San Diego County will help create nearly 1,400 affordable housing units in 20 developments across 15 communities in the region, it was announced at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
Those figures were announced during an update Tuesday on the results of the Innovative Housing Trust Fund, established by the county in 2017.
The Innovative Housing Trust Fund invested $50 million to build affordable housing units in the region, which is intended to help the county and its partners use $567 million in other public and private funds to create and preserve 1,397 permanent affordable housing units throughout the county.
"There is tremendous work being done countywide, not only to increase affordable apartment homes but also providing economic growth to the region," said David Estrella, director of Housing and Community Development Services at the County Health and Human Services Agency.
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Over the 99-year "affordability period," the units created will serve an estimated 18,000 low-income families, older adults, veterans, developmentally disabled, people who are homeless and homeless with serious mental illness.
Five of the 20 developments funded by the trust fund have opened over the past few years in the cities San Diego, Poway and Vista, and generated 368 affordable housing units.
There are 10 developments under construction, and they are slated to be finished between Dec. 2021 and Jan. 2024. Five others are going through the financing process.
"The Trust Fund is the first of its kind, being the first locally funded and administered program to offer funding for affordable housing throughout the entire San Diego region," said HHSA Director Nick Macchione.
At the request of Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Joel Anderson, the board also approved an additional $25 million to support the production of affordable housing.
A total of $20 million of those funds will be used to create and/or preserve affordable housing in the region. Five million will be used for housing research, policy development and piloting new programs and initiatives to develop comprehensive solutions that can accelerate housing production.
The goal is to come up with "innovative housing solutions that advance equity, sustainability and affordability," a statement from the county said. It is estimated that the region will need about 83,000 affordable housing units by 2029 to keep up with population growth.
