Costa Mesa approves $3.6M in additional funding for two affordable housing projects

Costa Mesa officials approved an additional $3.6 million in funding for two planned affordable housing projects at their meeting Tuesday.
The funds will be distributed in the form of 55-year loans with 3% interest rates to American Family Housing, which has already broken ground on the Avon River Apartments, and Jamboree Housing Corporation, developers of the planned Westside Costa Mesa Senior Housing complex. The majority of the money, $3.25 million, will go to the latter.
Jamboree’s housing project had been approved by the City Council last March, and construction is expected to begin this summer. The affordable housing developer received a $700,000 loan from Costa Mesa for deferred permitting and inspection fees and permission to build on a city-owned 2.66-acre parcel at 695 W. 19th St. that is valued at $10.5 million.
Jamboree could have received as much as $3.5 million from the federally funded and county-managed Local Housing Trust Fund to help build the senior housing development, but the project became ineligible for that money due to delays in certifying Costa Mesa’s housing element, according to a city staff report.
“This project experienced a massive hole appear in it because of the loss of a federal funding program that we had been anticipating,” Jamboree’s vice-president of business development, Kelsey Brewer, said near the end of Tuesday’s six-hour meeting.
Councilmembers reiterated their commitment to combating the housing crisis and supporting the senior housing development. But they also sought additional considerations from Jamboree.
Councilmembers Andrea Marr and Mike Buley pressed the developer on the possibility of reimbursing the city should additional funds or cost savings emerge. They also asked Jamboree officials what they could do to ensure that the planned affordable housing units go to Costa Mesa residents who are struggling.
Brewer and Laura Archuletta, Jamboree’s president and chief executive, said they are actively seeking grants. They added that at the end of past projects, the affordable housing developer has returned any money left over following construction to their funding partners.
Archuletta and Brewer added that Jamboree can make arrangements to prioritize people from Costa Mesa as tenants in the new senior housing complex. They noted that over 90% of those living in a development Jamboree completed in Huntington Beach were residents of that city prior to moving in.
“This is your project. This is your land,” Elizabeth Hansburg, co-founder of People for Housing — Orange County, said during Tuesday’s meeting. “… This is a concrete thing you can do that will add units to housing stock that will be rented at below market rate for your residents, for the people who were lined up there and went home to put their kids to bed,” she added, pointing to the seating area in council chambers where public commenters and observers had been waiting earlier that evening.
The city will use money from two separate funds that were set aside to support the development of housing.
The City Council also approved a $350,000 loan to American Family Housing to cover unexpected construction costs associated with the Avon River Apartments. The developer is converting the former Travelodge at 1400 Bristol St. into a 76-unit affordable housing complex that should be completed this summer.
“What your decision is is more important than Jamboree housing and the motel conversion,” real estate broker and affordable housing investor Jeff Butcher said. “…It’s the future.”