One such subsidy is the Section 8 voucher program, funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. ``We (dispense) 86 vouchers in our community,'' Luppens said.

But HUD vouchers aren't the only form of assistance available to low- and moderate-income residents who meet the government qualifications to live in affordable housing units. ``There are other tools that perhaps fit our community better and have longer-lasting benefits than vouchers,'' Luppens said.

Several apartment complexes in the Santa Clarita Valley, for instance, have contracts with the county housing authority to provide affordable housing. Generally, this means the property owners have agreements with the government to set aside, say, 10 percent or 20 percent of their units for tenants of lesser means, Luppens said.

Other apartment complexes were built with HUD funds, and all of their residents are on fixed incomes. Orchard Arms, a seniors' complex in Newhall, has a HUD affiliation.

The following complexes, Luppens said, have units reserved for low- and moderate-income residents:

Park Sierra - 776-unit complex, of which 156 are affordable housing.

Riverpark - 528-unit complex, 53 of which are for moderate income.

Sand Canyon Villas and Townhomes - 215-unit complex, 43 of which are for low- and moderate-income.

The Village - 384-unit complex, 19 of which are for moderate income.

Hidaway Apartments - 67-unit complex, 13 of which are for low- and moderate-income.

Other segments of the Santa Clarita Valley population that the city wants to match with the providers of affordable housing include adult and child victims of domestic violence who may have cut all ties to an abusive parent or spouse and lost their income in the process; and so-called ``emancipated youths'' - young adults who have grown up in the foster care system and therefore have no family support and live independently, Luppens said.

The city has other programs that help those on limited incomes pay for housing. Its Handy Worker program, for example, provides crews who can perform household repairs - plumbing and leaky roofs, for instance - and other tasks that qualified recipients like seniors and single mothers can't do themselves, Luppens said.

If the city were to establish its own housing authority, it would have to take over the tasks the county performs, including screening applicants who want to live in the units and conducting the inspections of the units to make sure the property owners are maintaining them in a safe and healthy condition.

``The cost and energy that we would spend on a housing authority . . . don't bear out,'' Luppens concluded. ``To create a housing authority, we would have to staff it, and the increase in Section 8 vouchers might be (only) 19 or 20 vouchers.

``However, I think we can work together . . . to increase the capacity of affordable housing in our community without having to create a housing authority,'' Luppens added.