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The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Tuesday decided to give affordable housing developers a new financial incentive.
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But one member strongly opposed the decision.
The county has a $5 million fund to help affordable housing developers pay fees the county requires, such as library, water and roadway fees, according to a staff report. So far the developers of four projects, totaling 435 units, have taken advantage of the program, leaving about $2.8 million left in the fund.
County staff proposed the supervisors now allow the developers to access the fund to pay certain park fees, starting with the developers of a motel conversion project at 530 Howe Ave., Dave Defanti, a deputy county executive, said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Supervisor Rosario Rodriguez said she preferred to put the $2.8 million back in the general fund. She said that the roughly $9 billion budget the county passed in June included about $54 million in cuts, including some that affected public safety.
“It’s not that I don’t support these (housing) projects,” Rodriguez said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Personally I don’t think taking the $5 million out of the general fund was a wise thing to do because we had a structural deficit coming down the pike … Isn’t it fair to say affordable housing developers will eventually get the funding someway somehow?”
‘Sometimes things don’t get built’
Kris Warren, interim executive director of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, said that’s not correct.
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“Sometimes things don’t get built that’s just the reality,” she said.
Supervisors Patrick Kennedy and Rich Desmond disagreed with Rodriguez.
“This is exactly where we should be putting our money,” Kennedy said. “It’s a fallacy to think that for these developers the money is just out there just for them to get. If that was the case we would have a lot more affordable housing. It is extremely appropriate for us as we look at housing needs in Sacramento County to be investing our own dollars in this.”
Before calling for a vote, Rodriguez said that Supervisor Pat Hume, who was absent, would have opposed the item.
“This project couldn’t have been waited to be heard until Supervisor Hume came back,” she said.
Along with Kennedy and Desmond, Supervisor Phil Serna also voted in support of the item.
To qualify for the fund, the housing must be reserved for residents who earn 80% area median income annually or less. For Sacramento in 2026 that means an individual living alone who earns an annual salary of $73,600 or less can qualify, according to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development web page.
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