Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Supervisors say county must do more after report shows low-income housing shortfall; HUD vouchers to be defunded
Summary
Orange County leaders reviewed a housing status report noting a shortfall in low-income unit production and learned the county’s $12 million emergency housing vouchers will be defunded starting Sept. 2025; supervisors pressed staff on crediting county-funded units toward RHNA goals.
Orange County supervisors discussed a housing status report March 25 that shows the county has built a small fraction of its targeted low-income units in the current cycle and pressed staff for remedies and clearer accounting.
"We have only built 3.23% of our targeted low-income units — only 69 low-income units so far," Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said while urging more aggressive production of low- and very-low-income housing, including small-scale 'tiny homes' options.
Vice Chair Katrina Foley asked OC Housing Community Development director Julie Bidwell whether the county’s emergency housing vouchers had been considered in the report after hearing a March 6 HUD notice. Bidwell said the agenda report was filed before the HUD notice and that the emergency housing voucher program represents rental assistance rather than a physical building project. She told the board the vouchers total roughly $12,000,000 and that the county will lose those vouchers beginning in September 2025 unless new funding is secured.
Foley asked staff to analyze whether RHNA credits could be transferred or counted differently when the county funds a project in a partner city. Bidwell said the county requests voluntary RHNA-credit transfers from cities on a project-by-project basis and that transfers are optional under current practices.
"We should analyze whether that is law or practice and come back with recommendations about whether we can require transfers if the law allows," Foley said.
Sarmiento and other supervisors also noted the importance of spreading housing across the county rather than concentrating units only in cities already close to meeting RHNA targets.
What’s next: Supervisors approved the item and asked staff to return with analyses that clarify how county-funded projects can be credited toward RHNA and to pursue options to replace or backfill emergency housing voucher funding before the September 2025 defunding date.
