2006 City Council Election/Questions to candidates/Q5

Question 5. of the 2006 City Council Questions to Candidates

Would you propose a law that makes any house that is built under the affordable housing criteria to remain always under that criteria by setting its price permanently to be a fixed percentage of what its market value is at the time of sale?

• Michael Levy: We already have such an ordinance, with an appreciation cap to keep them affordable in perpetuity. Low and moderate income homes are fixed at 3.75 % appreciation cap. Middle income affordable housing units are fixed at a 5% appreciation cap. This was done to tie income levels at which individuals would qualify to the buying power of the income of individuals within the county. For environmental reasons, and for community reasons, we need to find ways for our public workforce to be able to afford to live here. However, restricting equity in housing private housing may have unintended consequences. I don't want to see low income recipients receive windfalls at the public expense. I also don't want recipients to be trapped into subsidized housing. Any system should be designed to help them achieve subsidy independence.
• Ruth Asmundson: The goal of providing subsidies to build affordable housing is to expand the diversity of home owners in Davis. In most cases, the affordable homes purchased by eligible low income buyers, are owned for 10 to 20 years by the same family. This stability is good for the community. When City funds are used to subsidize the building of affordable housing, then some restrictions must be in place to ensure that the property continue to be affordable in future years. There have been incidence where an affordable housing unit was purchased by a qualified individual and then re-sold to an individual who was not qualified for affordable housing, at an inflated price, and the profit pocketed by the original buyer. Whereas some may applaud the ingenuity of the buyer/seller, I sincerely regret the loss of the affordable housing stock. Establishing a fixed percentage of increase is one way to ensure holding on to this affordable housing for longer period of time.
• Stan Forbes: Because of the cost of affordable housing, it is now largely rental housing. Trying to control the price of housing administratively is difficult and requires major administration. A better plan I believe for controlling housing prices and keep them affordable is to build small houses. At 1000 to 1200 square feet we can keep the price under 400,000. Likewise, we need to build new types of less expensive housing like condominiums or town houses. These approaches will address the problem without having to rely on rigid formulas
• Lamar Heystek: If we're talking about limited-equity affordable units, I favor a cap on equity. The kind of cap is debatable. I don't see any other way to maintain affordable housing of this type unless an equity cap of some sort is in place.
• Rob Roy: Yes, I would. We have to get real about affordable housing in Davis. If you work in Davis you should be able to live in Davis so that means doing creative things, and this ordinance would certainly make Davis more accessible.