Sacramento Captures Big Win to Combat Housing Crisis

The Sacramento City Council has just voted to bring a significant amount of city housing to the R Street Corridor of downtown Sacramento. In the passage of the vote, the city has announced it will lend nearly $3.3 million to a developer to start the project.

The planned six-story building is expected to add 159 units of housing on a currently empty plot of land. Half the units will be designated as affordable to people with various levels of income. 43 units will be for workers who earn less than 50 percent of the area’s median income – roughly $28,000 for a single person – and 21 units for people who earn 80 percent – roughly $44,000. Some of the remainder units will be left for people who make a median income of $56,000.

Battling the housing crisis throughout the state of California has been a constant policy issue for all public officials and has certainly been a focus point for Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. After the passage of the proposal, the mayor stated “this project will deliver badly needed affordable housing in Sacramento’s core, where many jobs are being created but where high rents have priced out many of the workers who fill those jobs.”

The mayor also noted part of the project is dedicated to the legacy of local developer Ali Youssefi whose lifelong goals included bringing more affordable housing to the Sacramento region. Sadly Youssefi passed away earlier this year, however, his spirit lives on as this project will be the second largest him and his associates have ever worked on. Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen said “we promised Ali that we would fight hard to finish his remaining projects, and we’ve promised to help our constituents suffering from a shortage of affordable housing – this does both.”

This project is the legacy of the late developer Ali Youssefi, who made it his mission to bring more affordable housing to Sacramento. https://t.co/R6sdIguMk6

— Darrell Steinberg (@Mayor_Steinberg) October 10, 2018

Furthermore, in a huge win for the mayor and the city, Sacramento was able to capture $38.6 million in permanent financing from the California Housing Finance Agency. The agency will be providing the designated funding to help with the R street projects as well as staff.

Construction is expected to start in late summer of 2019.