Written by Michael Palomba
In an effort to prevent San Diego’s housing crisis from getting even worse, Mayor Kevin Faulconer recently vetoed new regulations affecting housing developers. This announcement came just hours after the City Council voted 5-4 in favor of the regulations.
These regulations would have raised the fee that developers pay in lieu of including affordable housing in their projects by 73 percent. The mayor chose to veto the legislation because he agrees with opponents who call the regulations “a tax on builders,” which would worsen San Diego’s housing problems by making affordable housing financially impractical for developers.
While this veto is a victory for the housing crisis, there is still a lot of work to be done. A study conducted in 2015 from Fermanian Business and Economic Institute found that the convolution of rules and regulations added a whopping 40 percent to the cost of building a home in San Diego.
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise considering that throughout California, the Democratic strategy to problems has been to tax someone or something and let the government handle the problem with those funds. However, as California’s sky-high homeless rate reflects, that approach is not working (and homelessness is far from the only example).
Mayor Faulconer has made the housing crisis one of his top priorities. Under his leadership, San Diego has benefited from a plethora of new housing solutions, some of which include:
- Constructing three temporary bridge shelters that serve nearly 700 individuals each night, with a fourth on the way.
- Opening a new storage facility where individuals can safely store their belongings while they access services, go to school, or attend a job interview. A second storage site is set to open later this fall.
- Expanding a proven successful Safe Parking Program for individuals living out of their vehicles.
- Establishing a one-stop-shop for homeless services downtown, which is set to open later this fall.
His office also helped to develop San Diego’s Landlord Engagement and Assistance Program, which has already connected more than 2,000 homeless individuals to vacant apartments.
If the City Council wants to make a change and help the homelessness problem, there are lots of great approaches they could take. One would be to incentivize developers to build affordable housing with tax deductions and incentives. Another method could be to remove some of the webs of regulations that make affordable housing so challenging to bring to the market. A report from the Brooking Institute found that a pervasive strategy for blocking apartment construction is the California Environmental Quality Act. So, a reevaluation of this controversial law could make a difference in solving the housing crisis.
