City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency, California Redevelopment Law, affordable housing, amenities, Smart Growth
There are numerous mechanisms set in place to promote the increase and improvement of affordable housing stock that are utilized by various entities. As one of these mechanisms, the state redevelopment law mandates that local redevelopment agencies allocated at least 20% of tax increments generated within a given project area to the increase and improvement of affordable housing. Though California Redevelopment Law was formulated to address the concerns of blight in urban centers and as a part of the response, stipulations were created to address the issue and lack of affordable housing in these areas through quantity of such production. Thus, although there are requirements for the quantity of production, this research examines if there are spatial requirements that would facilitate or challenge spatially conscious locating of affordable housing within the City of San Diego. Though these stipulations exist within written law to improve and increase the affordable housing stock, it is significant to examine the intentions of the law and to look at the implementation of the law by local project redevelopment agencies. Despite the fact that there are project redevelopment agencies that comply with the state redevelopment law, it is important to also investigate where these affordable housing developments are located. Are the affordable housing developments located on the urban periphery or are they located in close proximity to amenities that facilitate further affordability. Thus, this topic is significant because it examines the intentions of a written body of law and the implementation of the law and its outcome reflected on the urban landscape. Therefore, the examination facilitates an evaluation of the effectiveness of the law in serving low-income communities and through this evaluation, perhaps, it will provide insight in a call for the alteration and clarification of the redevelopment law. Given the subject matter, local policy makers and those involved with the implementation and supervision of compliance of the law would be most invested in the research of this issue.
The example given here is the work of Michelle Kim, Senior Sequence class of 2010.
http://www.calredevelop.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
http://www.hcd.ca.gov/hpd/
http://www.sdhc.net/
http://www.sandiego.gov/redevelopment-agency/
http://www.nhc.org/housing/chp-index
California Community Redevelopment Law (CRL) mandates affordable housing to respond to the displacement of low-income individuals and elevated housing costs as a result of redevelopment. Recent studies suggest that the “affordability” of affordable housing should not be limited to the costs of housing, since there are other living costs to be considered. Therefore, this proposal examines the redevelopment law and its contributions in facilitating affordable housing development in the City of San Diego and investigating the law and redevelopment agencies’ activities in producing affordable housing developments. The analysis aims is to provide critical insight on the practices of redevelopment agencies to fund affordable housing development by examining the location in which these developments are constructed. Evidence will be gathered through census data, redevelopment policy reports, and other archives regarding selected affordable housing sites. The study will contribute to the literature on formulating effective affordable housing development policy and practice. The results will thus be shared with affordable housing developers and redevelopment entities supervising the enforcement of affordable housing development.
Recent studies suggest that the “affordability” and “quality” of affordable housing should not be limited to its costs, but to include other living costs attributable to its location. In order to promote quality affordable living, housing should be located in close proximity to work and amenities, intersecting with Smart Growth concepts. Using recent studies and trends, this research examines the California Community Redevelopment Law and the City of San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency’s activities and consciousness as mechanisms to increase and improve affordable housing and assessing it as effective mechanisms to locate affordable housing developments near amenities. The analysis provides critical insight on the practices of redevelopment agencies to fund affordable housing by examining the location in which these developments are constructed. Evidence is gathered through textual analysis of redevelopment law, GIS mapping, and interviews. Main findings demonstrate that practice and responses resemble that of Smart Growth concepts and are being implemented by the redevelopment agency despite the lack of spatial specificity in redevelopment law. The study contributes to the literature on formulating effective affordable housing policy and practice and will be shared with affordable housing developers and redevelopment entities supervising the enforcement of affordable housing development.
The paper entitled “Redevelopment and Affordable Housing: City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency’s Affordable Housing Developments Demonstrate Spatial Quality” by Michelle Kim examines the quality housing challenge. It does so by considering the spatial quality (proximity from amenities, transit access, and public resources) of affordable housing developments under the jurisdiction of the City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency. In this study, textual analysis of the redevelopment law revealed that there is a lack of spatial requirements mandating affordable housing to be located in a particular proximity to amenities, transit access, and public resources. Although textual analysis revealed this absence, interviews with professionals and GIS mapping revealed affordable housing developments are nevertheless for the most part located near amenities. The areas in which these affordable housing developments are located demonstrate that there is to a certain degree of spatial quality. Most affordable housing developments in the various project areas were in ¼-mile, ½-mile, and/or 1-mile radius from schools, grocery stores, community recreations centers, etc., exemplifying a comfortable walking distance to most everyday destinations. In examining the spatial quality of affordable housing under the redevelopment agency, it is possible to note the ability of recent studies and trends to permeate practices that were institutionalized and mandated by a law that was created years ago.
The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency in this study provides a specific agency and site in which to analyze the implementation of the California Community Redevelopment Law. Furthermore, selecting a specific and local site facilitates the examination of the broader issue of an institution’s determining an optimal location to place and fund affordable housing. The research strategy implemented for this study embodies qualitative methods and thus, includes the following: textual analysis of the California Community Redevelopment Law; interviews with professionals involved in the implementation and supervision of redevelopment law; and spatial analysis. A combination of various research methods was utilized in this study in order to capture the written intent of the California Community Redevelopment Law and then to capture the reality of the implementation of the law to allow for the examination of the possible differences, while examining the role of the redevelopment law in facilitating affordable housing developments in close proximity to amenities. Therefore, in comparing and contrasting the written intent and the outcome of the implementation of law, it is then feasible to examine the function of the law as well as the response of the agency to the law through their fiscal activities in placing affordable housing. In this study, amenities are defined as facilities to meet one’s daily and basic needs and thus could be also called “Every Day Destinations” as defined in SANDAG’s Smart Growth Scorecard as well as the Modified Smart Growth Scorecard. Therefore, some examples of amenities are schools, transportation nodes, and grocery stores.
Textual analysis was conducted of the redevelopment law by accessing the law from the state Housing and Community Development website. Interviews were contacted using professional networks and contact information available via the Internet. GIS mapping was produced by utilizing available data layers from the UCSD GIS Lab, SANDAG, and SanGIS, while also creating own data layers by geocoding addresses.
The spatial dimension of this research project examines access and proximity to amenities, transit access, and public resources from affordable housing developments under the jurisdiction of the City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency within their respective project redevelopment areas. Access and proximity to such locations is important in determining the level and degree of spatial quality of the area. To determine spatial quality, GIS mapping was used to create maps that exemplified this spatial dimension. The addresses of the affordable housing developments were geocoded and various data layers were also added. For example, data layers that contained locations for schools, colleges, grocery stores, public libraries, community recreation centers, community clinics, and transit access points were also added to embody categories of amenities or everyday destinations, transit access, and public resources that could be found in public and civic spaces that contribute to active and healthy living. 1/4-mile, 1/2-mile, and 1-mile buffers, which are noted to be Smart Growth distances to such locations, were created around the affordable housing development locations to help determine spatial quality of these areas. As GIS mapping demonstrated the locations of the affordable housing developments and the surrounding amenities and more, a simplified SANDAG Smart Growth score card was used as an index to quantify the spatial quality of the area by calculating how far and how many of such locations were from the affordable housing developments. Thus, the closer and the more amenities, transit access, and public resources there were to an affordable housing site, the higher the points that affordable housing earned.
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