Anaheim receives $3.5 million to boost affordable housing

Anaheim has received $3.5 million to help create Orange County’s first city housing trust fund that will fill in funding gaps for affordable housing projects to help bring them over the finish line.

The federal funding will also be used to apply for other grants and research on how to build affordable housing faster and more cost effectively. Adding to the federal seed money will be $30 million that the Disneyland Corporation committed to Anaheim.

Anaheim’s city council must now decide who will serve on the board and manage the fund. Unlike cities like Irvine that run their housing programs as nonprofits, Anaheim intends to have the trust fund run as a city organization.

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Need for affordable housing in Anaheim

Census data show that around 13% of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, which is slightly above the national average.

According to a city report, more than 30,000 households are on the waitlist for Anaheim’s Section 8 Housing voucher program for low income families, the elderly and the disabled. Over 4,000 households are on the Affordable Housing interest list.

The average Social Security monthly income is just over $1,700, but the average rent for a studio apartment in Anaheim is close to $2,000, according to city officials.

Road to the housing trust fund

In April, city leaders debated the merits of creating a housing trust fund with a goal of increasing affordable housing options. Since 2005, the city had been working toward goals in the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan. But, in 2012, with the dissolution of redevelopment agencies statewide, funding for their affordable housing plans evaporated. Since then, the city has relied on federal and tax increment funds to meet its affordable housing goals.

The new trust fund can be used not just for building affordable housing, but for creating programs to assist in homeownership and programs to prevent eviction. Mayor Ashley Aitken called the trust fund “another tool in our toolkit that makes sure that grants that we are receiving, partnerships with our business community that want to support our effort are being directed to Anaheim residents for projects built in Anaheim.”