Matt Cunningham, a PR flack for SunCal Companies, a developer, has been shilling for them for weeks on his blog, Red County/OC Blog. They are trying to build a housing project nearby Disneyland that includes an affordable housing element.
In his latest post he rips Anaheim Council Member Harry Sidhu for not backing the SunCal project in Anaheim. I appreciate what SunCal is trying to do in Anaheim – but why are they trying to screw the poor in Santa Ana?
SunCal purchased a couple of dilapidated apartments on Bristol, just south of the 5 Freeway. They are calling their proposed development the “Village Green.” This project will see 240 apartments, that house the poorest of the poor, replaced by 380 relatively high-priced housing units.
SunCal has offered a month of free rent to the current occupants and moving assistance. But make no mistake about it – they are ALL being displaced. Every last one of them. And NONE of them will qualify to buy the homes that SunCal will be building.
The project is currently under review by the City of Santa Ana. SunCal has requested a zoning change so they can build their very high density project, which will cram the 380 units onto 18 acres. Currently the city’s highest density projects feature no more than 15 units per acre. This development will exceed that by far.
The neighbors of the project do not want ANY affordable housing in the Village Green area, largely because they don’t understand that this would make the housing affordable to teachers, amongst others. And they don’t like the high density aspect of the project, as it will have a grievous impact on traffic.
SunCal is NOT including an affordable housing element in this project. The city might be able to coerce them into doing so, but then you run into the problem neighbors. The city might be able to convince the neighbors that affordable housing is a good thing, if the density goes down.
The bottom line is that SunCal is doing one thing in Anaheim while doing the exact opposite in Santa Ana. The Village Green project will hurt hundreds of Santa Ana’s poorest families. And up until now no one has written about this – you certainly won’t read about it over at Red County/OC Blog.
Shame on the City of Santa Ana for not having a regulation in place that forces developers to include affordable housing in their new developments. But SunCal ought to be slammed for trying to pretend they care about the poor, by trying to help a few of them in Anaheim, while crushing hundreds of needy families in Santa Ana.
Hey Arturo, Why don’t you organize a “Cheap Rooms for rent” drive in your neighborhood and take in all the “displaced” poor who are being given ample time to find another place to live.
Give…me…a…break! People should live where they can afford to live; not where they WANT to live at the expense of my tax dollars. Nobody helps me with my rent when I need it. These people need to move to a less expensive area, work and educate themselves to get better jobs, THEN think about coming back to OC when they can carry their own weight.
Let’s see – your previous points have been that the city squanders our taxes, doesn’t repair streets, charges too much for water, has poor schools, etc. So apparently the poor would be better off moving to another city.
Their upscale replacements will pay more taxes, don’t have to work so won’t add to traffic and can send their kids to private schools.
A win-win situation.
When you live in the north end of town, you learn a lot about this project. There is a relocation plan in place. Also, if you truly want affordable housing, you might want to get the council to change its housing programs. Finally, look at the section 8 housing north of that against the freeway. Does the city need to do more? If so, you know who should be pushing the issue.
Art
1st doesn’t this have to go before The Planning Commission & the Redevelopment & Housing Commission? If so, then that is where it needs to be stopped or put restrictions on the plan.
2nd they aren’t being displaced, they are being relocated. When the City does these types of projects they give the tenant money to relocate where ever they want to move to. Again if this goes before the commissions, you should put that restriction in and that the developer gives options to purchase. But by then the tenants will have already settled in, where ever they went.
I feel for the low income families and believe SA should keep addressing the need however we need to accept the fact that developers are now coming into SA and embrace the change to the positive.
1st time I posted, so please be gentle.
Tish
I would like to live in Corona Del Mar or Newport Coast. Would someone please force those two areas to build some nice housing that I can afford? I like their schools better than Santa Ana too.
Who wants to live near poor people anyway? Where poor people go, crime and blight follows. I think the vast majority of SanTana should be razed and redeveloped. Then we could move more young professionals into the City that will actually maintain and care for their neighborhoods as well as improve the school district.
This has been posted before by Thomas Gorden months ago. I had asked at that time how many apts were being replaced by the 380 unit proposed, It seemed to me that new homes were replacing older apts without a net gain. Again I thought there was no net gain.
I see now by Art
I suspect that when commenter #1 says the working poor should “carry their own weight” he means they should carry his weight for him, like the lawn equipment and the dishes and the furniture.
#4. If the developer is using private money to build the new housing and displacing families that does not obligate the City to pay relocation costs to the tenants. Now if the City gave the developer money or land to build the new homes then relocation costs are paid. Does anyone know if the City gave Suncal any money????
Frankly, Art and Claudio are letting bleeding hearts override common sense and a practical approach to Santa Ana’s obvious problems.
Santa Ana has enough affordable housing, more than its far share, and far too high housing density. This problem is exacerbated with multiple families sharing houses and apartments. The SunCal project is a reasonable approach to addressing the overcrowding issue, as well as a successful model for gentrification of rundown areas. Can we get them to tackle the Willard area?
Try a more balanced approach to evaluating these issues, guys. Santa Ana needs to expand its tax base, and that means attracting more high-end businesses, which means more high end consumers. You want a revitalization of downtown? Your biggest enemy is the existing businesses ( most of them, anyway) because they cater solely to the low-end consumer, and contribute only minimally to the tax base needed to grow Santa Ana. Santa Ana policy should be more than just pandering to the poor Latino population.
Poster 10,
There is a BIG difference between dilapidated, blighted housing and affordable housing.
Santa Ana has A LOT of the former and not enough of the latter.
You are correct that the SunCal project is all about gentrification. All of the pending housing projects in our city are meant to serve outsiders, not our own people. I have a problem with that.
If you want to revitalize our city, start with our school board, which is a joke, and with our libraries (more on that in a post I will be putting up later today). And build more parks, not more luxury towers.
In terms of tax base, tell me how it helps us when our City Council gives away valuable public land to developers like Mike Harrah, and to Catholic schools that serve only the rich, for the most part?
How did it help us to bring a high school for the arts to our town when barely any of their students hail from Santa Ana?
What about the artists village? What revenue is it generating? I went to one of their open houses the other day and the only folks making money were the bars and restaurants. I did not see any art being sold.
I want an expanded tax base too – but our city recently voted against having a super Wal Mart in town. And they allowed a mega store that caters to Latinos to go to Fountain Valley instead of Santa Ana. Not good!
BTW, the existing Wal Mart in town is one of the MOST profitable stores in that chain, nationally. And they cater to low end customers. Guess what? Even working families have to spend a lot of $$$ on food, diapers, etc.
Poster 10 is obviously Don “Lets get rid of Mexicans and replace them with Asian Transvestites” Cribb.
Claudio you need to put the smack down on him at your next ETAC meeting. If anyone wants to destroy our tax revenue base, it is him and his quest to shut down Calle Quatro and replace all those shops with shops that only he and his gay friends can shop at.
Hey there is some cute stuff for your flamin friends, Don at all those bridal shops. You will be suprised what they will find.
Santa Ana has so much character and history. South county is boring and has too many white people and not enough diversity, thats why I moved from there.
Now that I live in Santa Ana, Im having the same problem. EVERYTHING is Latino, no diversity, again. And the white people are constatntly fighting against them to take over the city. This is stupid. I wish Santa Ana was more like Long Beach: local govt. that gives a sh*t, GOOD gentrification, and a more diverse racial makeup. Too bad everyone else has left or is leaving Santa Ana.