Housing Element Update
2021-2029 Housing Element
Draft Initial Study — Negative Declaration
Market Study
Fiscal Study
Comments can be submitted to: generalplanupdate@
Resources
Links
California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD)
Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)
Regional Housing Needs Assessment – Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Housing Element?
The Housing Element is Montebello’s housing plan for the next 8 years (2021-2029). It will include policies and programs that express our collective vision and values for the future of housing in Montebello. This update will determine what our housing needs are and how we will work to address them, defining priorities for decision making and resource allocation for housing programs, development, and services. The Housing Element will include an inventory of sites suitable for residential development in Montebello; an assessment of financial and programmatic resources; and an analysis of constraints, both governmental and non-governmental, to housing production in Montebello.
To make sure housing policies and programs are inclusive and represent the values and ideas of our city’s diverse population, we want to hear from as many Montebello residents and community members as possible. Get involved. Participate in the Housing Task Force and focus group meetings, and the visioning charrette.
Purpose
In the face of rising housing costs, there comes a limit to what innovative industries can absorb to attract and retain the talent they need to remain competitive. The service industries that support those dynamic sectors are already struggling. For young people, working people, and the poor, there is also a breakpoint on how much rent and mortgages can eat into their income. Like climate change, the housing affordability crisis is a slowly unfolding catastrophe. The affordable housing crisis is now the most serious threat to California’s future standard of living and quality of life.
Our quality of life is equally threatened. California retains formidable advantages of climate, natural beauty, diversity, and social vitality. We pride ourselves on our progressive values. Yet rising homelessness is a graphic reminder of grotesque inequities and our fraying social fabric. Our public institutions must show progress against the frightening spread of blue tarps and tents to rebuild our faith in a just and safe future.
Montebello is committed on course toward making decent and affordable housing both a community benefit and a human right. Over the next eight years, Montebello will build its share of the 1.3 million units of housing that we need to serve all income levels in Southern California.
The purpose of the 2021-2029 Housing Element is to find community support for building substantial new housing, especially affordable housing, among their residents. Success will require patient dialogue, coalition-building, and political will to put policies into action. The Housing Element identifies and analyzes the current and future housing needs of residents within Montebello and establishes goals, policies, and programs to meet Montebello’s housing needs. The City seeks to conserve and rehabilitate existing housing as well as provide opportunities for new development. The Housing Element will enlist Montebello’s diverse constituencies to come up with workable solutions. The Housing Element seeks to improve coordination and manage for results. The best way to secure more funding is to more effectively deploy the money we’re already spending.
Requirements
State law requires Montebello to adopt a General Plan containing seven mandatory elements, one of which is housing. Unlike the other General Plan elements, the Housing Element, required to be updated every eight years, is subject to detailed statutory requirements and mandatory review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
The Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is a State rule that requires all California cities to plan enough regional housing to meet housing needs for all income levels. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) makes RHNA “assignments” for each city including Montebello.
Montebello must plan for 5,174 new housing units between 2021 and 2029. The distribution of the 5,174 units will be as follows:
- 1,311 Very‐low income units
- 705 Low-income units
- 775 Moderate income units
- 2,383 Above‐moderate income units
Housing Element Task Force
The Montebello Housing Element Task Force (HETF) will provide input on how the City’s programs, regulations, and processes can be structured to formulate policies that protect Montebello’s stable neighborhoods while providing desperately needed affordable, high-quality housing for all residents.
The HETF will meet jointly with the Planning Commission three times:
First Meeting: The objective of the first meeting was to review the current housing needs and conditions; and the Housing Element update requirements, process, approach, and schedule. The first meeting occurred on June 17, 2021.
Click here to download the presentation.
Click here to view the recorded presentation.
In between the first and second HETF meeting, a four-day Visioning Workshop for General Plan, Downtown Specific Plan, and Housing Element was held from June 21-24. The 4-day workshop engaged the community to develop a consensus on a citywide vision for growth, preservation, and renewal — specifically, the amount and location where new growth will be directed.
Second Meeting: The objective of the second meeting was to gather input on the effectiveness of existing housing goals, policies, and programs, review the AFFH requirements, and review potential sites. The second meeting was held on July 15, 2021, at 6:30 pm.
Click here to download the presentation.
Click here to view the recorded presentation.
Final Meeting: The objective of the final meeting was to review preliminary goals, policies, and programs for the administrative draft of the Housing Element Update. The final meeting was on August 26, 2021.