THEY extinguish fires, teach children, tend the ill and run small businesses in urban areas. What they cannot do is find homes they can afford near those jobs. But faster than anyone imagined, relief is coming to Inglewood, Oxnard, Pomona, Covina, South Park, Palm Springs and other Southern California communities where middle-class workers are starved for housing.
Major players such as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, John Laing Homes, Watt Communities and the California Public Employees' Retirement System already this year have pumped millions of dollars into transforming abandoned factory sites and empty lots into high-density neighborhoods for those who want to live close to their work.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday August 20, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 48 words Type of Material: Correction
Workforce housing -- An article in Sunday's Real Estate section about workforce housing said that downtown's Pan American Lofts and San Pedro's Bank Lofts were being developed by Phoenix Realty Group. In fact, Long Beach-based Urban Pacific Builders is developing the projects; Phoenix Realty Group is the investor.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday August 21, 2005 Home Edition Real Estate Part K Page 5 Features Desk 1 inches; 50 words Type of Material: Correction
Workforce housing -- A story in the Aug. 14 Real Estate section about workforce housing said that downtown's Pan American Lofts and San Pedro's Bank Lofts were being developed by Phoenix Realty Group. In fact, Long Beach-based Urban Pacific Builders is developing the projects; Phoenix Realty Group is the investor.
CityView, Cisneros' workforce-housing development company, had about 2,000 homes underway statewide in the first quarter of 2005. By the end of the year, it will have invested $750 million in moderate-priced housing, most of it already under construction. The company, which burst on the scene two years ago with $40 million in start-up money from CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund, has received $260 million more to develop workforce housing in a dozen California locales, including the San Fernando Valley, Azusa and San Jose.
Local and state governments are in on the act too, easing zoning rules for builders, expediting the permit process and tossing in various tax credits.
Another shot in the arm could come from the Housing America's Workforce Act, introduced this summer in the U.S. Senate, which would give companies that help eligible employees buy homes a 50-cent tax credit for every dollar they provide, up to $10,000 or 6% of the purchase price.
Workers who earn 80% to 120% of an area's median income -- the targeted purchasers of workforce housing -- need all the help they can get. A buyer had to earn $124,320 a year to afford the California median-priced home of $530,430 in the second quarter. But someone earning the state median of $53,840 comes up $70,480 short, according to the California Assn. of Realtors.
Workforce housing helped Rebecca and Tony Guevara bridge that gap. The couple recently purchased a 2,046-square-foot, four-bedroom single-family home in Oxnard for $557,374, half a mile from their jobs and down the street from their older daughter's school. The home is part of a 219-unit development constructed on an old agricultural field by John Laing Homes, one of the largest U.S. builders.
Tony, 35, a feed-company employee, and Rebecca, 33, who works for the city of Oxnard, lived in a small three-bedroom home nearby for five years but outgrew it as their family expanded. The couple has four children, ages 8 months to 4 years. Their combined salaries are $60,000. They like that their new home is well constructed, Tony said, and well situated -- a couple of blocks from a grocery store and close to the freeway.
Laing Homes is expanding its workforce housing roster to neighboring Port Hueneme, where the company recently purchased four properties zoned for industry. The site will be used to build 150 new homes and townhouses priced from $350,000, said Bill Rattazzi, John Laing's Los Angeles/Ventura president.
"There are people who work in Port Hueneme and live in Bakersfield," Rattazzi said. "I'm appalled that [they] have to live in these circumstances, just to find employment and live a reasonable lifestyle."
"People are saying, 'I don't want to commute,' " said Phil Rush of Resmark Equity Partners, a West Los Angeles real estate investing firm involved with urban housing, especially condo conversions. " 'I'd rather have an urban home closer in.' "
That sentiment was the inspiration for Renaissance, a workforce-housing development going up a few furlongs from Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood. The 370-home gated neighborhood, located under an LAX flight path, occupies 37 acres that were once considered for a football stadium and more recently for a hotly disputed Wal-Mart store.
Watt Communities, which purchased and developed the land about three years ago, sold some of the lots to MBK Homes and others to John Laing Homes, which partnered with CityView. The site will be a high-density community of single-family homes priced from the low $400,000s for 1,500 square feet to the low $600,000s for 2,500 square feet. Owners share a community swimming pool, tennis courts and playgrounds.
Buyers who qualify for a loan put their names on a list, which is numbered on a first-come, first-served basis. About 12 homes are offered for sale in each phase, and the buyers highest on the list are called first. Construction begins after the homes are sold.
Cedric and Lori Penix, who own a smaller, older home across the street from Renaissance, were among the first to sign up on Laing's waiting list -- currently 2,100 names long -- early last year. Cedric, 40, is a partner in a private-equity firm in Culver City, and Lori, 36, a television marketing director.
