A Case Study of the Affordable Housing Program of the City of San Clemente.
A research proposal submitted to the Urban Studies and Planning Program
Senior Sequence Class of 2011-2012
November 26, 2011
Adam Atamian
University of California, San Diego
Urban Studies and Planning Program aatamian@ucsd.edu
Abstract
For the majority of Affordable Housings existence, single policy research has dominated the discourse on this subject. Recently, both research and cities have begun to expect more than a single policy can deliver. With a move toward integrated Affordable Housing Programs becoming widespread, a model developed through research is needed. This proposal seeks to use the City of San Clemente, CA to serve as a model to explain this new type of Affordable
Housing program. Through an investigation of the current literature to understand what an
Affordable Housing program should deliver, as well as interviews and archival research, this proposal will provide an outline of what constitutes an integrated Affordable Housing Program, and how San Clemente fulfills these requirements. With a rubric for this type of program, researchers and cities intent on developing this type of program will be able to use San
Clemente as an example.

Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program
An Introduction to Integration
In California the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocations are developed to stipulate the required stock of Affordable Housing that needs to be developed in each municipality. To this end, the amount of affordable housing required is not up to debate.
Achieving these goals, however, is frequently.
Facing the individual cities is the panoply of decisions to make when developing an affordable housing program. There are policies that require affordable development from builders, with up to 15% of qualifying projects to be made affordable to very low and lowincome households. There are also policies that simply encourage development, such as bonus densities, which reward developers with an increase in allowable maximum density for the zone if they develop a certain amount of affordable units. There are physical boundaries, called
Affordable Overlay districts that allow for an affordable housing development to occur where other residential may not.
Other considerations also must be factored into the programs. This includes the community resources in terms of support for the affordable housing, which could be either non-profit groups, civic groups, or from the local government. Through the use of In-Lieu fees, builders can pay the city instead of developing the low-income housing themselves, and then the city can use that money to pay Affordable developers to build the housing later. Even when other variables are held constant, the quality of both market-rate developers and affordable housing developers varies greatly between areas.
Building affordable housing is not a simple task. However, all too often cities throw simple policies at this complex problem. The cities that have demonstrated significant progress
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program in the arena of affordable development tend to have an integrated, multi-dimensional program that promotes low-income housing from more than one angle. In addition, these integrated programs also offer more than simply housing. They provide services for the residents that are required to fulfill the goals of affordable housing. These services include transportation alternatives when residents cannot afford cars, child-care and home-work tutors when both parents need to work, as well as programs to encourage civic engagement of the lower-income residents.
Part of the issue with many programs in southern California, as in other places in the nation, is that they are inchoate. Solid programs take time to develop, especially when the community is not behind them. In this respect, it is vital that a productive model be researched and qualified now. Although research is being done in the field, it is generally focused on one policy or aspect of what should be an array of methods that work together to create an integrated affordable housing program. However, from this research comes the litmus for what is required or expected from most aspects of an affordable housing program.
This proposal will focus on the case study of the city of San Clemente, CA. Started in the late 1970’s, San Clemente’s history with affordable housing a received high marks for a number of their projects. Most recently in 2004, the Mendocino apartments were awarded the
“Communities of Quality” award by the Affordable Housing Management Association (AHMA) as well as the Maxwell Award of Excellence by the Fannie Mae Foundation for “Innovative
Partnerships in Affordable Housing.” Beyond the recognition by national associations, San
Clemente is also well known for the resources that it can cultivate with the unique restrictions that the city faces, such as very high land values, lack of buildable land, and the isolation due to
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program its location. Despite an average home value of $702,000, the city has been able to build an average of 43 affordable units per year since the inception of its Inclusionary Zoning ordinance.
This figure may not be as high as some cities, especially large cities; however, this has resulted in more than 5% of the cities housing stock being available to low-income residents.
Comparable cities in the southern Orange County area have not come close to this figure. For example Irvine only has .7% of its housing stock available to low-income families, and Irvine has cheaper land values, more land, and more resources to build affordable housing. Laguna
Niguel, a city in south Orange County that is similar in wealth and population to San Clemente has less than 1/5 th the affordable housing stock that San Clemente does. These attributes make the Affordable Housing Program of San Clemente a perfect example of the benefits of an integrated program due to the difficulty of the situation coupled with the proven success of the program.
Integrating a Framework in the Literature
Much of the current discourse centered on affordable housing seeks to establish the best method to encourage affordable housing development. The debate in current literature focuses on the effectiveness of single policies, such as Inclusionary Zoning. Aside from ignoring other factors that may integrate with Inclusionary Zoning, or any other policy, to affect the impact of a program, this type of research ignores how policies and resources adapt over time to changing conditions. Many components are needed to promote affordable housing, and they are not static. These tools are made up of people, places, institutions and policies.
Looking at the case study of San Clemente, one can readily find evidence of the efficacy of a
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program comprehensive approach to affordable housing. This research proposes to use this city’s program to serve as an explanatory model for integrated Affordable Housing Programs. For this analysis, there are a number of definitions and assumptions that require explanation for the purposes set out here. The assumptions made however, will not be unfounded, they will rely on previous findings for their basis, and this proposal will not attempt to re-prove them.
