The recent Union-Tribune Data Watch story that reported billions of taxpayers dollars has been spent on affordable housing in San Diego since the San Diego Housing Commission was launched in 1979 without a net increase in such housing is the latest frustrating evidence of the futility of the California approach to keeping housing costs down. To address the state’s severe housing crisis, California needs far more housing stock — not programs that create the appearance of addressing a problem without actually doing so.
The Data Watch report found that over the past six years, the city has allowed 10,000 units to be “demolished, converted or otherwise removed from low-income housing stock” — equal to the number that the Housing Commission has opened in its 37-year history.
Remarkably, commission President and CEO Richard Gentry says it doesn’t track the number of affordable-housing units removed from the city’s inventory because the responsibility is not cited in his agency’s charter. This is the basic metric in measuring the success or failure of the commission. Just because the agency is not compelled to keep track doesn’t mean it shouldn’t keep track.
The disappointing situation may not surprise those with long memories. It affirms a 2003 Public Policy Institute of California report that found affordable housing programs focus more on process than on actual positive results. It also affirms the city of San Diego is careless keeping track of certain things. A 2005 Union-Tribune report found that the city’s inventory of property it owns omitted some property and listed land the city never owned, land it hoped to own and land it sold long ago. San Diegans may be used to this. But they deserve better.
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