A recent 2018 housing opportunity index, put out by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo Bank, looked at housing affordability in the greater metro regions around the country, comparing median income to home prices.
In that index, which includes 237 regions, the Salinas metro area ranked 234th in affordability. Only San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County were less affordable.
To those in the region that do not own homes, those numbers likely come as no surprise: Rents keep climbing, well outpacing wage increases, and the demand for apartments is far greater than the supply. Meanwhile, short-term rentals continue to swallow up units, and renters enjoy few protections from landlords who may want to suddenly increase rent $500 per month.
In response, renters are uniting.
Last year, Karen McBride met a fellow renter struggling to make ends meet and they decided to team up and hold the feet of elected officials to the fire.
In April, they started a Facebook page, Monterey Peninsula Renters United, which now has about 170 members, to share stories about housing affordability, and to mobilize a movement.
They’re pushing for more units that are affordable for the average worker.
Much of their effort has been focused on the city of Monterey, where they live, and the two have met with every city councilmember, as well as City Manager Hans Uslar. Their message is simple: Renters are facing a crisis, they make up a large part of the local population, and they vote – so act accordingly.
Part of the problem, McBride says, is that many local elected officials are homeowners, and are thus insulated from the crisis.
In the immediate future, Monterey Peninsula Renters United is focused on proposed projects in Monterey, two of which will come before the city Planning Commission in the coming weeks.
One is a proposal to turn an office building at 3600 Garden Road into 406 apartments in an area that is currently zoned for industrial and office use. The city of Monterey submitted a proposed zoning amendment in July to the Monterey County Airport Land Use Commission, which that commission rejected Aug. 31. Among the reasoning were concerns over safety and noise, even though most of the airport’s flights occur during the day, when offices are open.
To overturn the commission’s decision, City Council will need at least four votes.
The other proposal is for a 40-unit, three-story mixed-use project at 2200 Fremont St., which is expected to face opposition from some nearby homeowners on account of the building’s height.
“That will be very controversial,” says Monterey Community Services Director Kim Cole.
(3) comments
Who will pay for all this new affordable housing construction? CA. taxpayers are the most heavily taxed in the entire nation. Seniors live on fixed incomes. Some couples delay child bearing for 5-7 years saving $ for a down payment. But now a renters group proclaims they are entitled to affordable housing built for them by the largesse of other taxpayers. Newsflash! - over taxed homeowners also vote. No one gave us "affordable housing," a New Age concept spun by social sciences policy wonks. Renters are not the center of the universe or the bees knees.
Re the statement that "short-term rentals continue to swallow up units," that is not correct. The cities of Carmel and Monterey have prohibited STRs since the early 1990's, and Monterey, in particular, has more recently begun enforcement that has dramatically reduced the number of STRs. Pacific Grove has limited the number of STRs to 250, and that number will get even smaller in April of 2019, when this year's lottery results will be implemented. The city of Seaside is giving STR licenses only to properties that can show a history of being an STR. Monterey County continues to cite and shut down STRs while their ordinance development process drags on into its 6th year. So in actuality, the number of STRs in Monterey County has gone down, not up.
- Jan Leasure, President, Monterey County Vacation Rental Alliance
For the record, MPRU reps has also met with Congressman Jimmy Panetta, Senator Bill Monning, Assemblyman Mark Stone on the REGIONAL housing CRISIS & have attended Sand City as well as PG city meetings related to it.
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