Rally at Pasadena City Hall Calls for Affordable Housing

The residents of Pasadena have made it abundantly clear what they want during the August 2 rally in front of City Hall: a serious effort to meet the City’s critical need for affordable housing. 

Over 70 people showed up in 100 degree heat in front of City Hall to rally for affordable housing, representing twelve organizations with thousands of stakeholders: Foothill Democrats, NAACP, League of Women Voters, POP!, MHCH, All Saints, the Social Justice Committee of the Pasadena Jewish Temple, Abundant Housing, Pasadena for All, Complete Streets. 

The Council received a scroll with our 25 demands.

During the City Council meeting nearly 29 speakers spoke about the need for affordable housing on religious land, rent control, tenant protection, and other affordable housing policies that are urgently needed. Most were in support of the Affordable Housing Coalition’s 25 demands for policy change.  Here is a breakdown of the letters submitted for the public record:

The public overwhelmingly supports giving religious institutions the right to have affordable housing built on their land. That means allowing residential use of religious property and sufficient density to make it feasible to have affordable housing built. Phil Burns of the Arroyo Group and the Housing Task Force has done a careful study to show how this can be done without negatively impacting single family neighborhoods.

Adaptive reuse was mentioned in passing by only one letter writer, but MHCH feels it is a worthwhile policy. We support Senator Portantino’s bill that provide tax incentives to cities that rezone commercial properties for adaptive reuse as affordable housing. Adaptive reuse is not a panacea, however. According to Jim Osterling, a local housing developer, adaptive reuse of modern offices can be difficult and expensive. But there have been many successful examples of adaptive reuse so we support this policy and the zoning changes it may require. See https://www.planning.org/planning/2021/spring/how-adaptive-reuse-can-help-solve-the-housing-crisis/

We are glad that the Council decided not to change the Housing Element to include rezoning nonprofit and school land for affordable housing along with religious land.  While we support allowing/encouraging schools and nonprofits to build affordable housing on their excess property, these three entities are very different and need different ordinances. Jill Shook has been supportive of building affordable housing for over a decade, and we have been working with School Board members who would like to have affordable housing built on school property for staff and teachers. We feel this is an excellent idea but the Council should wait until they receive a specific proposal from the School Board before taking action to craft an ordinance. Similarly, the Council should wait until nonprofits express interest in using their excess land for affordable housing before instituting a zoning change. However, a  good first step would be for the Council to ask the Housing Department to reach out to nonprofits to see if they’re interested in having affordable housing built on their excess land.

The pressing and immediate need is to rezone religious property so that churches that want to have affordable housing built can do so. We are aware of at least seven churches who have expressed interest so far. None of them are properly zoned for affordable housing.

Why is this only for religious congregations? Affordable housing should be encouraged throughout the City, and congregations provide a unique opportunity for that to happen. This is a match made in heaven because their land is often vacant most of the week, with deferred maintenance on buildings they can’t afford to fix and facilities often built for congregations much larger than what they have today. Furthermore, congregations, the longtime social “glue” for our neighborhoods, have a vested interest in continuing to serve the community. Downsizing and/or gaining a little extra income helps them stay vital, playing a significant role in our community. Historically, religious groups have built hospitals, schools and retirement communities, it is natural for them today to supply housing for the community.

Why is it important to allow affordable housing “by-right”? “By-right” means that a property owner has a right to build on their land. In this case, our proposal would give religious congregations the right to build housing that is at least 50% affordable at a contextually appropriate height and density. This matters because quality affordable housing developers know that applying for a discretionary approval in Pasadena takes at least one year, costs at least $100,000 in consultant and City fees, and may ultimately be denied. They are hence reluctant to partner with congregations lacking appropriate zoning. By-right affordable housing projects still require engagement with the community to improve the design, parking, etc., but the congregation’s right to build affordable housing would not be challenged.