Innovative Project in Logan Heights Will Add 197 Affordable Homes
The Centre City Development Corporation Board of Directors (CCDC) yesterday recommended Redevelopment Agency and City Council approval of funding for COM-M22, an innovative mixed-used affordable housing project planned for Logan Heights.
The project, located on a four-acre site outside of downtown on Commercial Street between 21st Street and Harrison Avenue, will add 128 affordable family rental apartments, 13 of which will be permanent supportive units. Also planned are 69 affordable senior rental apartments, a child care facility, live-work lofts and retail space in a rehabilitated warehouse, and 17 for-sale, market-rate row homes.
CCDC, on behalf of the City of San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency, will contribute $8.225 million to the project, pending final approval, and has financially partnered with the San Diego Housing Commission ($4.7 million) and Southeastern Economic Development Corporation ($1 million) to make the project possible. COMM22 is envisioned as being a catalyst to spur future private investment in Logan Heights.
“Downtown redevelopment has been a true model for the region in creating affordable housing – not only in downtown but throughout the City,” said Kim John Kilkenny, CCDC chair. “Affordable housing helps create vibrant, diverse communities while applying smart growth principles that benefit the entire region.”
The Agency and City’s pending approval of COMM22 adds to CCDC’s long track record of funding the construction and preservation of affordable housing both in downtown and in other San Diego neighborhoods. Since 1975, CCDC, on behalf of the Agency, has helped build nearly 3,300 affordable homes in downtown. It also has financed the construction of nearly 1,000 homes outside of downtown.
Currently, another 746 affordable homes are under construction or in the pipeline, including such high-profile projects as the one-stop homeless shelter planned at the current World Trade Center Downtown, Cedar Gateway, which will add 65 affordable apartments, including 23 designated as supportive housing, and 15th and Commercial, which will add 150 transitional beds and 64 supportive units.
By law, CCDC, which oversees downtown redevelopment on behalf of the City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency, must set aside 20 percent of its funds to help create affordable housing and ensure that at least 15 percent of the downtown’s housing is affordable with 40 percent of those units designated for very-low-income households. CCDC has exceeded these targets and currently 20 percent of all the housing stock in downtown is considered affordable and 60 percent of all affordable units downtown are for very-low-income households.
For a home to be considered affordable it can cost no more than 30 percent of a house-hold’s monthly income. A family of four, for instance, is considered very-low-income if they have an annual earnings of $39,250 or less and would pay no more than $849 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
If redevelopment downtown continues to be successful, it means as much as $1.3 billion more can be spent on affordable housing projects both in downtown and in other neighborhoods over the next 20 years.