Money paid into a fund by housing developers who opted not to offer any affordable units may be made available Tuesday for a pair of new affordable apartment complexes in San Luis Obispo.
People's Self Help Housing will ask the San Luis Obispo City Council Tuesday to approve a loan worth $700,000 for the Tiburon Place apartments and $1.3 million for the Broad Street Place apartments.
Those dollars would be withdrawn from a fund that's comprised of in lieu fees, which are paid by housing developers who don't offer affordable units as required by state law.
Money in that fund is reserved for housing projects specifically designed to be affordable to low-income renters.
The two complexes presented by People's Self Help Housing will add over 100 affordable units: 68 units in the Tiburon Place complex and 40 units in the Broad Street Place apartments.
"There's always more work, as you know there's a housing crisis in California," People's Self Help Housing CEO John Fowler said. "We need all the housing we can get. There's different numbers but we're falling behind 100,000 homes per year in California, that's been happening over a decade. So it's going to take us a while to dig out of that deficit of housing for not only market rate housing but affordable housing as well."
The Tiburon place apartments, which is slated for 3750 Bullock Lane, will include offer units at rent 30 to 60 percent of the average monthly rent for SLO.
And the Broad Street Place apartments being built at 3720 Broad Street across from Damon Garcia Sports Field will feature units at rates that are affordable for low, very low, and extremely low renters.
"Affordable housing is usually defined by "is it affordable for the people living there, is it affordable for them?'" Fowler said. "The clientele we're talking about, residents we're talking about, are making somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of the median income so on the lower end of the stratosphere, if you will."
According to Fowler, the units will vary in size from studio to 2-bedroom and range from $400 to $1,200 per month in rent for eligible renters.
Fowler said People's Self Help Housing plans to deliver about 700 affordable units to San Luis Obispo County over the next three to five years, with about 200 of the units slated for the City of San Luis Obispo.