The term affordable housing program in the context of this proposal refers to the entire machine that is responsible for affordable housing development in a municipality. The program, as alluded to earlier, can be made up of government, from federal to local, civic, and private (for-profit and non-profit) groups; individuals, whether residents or not; the policies and procedures of the interested parties; the monies involved, either in the form of linkage fees, taxes, development fees, grants, or charity contributions; and possibly many other aspects not understood at this time.
The term integration is defined in this proposal as intentional, coordinated interaction of pieces of an affordable housing program, as defined above. This proposal seeks to explain how integrated Affordable Housing programs are produced, that is, what effective programs are made of. Integration is intentional because these programs are not accidental.
For the purposes of this proposal success will be defined by how well the comprehensive program fulfills the requirements for affordable housing set by the state of
California. The existing literature is quite clear that comprehensive affordable housing programs are necessary to achieve the goals of meeting affordable housing requirements. This was found to be the case for Mukhija, et al. who analyzed Inclusionary Zoning in southern
California specifically to determine whether it is an effective means of producing affordable
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program housing. However, through their research they determined that Inclusionary Zoning’s success is dependent on its place in a more comprehensive program (2010). They note that Inclusionary
Zoning alone will not solve the problem of a lack of affordable housing. In addition, the lack of affordable housing is actually only one part of the larger problem of “housing.” As Brunick and
Maier state in their research, many problems accompany the lack of affordable housing, including traffic congestion, school quality issues, and regional economic competitiveness of employment (2010). A successful affordable housing program seeks to address all of these issues.
The effectiveness of an integrated Affordable Housing program is that each component is directed at related, yet distinct parts to achieve the goals of affordable housing. However, some research maintains that the only goal is to develop housing units, as Rubin, et al. describe in their research about municipalities in New Jersey trying to fulfill their “fair share” of affordable housing. They note that, for these cities, they have “a variety of options” (1990).
The focus of their research is on the breadth of choices available to the municipalities made available by New Jersey’s Fair Housing Act, and the propensity of the municipalities to choose the most cost-efficient method for their area. However, Robert Silverman found that partnerships between cities and Non-Profit Organization networks worked to increase funding sources for affordable housing and allowed cities to look beyond the basic package of policy options that most cities face (2008).
Continuing this trend of integrated partnerships, Salamone and Carter described the importance of these unions in developing affordable workforce housing that serves the many needs of its residents, not just the need for shelter (2006). Goutam Jois also adds to this
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program acknowledgment of an Affordable Housing Program’s place in the larger goal of quality housing.
Jois writes that along with the need for housing, there are other social and personal challenges that must be dealt with in these programs. One of these non-housing aspects is civic engagement. Because the goals of affordable housing are to create community, not just residents, promoting civic engagement through the type of affordable housing developed is necessary for any program to be effective (2008).
However, quality Affordable Housing is more than just housing units. Without the social support for the residents of the Affordable Housing, much of it may turn to slums or be unusable by the intended recipients. In fact, much of the current research on affordable housing is centered on Inclusionary Zoning because, as Talbert and Costa write, more and more localities are relying on Inclusionary Zoning because it, at this point, has been established as a legal exercise of police power, and that cities are wary to implement less tried methods (2005).
Much of this rhetoric stems from writings by people like Kayden and Pollard (1987), as well as
Henning (1990), who made the argument that “linkage fees” are actually a redistribution of wealth, and not connected to an impact of the commercial development paying the fees.
The research done by Schuetz, et al. discusses the many options of Inclusionary Zoning techniques, and how they tend to be implemented in select cities across the nation (2009).
Again, their research only looks at the policies of Inclusionary Zoning, and never takes into consideration other aspects of housing programs. However, John Landis, in researching federal housing policy, found that communities that receive Community Development Block Grants should be required to implement Inclusionary Zoning (2010). This type of policy ensures that affordable housing is accompanied by social programs intending to aid the residents of low
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program income areas. As part of a larger picture, Kirk McClure describes how his research revealed that to “deconcentrate” the poor, affordable housing programs are more likely to be successful if they subsidize households, rather than housing units (2008).
There are many legal methods to promote affordable housing, as Michael P. Johnson describes, though his action-based research focuses more on development feasibility in terms of a mathematical formula that deals with resources available and land values of possible locations (2007). What is important about his contribution is that it is clear that the actual policies and procedures are not as important as the methodology of the system, which is the intention of interaction to accomplish the many goals of Affordable Housing. Ohm and
Sitkowski found that cities’ zoning varies to such a degree that for affordable housing to achieve the multiple goals that it must, each program needs to be tailored to its locale, utilizing the methods that best meet its goals (2004). One of these possibilities, according to Christine
Whitehead, is to use Land-Use planning as a part of the equation (2007). By actively zoning areas with the specific intention of affordable housing, cities can proactively plan areas that increase the availability of suitable space. For her example in England, particular areas were designated to favor affordable housing more than regular residential. This is seen in the US as an Affordable Overlay.
