The cost of everything is going up, including housing in San Luis Obispo County, and for many families, affordable housing is nearly impossible to find.
San Luis Obispo County currently has about 1,000 units of affordable housing and about 6,000 households on the wait list for those units.
"For every unit we have that's available for affordable housing, there's about six households that are waiting for each of those units," said Ken Trigueiro, People's Self-Help Housing CEO & President.
On Wednesday, People's Self-Help Housing broke ground on a new project intended to address the affordable housing crisis in the San Luis Obispo area.
"Today, we're going to make another dent toward this affordable housing crisis. It's going to be 68 units that we're bringing to the city of San Luis Obispo," Trigueiro said.
The units will be a mix of studio, one and two-bedroom apartments.
"If you're in San Luis Obispo County, the median is about $100,000 and so if you're making $60,000 or so you could qualify potentially for this housing," Trigueiro said.
The cost of rent will be calculated for each individual tenant based on their income, with a goal that tenants pay no more than 30 percent of their annual income in rent.
Trigueiro says in order to live reasonably in San Luis Obispo, people need to make about $60,000. Anyone living in San Luis Obispo making less than $60,000 annually likely qualifies for affordable housing.
"Either an individual or a family, depending on how many family members are in the household, they shouldn't be making more than about $60,000," Trigueiro said.
"Sometimes there's this misnomer that affordable housing aren't beautiful projects and they're just apartments that stand out that nobody wants to live in," said Shelly Higginbotham, People's Self-Help Housing Chair.
Higgenbotham says People's Self-Help Housing's construction is LEED-certified and that they take no shortcuts, making the apartments as nice as possible.
"This is going to be part of a big project and nobody is going to know it's affordable housing," Higginbotham said.
There are multiple housing projects in the works right now, many breaking ground this summer, in order to address the housing crisis.
"We're just really happy to have more and more units that people can afford to live in here in the city," said Michelle Shoresman, San Luis Obispo City Councilmember.
The apartment complex will also have a community building, outdoor courtyard, a playground for children, and will provide on-site supportive services.
The new affordable housing units will be named Tiburon Place and are expected to be completed within the next 22 months.
