HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 1G73-710 Fred Waring Drive, Suite 100, Palm Desert, CA 92260 | lifttorise.org
Good afternoon, Mayor Grace Garner, Mayor Pro Tem Jeffery Bernstein, and distinguished
Councilmembers,
On behalf of Lift to Rise, we support staff’s recommendation to approve the amendments in
question that would extend the affordability period for the property located at 2990 East
Tahquitz Canyon Way. We applaud the City and the property owner for proactively mitigating
what could have been disastrous for the low-income tenants who live at the property. We also
urge the City to diligently take stock of which other properties in Palm Springs have affordability
covenants expiring within the next three years and create proactive solutions to addressing the
housing needs of the tenants of those properties when those covenants eventually expire.
Furthermore, in addition to continuing to encourage the production of more affordable housing
in Palm Springs, the City should also closely monitor any building-wide “voluntary” moveouts
and evictions in properties with soon-to-be expiring affordability covenants and establish a
system through which residents can make claims if they feel they are being evicted without due
cause.
Tahquitz Court Apartments is a 107-unit affordable housing development in the City of Palm
Springs. It includes 17 One Bedroom units (13 low-income, 4 very low-income), 74 two-
bedroom units (37 low-income, 37 very low-income), and 16 three-bedroom units (14 low-
income, 2 very low-income). It is near Palm Springs High School, a bus stop, and a short
distance from a grocery store. The amenities of Tahquitz Courts have benefits to the community
at large. Moreover, it is a place that many low-income families and residents call home.
Residents can send their children to nearby schools, have access to public transportation, and
most importantly, live in the city where they work in.
According to the city’s Housing Element, 27 percent of the population work service jobs that
include food and beverage, healthcare support, and maintenance. The average earnings for a
person in the service industry is between $21,000 to $26,400. A one-bedroom apartment costs
approximately $2,040 (At a 200% Fair Market Rate). The average renter’s wage is $17 per
hour, and a person would have to work 120 hours (about 5 full days) to earn enough to pay for
their monthly rent.
In addition, the average cost of a home in Palm Springs is $1.2 million; Palm Springs has seen a
dramatic increase in home prices in recent years. According to the city’s Housing Element, the
median sales price increased by 83 percent for a single-family home and increased by 75
percent for condominiums from 2012 to 2019. Housing prices increased more than six times the
change in median household income. For service workers that means they can no longer afford
to buy a home in the city they work in.
We applaud the city for its efforts to increase the production of affordable housing, including
the hundred units that are currently planned and under construction within your jurisdiction.
03/09/2023
Public Comment
Item 1G
73-710 Fred Waring Drive, Suite 100, Palm Desert, CA 92260 | lifttorise.org
However, we cannot forget that we also need to meet our regional affordable housing goals
and we cannot do so if we are losing affordable units due to expiring covenants.
Lift to Rise was formed to transform the systems that generate supply of affordable housing,
recognizing that the combination of low wages and high housing costs are the root causes of
financial precarity among Coachella Valley residents.
Together with over 60 cross-sector partners, including the City of Indio, we have coordinated a
shared goal of reducing the regional housing cost burden at a population level through the
production of 10,000 units of affordable housing in the Coachella Valley by 2028.
We are operating off a shared Action Plan which spans 5 key strategy areas:
1. aggregating a pipeline of community-prioritized projects across the valley,
2. growing a regional Housing Catalyst fund to spur production,
3. advocating at the local, state, and federal level for policies and regulatory changes that
support housing production in our region,
4. engaging and mobilizing residents and elected officials in support of affordable housing,
and
5. keeping residents housed through a coordinated eviction prevention strategy.
We stand ready as a collaborative to support the city to increase affordability. We thank the City
of Indio for joining us in this work thus far and urge the City Council to continue to prioritize the
production of affordable housing to ensure that all residents are healthy, stable, and thriving
and urge you again to prioritize affordability with this Pro Housing Designation application.
Thank you for your time.
Lift to Rise
03/09/2023
Public Comment
Item 1G