By: Kaitlin Sunmi Hwangbo

Photography: City of Irvine

February 9: This article has been updated with more information on Irvine housing.

Throughout 2019, there was a decrease in the number of houses sold in Orange County. This has been shown to be due, in part, to more expensive housing.

Orange County’s housing market experienced the slowest start to a year since the Great Recession in 2009. In fact, the first quarter of 2019 has been the “third-slowest-selling” quarter since 1988, as reported by the Orange County Register.

However, home sale trends in Irvine have shown increasing median list prices of houses every year. The median list price of homes in Irvine was $935,000, which is a continuation of the 1.1% increasing trend happening every year. In comparison to the median list price, the median sale price is lower at around $835,000.

CoreLogic found that the number of houses sold in Irvine and Tustin decreased by 23% since 2018. In 2018, the number of homes sold totaled to 1,246, but the homes sold in 2019 totaled to just 962.

As a result of increasing prices and other factors, many housing concerns have risen in Irvine. This includes housing insecurity among students, low-income families and individuals.

Housing options for UCI students include on-campus housing or ACC off-campus apartments like Plaza Verde and Puerta de Sol. Depending on the individual’s financial aid, on-campus dorming at Middle Earth or Mesa Court can be significantly more expensive than off-campus. A classic doubles room per month costs about $16,149 a year while a tower doubles room can cost around $18,081. In comparison, ACC off-campus housing arrangements can range from $1,019 per installment per person to around $712 per installment per person. Other apartments located further from campus, like Villa Siena, are options for students with 2 bed 2 bath ranging from $2,400-$4,500.

Despite the high price students already pay for their respective housing, the City of Irvine has shown interest in placing stricter regulations on student housing through the Zoning Ordinance that was brought up earlier this year. In this ordinance, Irvine City Council approved tighter restrictions on boarding houses and short-term rentals, which only fuels the threat of housing insecurity among students.

In addition, this ordinance required that households must be a “single housekeeping unit.” This entails that those within the household must “share living expenses, chores, meals and/or social, economic and psychological commitments.”

However, the ordinance was not passed and is currently undergoing amendments. It not only violated the “Fair Housing Act,” but also brought up the question of whether the government can deem certain people able to live in the same household.

“The government can reasonably restrict the number of people living in a facility, whether or not the government can restrict it by relations or not related is a very difficult question,” said UCIClinical Professor of Law Robert Solomon. “We are in a changing environment where that is less likely to be accepted than it has been in the past. So, the notion of marriage as a reasonable standard on which the government can base its policies is disappearing and will continue to disappear.”

According to Solomon, the government should only restrict zoning to size, structure, safety and reasonable occupancy by number rather than determining what constitutes people who live there.

To combat housing insecurity among UCI students, the ASUCI Housing Security Commission was formed three years ago.

“When the city proposed the boarding house ordinance, our commission was outraged at how clearly targeted it was towards students. In efforts to prevent the ordinance from passing, our commission attempted to educate both students and city council members as to how the ordinance would affect students,” ASUCI Housing Security Commissioner Adriana Mejia said.

Representing the student population, the ASUCI Housing Security Commission set out to the City Hall on March 12 to vocalize their opposition. They also sought local news sources like the LA Times to bring more publicity and support to the ongoing issue.

All but one of the four city council members voted in favor of the ordinance on March 12. The reasoning behind this was that many residents were upset about the overflowing trash cans and crowded parking lots.

Along with the student boarding house crackdown, there is also a lack of resident participation in the regional crisis of homelessness in Orange County.

Earlier this year, Irvine, among four other Orange County cities, was sued for the mistreatment of homeless people and the lack of shelters in the city. Irvine has been historically bad at combating homelessness and insecurity.

“We could just call it racism or ‘not in my backyard’ or anti-poverty. So, it is true that a lot of people come to Irvine because they have an image of the schools and the housing and they don’t want an economically diverse community,” Solomon said.

There is another dilemma of local control and who is in charge of the decision making. The City of Irvine is a municipality, consisting of a corporate existence along with a local governance. After the county came to an agreement with the plaintiff suing them, the municipalities would not honor the agreement. Thus, the issue of homelessness and lack of economic diversity is still ongoing.

There are practical short-term and long-term measures that can be taken in order to best combat housing insecurity. However, it is important to consider the different populations in Irvine and their needs when developing new programs and initiatives.

“If we are talking about a homeless population, roughly a third of them are going to be single people with mental health problems … particularly men with mental health problems. And there’s one solution to that: supportive housing,” Solomon said.

Supportive housing includes both housing and services. Such services include mental and physical health services, job training and drug and alcohol treatment. Typically, a normal homeless shelter in Orange County includes services such as financial assistance, health services and disability services.

Within the homeless population, there is a prominent veteran population that is often connected to mental health due to a high rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In supportive housing, it is also important to address these needs.

There is also a familial population with children.

“Subsidized housing can be a permanent solution, especially if it is connected to some employment opportunities,” Solomon said.

In essence, there is a two-tiered poverty system in the U.S. that Solomon refers to. This system consists of those who do have subsidies and those who do not have subsidies. There are unfair differences between the two groups— those with subsidies benefit while others who are narrowly disqualified for subsidies must pay more than half of their income for housing. This leaves those with no subsidies with a minimal amount of money for basic needs, such as food.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, was first created in the 1970s by the Housing and Community Development Act as a solution to combat the homelessness of low-income people. Through Section 8, the HUD Housing Choice Voucher Program allows the HUD to “pay rental subsidies so eligible families can afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” In essence, those who qualify as low-income are provided adequate housing.

The process is described in Section 8. It states, “to receive tenant-based assistance, the family selects a suitable unit. After approving the tenancy, the PHA enters into a contract to make rental subsidy payments to the owner.” Once the family moves out of their housing, the contract with the owner will terminate, and they are allowed to receive continued assistance as long as they follow the program’s requirements. Home Forward administers the rental subsidy in which Section 8 operates, and once the tenant has paid a minimum of 28.5% of their salary for rent, Home Forward pays the rest. However, Irvine’s lack of affordable rental housing compared to neighboring cities makes it nearly impossible for many to use Section 8.

As of March 2019, the median price of a home in Irvine is around $864,400. In Costa Mesa, the median price of a home was recorded to be $790,200. All in all, the U.S. has a median home cost of $231,000. Among other OC cities, Irvine falls short of affordable housing.

Orange County cities have the least affordable housing with prices being 356% higher than the nation’s average. In fact, it is reported that “OC is the 2nd largest in differential between income and cost of living”. The “Costs to our Community” study discovered that the difficulty in finding adequate jobs to sustain a typical O.C. rent is the “number one contributor to homelessness.” According to the voice of OC, an indicator’s report states that “64% of jobs in Orange County do not earn enough to afford median rent on a one-bedroom.”

The high prices in Irvine and other OC cities have shown a consistent pattern in propagating the detrimental effects of housing insecurity and homelessness.

The New University has reached out to the Irvine City Council for further comment but has not received a response.