Changes to the affordable housing policy in Orange County were approved by the Board of Commissioners last week during a regular meeting.

In approving these changes, board members defined affordable housing as any domicile for which the monthly cost of living does not exceed 30 percent of occupant income.

Talks on this definition were led by Commissioner Renee Price, who sought to account for the prevalence of high-income housing markets and the relative purchasing power of residents.

“The way this reads right here, you could have a house listing at $650,000, and as long as family income is over $2 million, it’s affordable,” she chided.

The previous policy stated that domiciles built for the purpose of providing affordable housing to residents could only be sold to low-income buyers who have not owned a home in three years.

Under the latest policy revision, those domiciles can be sold to anyone after a three-month period, which is already standard practice according to Robert Dowling of Community Home Trust.

“For us, the average home gets under contract within 60 days, so if a home is not under contract within 60 days, it’s a harder home to sell,” he claimed.

Board members also affirmed that land acquired by Community Home Trust for the purpose of accommodating families would be leased for a minimum of 99 years.

Commissioner Earl McKee ruminated on the length of this term, which also fixes the price of county-sponsored homes at 80 percent of area median income.

“I’ve long had a concern that 99 years is longer than the life of some of these structures,” he admitted. “I would think 60 [years] would be reasonable.”

Dowling explained that the length of the term was formulated by county officials in 2000 to ensure that more homes would stay in the affordable housing pool.

“Who’s going to care [about this long-term policy] is our grandkids, because they’re not going to be able to afford to live here,” he surmised. “Ninety-nine years is perpetual affordability.”

Changes presented to board members were approved unanimously, with the majority of recommendations having been made by local affordable housing providers.

Photo by Community Home Trust.

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