DEVELOPMENT
Roseville perennially makes lists of best places to live , but for years the building at 130 Main Street was a weak link . Situated at a major entry to downtown and Old Town Roseville , it was a single-occupancy boarding house that was later vacated , condemned and often broken into . The city spent two decades struggling to revitalize the property : City Housing Manager Trisha Isom says it was the first project her husband Mike Isom took on when he joined the city ’ s planning department in 2000 . ( He ’ s now Roseville ’ s development services director .)
A breakthrough came in 2016 when affordable developer Meta Housing bought the parcel , with plans to construct a new affordable apartment complex . But putting together the capital would depend heavily on getting state tax credits that are the major source of funding for affordable housing projects . Those credits come in two flavors : 4 and 9 percent , and in the past a project was awarded either one or the other by a committee inside the State Treasurer ’ s Office .
But competition for both has been especially fierce in the last few years , and there weren ’ t enough of either to build the planned 65 units . Instead the city and the developer acquired a lot next to it and split the construction into two buildings , each qualifying for different credits . That generated enough to move forward — maybe the first time split financing was used for an affordable project in California , says Isom .
Both buildings were finished and started leasing in January 2021 , part of a goal the city set in 1989 to have 10 percent of its housing stock be affordable . Roseville has more than 1,000 affordable units in the pipeline now , says Isom .
Making a dent in rising rents and home prices is one key to keeping businesses
“ I think if we could let down our guard a little bit and say , ‘ This is what we do and let me learn a little bit about what you do — how can we work together to leverage that ?’ we could do so much more .”
LEAH MILLER CEO , Habitat for Humanity
and people in the region and the state . All the Greater Sacramento region ’ s counties are behind on state-mandated goals for low-income housing construction , according to nonprofit California Housing Partnership , which defines the region as Sacramento County and five counties immediately surrounding it . Those trends mirror what ’ s happening statewide — counties are building less than a fifth of the number of affordable units needed to hit their targets .
The stakes are enormous . It ’ s not just that soaring housing costs affect the region ’ s economic growth , with employers shelling out money to give their workers a place to live and manufacturers looking elsewhere to site new facilities because of soaring rents and house prices . It ’ s also that jurisdictions that don ’ t hit their housing targets now risk real legal jeopardy . As part of a package of housing bills that Gov . Gavin Newsom signed last September , the state ’ s new Housing Accountability Unit will enforce each local government ’ s targets . The unit will bring escalating enforcement steps against jurisdictions out of compliance and can refer cases to the state attorney general for further action .
Getting affordable housing up takes ingenuity , teamwork and persistence —
Roseville ’ s project had 17 funding sources . A few cities around the region have projects underway that showcase how they ’ re getting it done , and their success may hold lessons for other jurisdictions .
Better collaboration = Larger-scale projects and more housing
Roberto Jimenez is CEO at Sacramentobased nonprofit Mutual Housing California . For years he ’ d wanted to build an affordable community offering residents a spectrum of housing options , from rentals to singlefamily homes . Getting there would require a special parcel of land and a good partner . Mutual Housing had talked with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento — which helps lowincome people buy their first homes — about the prospect . But they couldn ’ t find the land for it .
So when the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency announced it was donating a 7-acre parcel and seeking affordable developers , the two organizations jumped . Part of the property is zoned single-family , part multifamily . Habitat is building the single-family portion , putting up 18 homes , and Mutual Housing the apartments , 108 in all . Together , they ’ ll serve about 400 people . Called Cornerstone , it will be the first affordable mixed-housing project in Sacramento .
Getting these projects over the finish line requires great teamwork to assemble the puzzle pieces required to fund them , says Jimenez . SHRA donated the land and $ 10 million for the multiunit side of the project , plus 16 rental housing choice vouchers — federal help to pay rent also known as Section 8 — which were essential to ensure the steady cash flow that helped the project pencil out . Mutual Housing also relied heavily on state tax credits . Habitat , as it does with all of its
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