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Placer County officials hear Lease to Locals update as staff urge continued funding
Summary
County staff reported Lease to Locals has produced 255 housing placements and 108 converted properties; program leaders asked the Board to allocate additional funding after demand outstripped this year’s allotment.
A county official reported to the Placer County Board of Supervisors on April 1 that the Lease to Locals program has produced housing placements for local workers but now faces a shortfall in available funding.
The program, launched in Eastern Placer in summer 2022, provides a one‑time incentive to property owners who sign long‑term leases with qualified local workers. "To date, the program has created housing for 255 locals and incentivized the conversion of 108 properties as new long‑term rentals," Isaac Lampman, senior operations manager for Lease to Locals, told the board during public comment. Lampman said the county had committed “just over $1,000,000 to program incentives and $1,300,000 to the total program cost,” which includes administration and marketing.
Lampman told supervisors the program’s average incentive paid so far is about $9,700 per property — roughly $4,300 per bedroom — and that “of the 71 properties that have graduated from program participation, 51 have continued to long‑term rent past their first lease term, a rate of 68%.” He said the county forecast the program would unlock about 42 new long‑term rentals in the current program year at a cost of about $500,000, and that the board had allocated $300,000 for the current year and $200,000 for 2025–26. Because uptake has been higher than expected, Lampman said staff have begun using 2025–26 funds now and warned the program will run out of money without additional board support.
Supervisor discussion at the meeting focused on Lease to Locals as a relatively low‑cost tool compared with building new workforce housing; board members also compared unit‑creation costs quoted by Truckee Tahoe Workforce Housing Agency for new construction (roughly $850,000 per unit) with the program’s incentive cost and said that bridging incentives to accelerate use of existing housing can be an efficient near‑term strategy.
Ending: The board did not vote on new funding for Lease to Locals during the April 1 meeting. Lampman and county program staff said they will return to the board with budget requests and recommended next steps if the board wants to expand the program.
