Proposed affordable housing law could mean city staff shakeup.
Ask most Santa Feans what's to blame for the city's lack of affordable housing and they might point the finger at developers or the rising cost of building. Ask two city councilors the same question and they'll likely mention the city's Community Services Department.
The department oversees the city's Housing Opportunity Program (HOP), which negotiates affordable housing prices with developers and is co-ordinated by Linda Hall.
Both need to change, according to City Councilors Patti Bushee and Karen Heldmeyer. ***image1***The two councilors both back an affordable housing ordinance, introduced May 25, which would, among other things, take affordable housing from under Hall's aegis and create a new department.
The ordinance's very existence highlights how politicized affordable housing has become, and speaks to growing rifts between city staff, the council and local non-profits which work on affordable housing. The controversy stems from allegations that Hall ignored specific city recommendations as to how many affordable housing units new developments must include.
"We've reached the point where the wishes of City Council are not that of city staff," Heldmeyer says.
Hall began drawing fire in late May after the council approved annexation for the San Isidro development that will abut the southern portion of Agua Fria Village. Some councilors signed off on the annexation in part, they say, because they thought Hall had ensured 30 percent of the development's 264 residential units would be priced at the affordable housing ranges recommended by the Regional Planning Authority's (RPA) Affordable Housing Task Force.
Councilors subsequently learned the affordable units were priced higher than the RPA recommendations; San Isidro's developer Jeff Branch says Hall told him those higher prices were acceptable [Cover Story, June 29:
].
The Council also, in late May, approved annexation for the Beaty development on Richards Avenue. Although the Council made sure this project had 30 percent of its 277 units priced affordably, Jennifer Jenkins, Beaty's land agent, told SFR the developers were originally willing to make 50 percent of its units affordable but were informed by Hall that this was not economically feasible.
Jenkins, who says she's had numerous positive experiences with Hall on development projects, admits she was caught off guard.
"It was a little surprising to have someone from the city expressing concern over our offer, but I understood where she was coming from," Jenkins says.
In early June, Hall's name resurfaced when the Journal North reported she'd allegedly convinced developers for downtown's El Corazon de Santa Fe condominium complex to reduce the number of affordable housing units from 14 to 11.
At the time, councilors asked City Attorney Bruce Thompson to look into the matter. Thompson told SFR he conducted an informal inquiry and reported back "a couple of weeks ago." Thompson says the results of the inquiry are not public.
But Bushee says she's yet to hear anything.
"If we have put the wrong staff in charge and they don't believe in the affordable housing mission, then I personally don't think they should be employed by the City of Santa Fe," Bushee says.
The councilors will get no argument from Mike Loftin, executive director of Homewise, a non-profit which works with builders to develop affordable housing units. Loftin sounded the alarm over San Isidro and El Corazon, warning city councilors that the projects were not what they'd approved in terms of affordable housing.
"We've had developers out of compliance with HOP because Linda doesn't know the rules," Loftin alleges.
Hall responds to the concerns in a lengthy July 18 e-mail to SFR, noting that in the instances of San Isidro and Beaty, staff was "not clear on what the council expected" because it has been 10 years since a large-scale annexation had taken place. Further, the RPA recommendations cited by Hall's critics hadn't been passed yet. Since that time, Hall writes, "the city council has clarified its position on what it expects in the case of annexations" and now "Staff is very clear on the policy direction of the governing body."
Hall concedes she tried to dissuade Beaty's developers from making 50 percent of their units affordable because "I did not believe it to be sustainable nor possible for other developers to match."
As for El Corazon, Hall says she simply used a strict interpretation of HOP regulations which only required that developers make 11 of 72 units affordable because of the nature of the development.
Hall also notes that since she began administering the program in mid-2002, 22 affordable housing agreements have been recorded with developers, an increase of more than 200 percent compared to the four years before she took over (HOP was started in 1998). Under her tenure, HOP has been the recipient of numerous national awards, Hall says.
Indeed, some local affordable housing experts believe Hall has been extremely effective and is being unfairly singled out.
"Ninety-eight percent of the time, Linda has done a hell of a job. These very specific instances are being blown out of proportion," Daniel Werwath, a housing counselor for the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, says. "No one knows HOP better than Linda does. She's handled $2 million worth of successful affordable housing projects over the years. People think the more affordable housing the better, but if you demand too much, builders won't build anything or nothing gets done."
Indeed, in her written response to SFR, Hall says she believes "the most effective way to achieve" the city's goals for affordable housing "is through partnerships and support. Of sticks and carrots I think carrots are much more effective. If providing safe, decent housing for all residents is a community problem, then its solution should lie with all of us, not solely on a single segment. Assuming that only builders should be responsible for the solution is not the answer."
Mike Loftin, however, believes the new ordinance which he helped draft is the best way to give the city a fresh start on affordable housing altogether.
While Bushee, one of the ordinance's cosponsors, and Heldmeyer have been particularly outspoken with their criticism of Hall's department, the ordinance-expected to reach a Council vote in August-also has the support of councilors and sponsors Rebecca Wurzburger and David Coss, as well as cosponsor Matt Ortiz. In addition to creating a new department, the ordinance's other important feature is it will codify into law the RPA recommendations.
"This is a case where policy needs to catch up," Wurzburger says. "The HOP program has made some important contributions over the years, but it's very complicated, and it's clear the Council didn't know what it was getting at times. We need a much better affordable housing policy that's clearer for everyone."
