Housing supply, affordability concerns top of mind for Rep. Dave Min at Irvine discussion

To boost Orange County’s housing supply, environmental protection laws that have been “used as cudgels” need to be streamlined, and the federal government needs to reinvest in affordable housing, Rep. Dave Min recently told nonprofit leaders and college students.

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Ultimately, the issue is one of supply and demand, which began in earnest at the federal level following the Great Recession, the Irvine Democrat told those attending a roundtable discussion hosted at Orange County United Way on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

“Starting around 2008, with the financial crisis, we, at the federal level, started disinvesting pretty massively in a lot of the affordable housing programs that create and maintain housing for lower-income folks,” Min said. “At the same time, we have seen a real slowdown in the ability and pace of building new housing. … We need kind of an all-of-the-above approach.”

Over the course of the hour-long discussion, Min listened to the difficulties students from Irvine Valley College and UC Irvine face in finding affordable housing as they pursue their education, while also hearing from nonprofit leaders at Orange County United Way and their struggles with connecting residents with services and resources to make living in Orange County more affordable.

A top priority for Min in Congress is to increase the supply of affordable housing, he said.

One part of tackling this issue in Min’s eyes is easing federal permitting requirements so units can be built faster, he said, primarily by amending environmental protection laws like the National Environmental Policy Act.

Laws at both the federal and state level — such as NEPA and CEQA — “have been used as cudgels” by certain people who may not want another home going up, Min said.

“They have been kind of abused and are not serving their original purposes,” which were to inform government agencies of the potential environmental impacts of proposed activities, like building new housing, he said.

Min said he has been working with colleagues in Congress to get environmental groups “to step up to the plate” so meaningful changes to the federal law can be made.

One way to do that, he said, is to implement shorter time frames — or “shot clocks” — for groups, neighbors or nearby residents who use the courts to try to slow down or stop proposed housing developments.

“When you talk to developers … they get sued all the time. It stops their ability to build, it slows down the development of new housing, and so we need to do that at the federal level,” Min said. “Permitting is one of the big things we can do. There’s probably some other things we can do to fast-track more housing, but that’s part of the solution.”

Developers and business advocates have made a similar argument in support of Proposition 45. If California voters approve it in November, the measure would amend CEQA by limiting the scope of environmental reviews that can be initiated, setting deadlines for public agencies to complete review processes and also establishing deadlines — “shot clocks” — for filing and resolving lawsuits against major projects.

Help is scarce, but changes lives when accessible

Demand for affordable housing across Orange County has continued to increase year after year, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, said Delia Van Kampen, director of operations for the non-emergency helpline 2-1-1 Orange County.

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Van Kampen said the service is contacted about 450,000 times each year by residents through phone calls, texts and web searches. About half of all contacts made each year concern housing assistance, and a quarter of all referrals are for rental assistance, she said.

Over the last few years, requests for affordable housing assistance have increased by over 200%, she said.

Couple the increased demand and decreased supply of affordable housing with rising costs of basic necessities like fuel or groceries, and students like Ahmad Rahmani are faced with difficult decisions.

Rahmani immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan two years ago and began taking classes at Irvine Valley College about one year after his move, but said he quickly realized, “I couldn’t make it.”

Rahmani said he was working full-time at night to make ends meet while still attending classes during the day. He considered dropping out after two semesters, until he was offered rental assistance by his community college, which “honestly changed my life.”

The housing stipend program Rahmani received help from is funded through a grant the community college received from the city of Irvine, said Erin Pollard, director of housing services at Irvine Valley College.

But the money can only go so far, she said, as the stipend program can only assist about 20 students right now because rent is so costly. That’s a small fraction of the more than 5,000 students who reach out every year, she said.

Looking ahead, officials at 2-1-1 OC and Orange County United Way hope the full launch of a new tool for residents, the Affordable Housing Access Platform, will make a difference in their search for affordable housing.

OC residents can use the countywide tool to find affordable housing units they are eligible for. The initiative, which began in 2023, has since gained the support of the county, 22 Orange County cities and five affordable housing developers. Additionally, the legislature included $500,000 in this year’s budget for the tool.

Elizabeth Andrade, executive director of 2-1-1 OC, said the platform will fully launch at the beginning of next year.

“The intention of it is to ensure that we, 2-1-1, landscape the entire county, we identify all of those affordable housing units, both rental and for sale, which is a new aspect for our portfolio, and that we provide residents the easiest process, and a consistent process, to access those other units,” Andrade said. “It won’t produce more housing. We need more housing, but it will at least streamline the process to access what’s available.”

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