From the research, the goals of Affordable housing fall clearly in line with the goals of the Non-Profit Housing Association, of California, which are to: provide housing for the local workforce, especially lower wage earners; revitalize distressed areas; direct economic benefits to the local community, such as increased jobs and sales taxes; reduce traffic and improving air quality; and promote economic and social integration while building community.
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program
The goals of quality affordable housing programs can be met in a number of ways. To illustrate one method of organization, San Clemente’s Affordable Housing Program includes
Inclusionary Zoning, an Affordable Overlay district, Community Development Block Grants, partnerships with non-profit organizations to deal with health and child care issues of the residents of affordable housing, civic groups to encourage civic engagement, among others aspects to tackle these challenges.
The Research Focus
The focus of this proposal is to understand how integration is developed in an
Affordable Housing Program and what its impacts are. With so much effort focused the need to develop integrated Affordable Housing programs, this proposal seeks to use San Clemente as a model to develop a rubric for this new approach. By the end of this research, the main question to be answered is how is San Clemente a model for successful, integrated Affordable
Housing programs? By investigating this question, this proposal hopes to explain what aspects of integrated programs affects the success of a program and how it can be recreated elsewhere.
Designing an Integrated Methodology
The City of San Clemente, California is located at the southern tip of Orange County, includes 65,522 residents, and has a median family income of $87,200. In the late 1920’s, it had the highest per capita income of any city in the United States. The city’s residents began developing affordable housing in the 1970’s and the city incorporated Inclusionary Housing into
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program their zoning ordinance in 1980, nearly twenty years before the rest of southern Orange County.
Through many indicators, such as average yearly affordable housing production and total units produced despite its high land values, it also has a very successful affordable housing program.
One of the general explanations of this success is the integration of its components. Like the research calls for, San Clemente’s Affordable Housing program can serve as a model to demonstrate what constitutes these programs, and how they become effective.
The first step will be to determine what interaction occurs between the multiple components of the affordable housing program in San Clemente. This will involve a process of conceptualized mapping, plotting the relationship and effects of the individual components of the city’s program. As part of this conceptual mapping process, the study will look at how the program evolved over time, and try to determine what each aspect of the program added along the way. The methodology for ascertaining this information involves an inquest with those involved in the program. Specifically, interviews will be utilized to gather specific data on the impacts of the components on their counterparts. The fact finding mission here is to determine what relationships need to be developed between multiple aspects of these integrated programs. The qualitative answers, in the form of informed, expert opinions, are not meant to be quantified by any formula; rather the idea is to form a chart of actual processes of interaction. In this stage, other inquiries will be made into the program in addition to interviews. This will be in the form of GIS data as a measure of activity over the course of San
Clemente’s history with affordable housing. Since San Clemente has an Affordable Overlay
District, a commercial zone that allows affordable housing with developer incentives, there is a spatial aspect to this project that does not occur in most affordable housing programs. In
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program addition, research into the city’s policies and procedures as seen through archival records and related documents and reports will be included.
The second part of the process is to then determine how that integration was developed. This will involve a separate set of investigations into the history of the program.
Interviews will again be utilized relying on the opinion of experts in the process, most of who worked in San Clemente during the timeframe of this programs development. To investigate how integration was developed, these interviews will focus on the steps taken to implement each component, and what the thought process was at each step of the way. In addition, evidence will be gathered as to what other factors led to the integrated program San Clemente has today, in terms of the community’s relationship with the program. Specifically, affordable housing programs are more than just the nuts and bolts of getting structures built. In all of the city’s affordable projects, there are social programs made available to the residents. How do programs like these add to the integration of the program as a whole? These are the types of questions that will be asked in this second step.
As an intern for the city of San Clemente for one and a half years, I was involved in many aspects of their affordable housing program. Because of my volunteer status, I was able to accomplish projects that involved much time educating myself with the work that I was doing.
The city then hired me as an Assistant Planner, my current relationship to the city, which has allowed me to set down roots in the city and the community. This is where my relationship with the stakeholders of this process allows me access to and insight into a view that most researchers may not be privy to. As a student at University of California, San Diego majoring in
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program the Urban Studies and Planning, with a completed minor in Political Science, I am well trained in the science of research and analysis.
This proposal sets out a of time horizon of three months to complete and analyze the findings of the research. Since most of the data collection will be through the interview process or from publicly available data sources, I do not anticipate any monetary costs will be incurred during the research phase of this proposal.
Integration into the Future
The expected outcome of this research is threefold. First, that there will become documented evidence of how integration has produced the success of the current affordable housing program in San Clemente. Second, from the interview process, techniques can be extrapolated to produce a roadmap to integration for those cities that have difficulty developing a successful affordable housing program. Third, and most lofty, this proposal seeks to add another dimension to the current discourse surrounding affordable housing policy. In this outcome, this proposal aims to inspire policymakers to explore ways to structurally institute affordable housing program integration into the policies that shape cities, states, and the nation as a whole.
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Promoting Development through an Integrated Affordable Housing Program
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