Governor Newsom pushing for more low income housing in Desert Hot Springs and other cities

75-year-old Keith Hasselman says he has been homeless for 6 of the past nine years.

When hearing Monday about Governor Gavin Newsom’s push for more low income housing in Desert Hot Springs, and elsewhere in the state, he expressed support.

“I love it, there is a lot of people that really need the help,” said Hasselmann.

Governor Newsom is pushing a new seven year plan for adding 3.5 million new homes in California, much of it “low income” and “affordable housing”.

But, even before Newsom took office, Desert Hot Springs was, and sitll is falling far short of a state mandate, to add 4,900 homes over a ten year period.

Last year in the city, Mayor Scott Matas says “47 permits were pulled”.

“We were in a financial crisis at one point, and when I became mayor, we sat down and made priorities, and one of our priorities in 2016, was to get our housing and general plan in compliance, and we are working toward that,” said Matas.

Matas says developers of low income properties are not building in the city right now, and haven’t been for a few years, because the market is not providing sufficient profitability.

“The city doesn’t build homes. We bring in developers to build homes, the non-profits to build homes. They have to make a profit these developers, so to make a profit,” said Matas.

The mayor says one way to entice developers to build again is for the city to offer breaks on developer impact fees and permitting fees.

But, money to cover those costs he says would have to come from the $750 million dollars the Governor will seek from the legislature to jump start his housing program.

Currently, Matas says the city has roughly 5,000 low income and affordable housing units.

Mayor Matas says the city becoming compliant with the state mandate for low-income housing right now simply has to do with the city finalizing housing plans or the “housing element” in the city”s general plan, which is reviewed about every six to eight years.

He expects that to happen by October.

Mike Walsh, the Deputy Director for the Riverside County Economic Development Agency says 30,000 people living in the Coachella Valley are “rent burdened”, meaning they are spending at least 30 percent of their income on their housing.