Housing Element

What’s in a Housing Element?

The City of Monterey Park is updating the Housing Element of the General Plan. The Housing Element includes:

Housing Needs Assessment – Existing and projected housing need for all income segments.
Housing Constraints Analysis – Including market, governmental, infrastructure, and environmental constraints.
Housing Resources – Residential sites inventory for future housing needs.
Review of Past Accomplishments – Describe accomplishments from prior Housing Element programs.
Housing Plan – Housing programs, goals, and policies for the planned period.

Since 1969, the State of California has required that all Cities and Counties adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community. State Law requires each jurisdiction to accommodate its fair share of affordable housing, as an approach to distribute housing needs throughout the state.

What type of housing does Monterey Park have?

Monterey Park offers a variety of housing types, including single-family homes, duplex, triplex, apartments, and condominiums. The most common type of housing in Monterey Park is single family. Most of the housing stock was built in 1950-1969, as part of a national homebuilding boom. A little over half of Monterey Park households own their own homes. Monthly mortgages are typically $2000-$3000 while rent is $1000-$1500 per month. Over half of the rental community spend more than 30% of their gross monthly income on housing, many of which spend above 50% of their income on housing. Typically, housing is considered affordable when you spend 30% or less of your monthly income.

How does the City of Monterey Park support housing needs?

The City of Monterey Park has played a critical role in meeting housing needs for the local community. The City has multiple housing programs in place to make sure existing homes are adequately rehabilitated and meet basic health and sanitation standards. These include a lead based paint compliance program, subsidies for housing through federal programs, and a residential rehabilitation program that offers financial assistance , such as grants and loans, to repair or improve the homes of qualified low- and moderate-income households. The City also plays a role in facilitating new housing production, including an accessory dwelling unit program which allows a second unit to be placed on single family home properties.

What is the demand for housing?

Additional steps government agencies take to make sure that there is adequate housing construction to meet demand include the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process. The State of California identifies the number of housing units necessary to meet future demand. The State distributes this allocation to regional governments, including the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) of which Monterey Park is a member agency. SCAG then allocates housing units to all member agencies. This process is mandated as part of Housing Element Law.

What is the housing need in Monterey Park?

The State assigned 1.3 million units to the SCAG region. In turn, SCAG assigned 5,257 units to Monterey Park. The City must now plan to accommodate those units during the next 8 years. As part of this planning process, the City must document to the State (the Housing and Community Development agency) that these units can be accommodated across the city and that policies and regulations support future residential development.

Mixed Use Apartments in Monterey Park, CA

What is the regional housing needs assessment (RHNA) for?

Communities use the RHNA in land use planning, prioritizing local resource allocation, and in deciding how to address identified existing and future housing needs resulting from the population, employment, and household growth. The RHNA does not result in housing construction, but rather requires communities to anticipate growth so that collectively the region and subregion can grow in ways that enhance the quality of life, improve access to jobs, promotes transportation mobility, and addresses social equity and fair share housing needs.

What does Housing Element Law require?

Monterey Park must prove it can provide 5,257 units in compliance with a wide range of state rules. The 2019 California Legislative Session ended with over 30 new bills in response to the state’s worsening housing crisis. Several of these bills are designed to increase housing production by easing development regulations, compelling jurisdictions to make fee and land information readily available to potential developers, and impose new ongoing reporting and inventory requirements for local jurisdictions. Housing legislation aims to achieve a number of overarching goals:

- Accommodate projected housing demand, as mandated by the State,
- Increase housing production to meet this demand,
- Improve housing affordability,
- Preserve existing affordable housing,
- Improve the safety, quality, and condition of existing housing,
- Facilitate the development of housing for all income levels and household types, including special needs populations,
- Improve the livability and economic prosperity of all City residents, and
- Promote fair housing choices for all.