Early Registration Deadline Extended to October 12, 2005

The early registration deadline for the Federation's 14th Annual Affordable Housing and Community Development Conference on October 21, 2004 (two weeks from today!) has been extended until next Wednesday, October 12, 2005.  To register go to the conference website (click here).

CCDC Board Rejects Ballpark Village Affordable Housing Alternative

The October Issue of Housing Community Development News reported that JMI/Lennar and ACCORD, a grass roots coalition, had agreed on a Community Benefits Agreement regarding the development of Ballpark Village, a 3 million square foot mixed use development on six parcels covering 7 acres south of Petco Park. A major component of that agreement would change the developer's inclusionary housing responsibilities.

The Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC), the redevelopment agency for downtown San Diego, negotiated 100,000 sq. ft of condos to be sold at a price affordable to those at or below 100% AMI.  It equaled about 82 studios, 1, 2 & 3 bedroom units that could only be resold households earning at or below 100% AMI. The condos would be built on-site in one of the podium buildings. This represents about 56% of their inclusionary requirement. The balance of the requirement will be paid at the in lieu fee rate.

The ACCORD coalition had developed an agreement that would provide the construction of 209 rental units affordable to those earning 60% of AMI on downtown property owned by Father Joe's Villages. JMI/Lennar had agreed to pay all of the fees but would leave a $17 million gap requiring other local subsidy. After CCDC raised concerns about both the viability of the proposed sites and the need for local subsidy, a new proposal to build 152 rental units with no local subsidy and to identify the specific parcels within 90 days was presented to the CCDC board on Tuesday of this week.

The Board discussed the two proposals and in the end voted to reject the off-site rental housing alternative. First, their priority is to have the affordable units built on-site to create mixed income communities. They had worked to hard get this agreement from JMI/Lennar even though the city's inclusionary ordinance permits paying the in lieu fee and not building any units. Second, the board was very disturbed by the secret negotiations that went on AFTER they had completed a two year public review process. JMI and Lennar both apologized but reported that they had been asked by some city council members to meet with the ACCORD group before the project came to the council for final approval. Finally, some of the board members were concerned that building more rental units off-site would be concentrating low income households in the East Village.  Director Gina Champion-Cain vowed that there will no "Cabrini Greens" built on her watch.

The Board did not discuss the rest of the provisions of the Community Benefits Agreement as they only had jurisdiction over the affordable housing component. The job training, living wage requirements and environmental benefits are considered a private matter between the developer and ACCORD.

The project is scheduled to go to City Council on October 11th, but will probably be continued until October 18th.

Congress to Act on Budget Cuts
President Wants Deeper Cuts to Pay for Hurricane Relief

Congress is expected to finalize the 2006 budget during the week of October 17th. Included in the proposals are cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps, some housing programs. At the same time they will be considering making recent tax cuts permanent and eliminating the estate tax.

This week, President asked Congress to cut even deeper to pay for the hurricane relief, promising not to forgo the tax cuts or raise taxes to pay for the relief. The House Republican Study Committee released a large package of program cuts that it proposes be used to offset the cost of relief and recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gives an indication of what they are seeking:

Some $375 billion in cuts over ten years- or nearly 40 percent of the cuts in the RSC package - would come from programs that assist people with low incomes.  The package includes large cuts in Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and help to the world's most poverty-stricken nations to fight AIDS and other diseases.

The package also would squeeze millions of middle-class households; for most elderly couples, premiums and co-payments under Medicare would be raised an average of $1,700 in 2006 and about $10,000 over five years.

The RSC package also includes large reductions in grants to help local governments improve "first responders" capabilities, in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in funding for environmental protection and energy conservation, among other areas.

While including these cuts, the package would not delay or scale back any tax cuts or close any tax shelters.  It would leave fully in place tax cuts that now average $103,000 a year for people with incomes over $1 million a year, and would allow two new tax cuts exclusively for high-income households to take effect January 1.

Coalition Urges Calls to Congress on October 17th & 18th

The National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Human Needs are urging advocates to call Congress on October 17th & 18th to urge them not to cut basic human needs to balance the budget. For more information go to www.chn.org.

California Housing Consortium Fall Forum
"State Housing Trust Fund:  What's It Going to Take?"
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Los Angeles - Center At Cathedral Plaza
For more info go to: www.calhsng.org

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