Housing
receives props with 46
By Jill Thomsen
On-line Forty-Niner
More
than $2 billion in bonds for low-income
apartments, homeless shelters, farmworker
and migrant housing and more will be approved
today if Proposition 46 is passed by California
voters.
With 23 California State University campuses,
passage of the law would naturally result
in an issue over how to divide the funds,
said Stan Olin, interim director of Housing
and Residential Life at Cal State Long Beach.
“It is not really a significant amount of
money,” Olin said.
Parkside Commons, located on the edge of
North Campus cost approximately $22 million
to build in 1985, a cost that would likely
be double today, Olin said. He added that
most new project ideas he hears range from
$25 million to $60 million in cost.
The student housing provision in the measure
shows that people in Sacramento are aware
of the issue, but the funding may not be
adequate for all the programs.
“For the funding to be meaningful, it would
need to be a whole lot more,” Olin said.
The current housing bonds system relies
on money from federal, state and local governments
to pay for low-income and emergency housing
programs. Voters approved the last housing
bonds in 1990 and those funds have been
spent.
The bond measure was introduced by state
Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, and signed
by Gov. Gray Davis. The final step is voter
approval on today.
The largest amount designated in the measure
is $800 million to multi-family housing
programs. This would fund a variety of housing
projects aimed at the construction of rental
housing projects, such as apartment buildings,
according to state voting materials. Any
project built must also “reserve a portion
of its units for low-income households for
a period of 55 years.”
Several homeownership incentives in the
measure are aimed at increasing home ownership
for low and middle-income homebuyers. Currently,
$25 million is set aside for loans to help
school personnel with down payments on a
new home. Loan assistance also is included
for military veterans, police and firefighters.
Opponents to the measure say that the law
would only add to the current state debt
and does little to truly address housing
issues in California.
“First-time homebuyers have to purchase
their houses in government approved locations,”
said state Sen. Ray Haynes, R-Riverside.
Proposition 46 would require that the bonds
be backed by the state, meaning that the
state is required to pay the principal and
interest on the bonds. The total cost of
the bonds would depend on their interest
rates and how long it takes to repay them.
Right now, the Emergency Shelter Trust Fund
Act of 2002 allocates $2.1 billion to fund
21 various housing programs, including $15
million for student housing on or near CSU
or University of California campuses.
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