Encinitas Assailed on Low-Cost Housing : Shelter: State agency says city has failed to deal with issue of providing affordable housing for migrants.

For the third time in two years, the state agency that oversees housing policy has come down on the city of Encinitas for its lack of affordable and low-income housing, and what the state claims is an inadequate plan to address those needs.

In a letter dated Oct. 29, the deputy director of the state Department of Housing and Community Development applauded some recent amendments to the Encinitas housing plan that would preserve existing low-income housing.

But, the letter said, Encinitas has still not addressed the most basic recommendations made by the state in July, 1990.

The plan “still does not include adequate program actions to assist in the development of housing for low- and moderate-income households or provide adequate sites for the development of housing for all income groups,” deputy director Thomas Cook wrote to Encinitas City Manager Warren Shafer.

Much of the low-income housing debate in Encinitas--and a lawsuit that debate prompted--has centered on Latino migrants: Encinitas’ hillsides are dotted with the makeshift hooches of migrant workers, and day laborers seek work in the beach community.

Some city officials have pointed out that affordable housing is also virtually nonexistent for other people who are scraping to make a living at minimum wage jobs.

Cathy Creswell, manager of the planning and review unit at the state Department of Housing and Community Development, said the state’s concerns about migrant housing expressed in 1990 have yet to be addressed.

“The statute requires that (Encinitas) analyze the housing needs of particular populations, and farm workers were one of them,” Creswell said. “They still need to do that. They have not revised their (housing plan) and sent it to us to reflect that.”

The lack of affordable housing sparked a vitriolic debate among migrants, migrant activists and some city residents in 1989, when six migrants filed suit against the city in Vista Superior Court claiming they could not find affordable housing within city limits.

That year, the state Department of Housing and Community Development first told Encinitas its housing plan failed to meet state standards. The state pointed to the lawsuit as a source of information on the city’s housing problems.

Since then, a proposal to convert a 106-room Encinitas motel into low-income units was shot down by the City Council after neighbors strongly opposed the project, and the court ruled in favor of the Encinitas housing plan.

While California Rural Legal Assistance, which filed the 1989 lawsuit on behalf of the migrants, plans to appeal that decision, not much else has changed for those most in need.

“We are particularly concerned, because the Encinitas annual report shows that they are not doing a very good job of addressing the low-income needs,” Creswell said.

Creswell said the state has no current information about the migrant housing situation in Encinitas, but according to state statutes, the city should supply that information.

The July, 1990, letter mentioned a city report submitted to the state that lamented the migrant homeless situation. Earlier that year, the migrant issue prompted the City Council to declare a state of local emergency, calling for federal assistance.

But state housing officials said that seeking help from other government agencies didn’t fulfill the city’s housing obligations.

“The city has identified ‘substantial’ unmet homeless need including documented and undocumented homeless workers,” the state letter said. “It may be necessary to identify additional sites for the development of emergency shelters.”

In a similar letter to Shafer in May of this year, the state pointed out the limited progress made in Encinitas between April, 1990, and June, 1991, for those in the lowest income categories: While a need for 323 “very low” income units was noted, one unit had been added. And only one “low” income unit had been added of 239 identified as needed.

The most progress was made in the “above moderate” income category.

But Shafer and other city officials say the state is being unreasonable.

Some studies have been done to ensure that low-income housing built with federal money will remain affordable, Shafer said. A Community Development Block Grant went to a community resource center, and another set of grants has funded a 10-unit affordable housing project expected to be completed next year, Shafer said.

“Our basic feeling is we are in compliance. The court found in our favor, so we’re a little unclear as to what (the state) thinks is not in order,” Shafer said. “The law allows you to self-certify your own housing (plan), and we have gone ahead and done that.”

But Creswell says that’s simply not true.

“No. There’s no mechanism to self-certify,” she said. If the city chooses to ignore the state recommendations, she said, city staff must submit their reasons for doing so--reasons that the state would ultimately have to approve.

Creswell said her agency has no enforcement powers, but the state attorney general has begun cracking down on cities who have flouted state housing plan guidelines most egregiously. Encinitas is not one of those cities, she said.

Other city officials have made it clear the state agency’s vigilance is not appreciated.

“For the state to come down on us at this point is absolutely ridiculous,” said newly reelected City Councilwoman Gail Hano. “They have to give us a chance to get this thing going. We have 10 units coming on line in the spring. Before this, there hasn’t been anyone who has really tried to come through with a viable project.”

The debate over density allowances, which some say make affordable housing cost-effective, has been particularly pointed in a community sensitive to growth issues.

Hano said Encinitas is already built out, and federal and state constraints prevent the city from using Community Development Block Grants to subsidize existing housing, which is for sale and for rent all over town.

But Claudia Smith, regional counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance, said the city has actually gotten in the way of low-income projects like the motel proposal. Even the new 10-unit project is not for those most in need--migrant workers receiving minimum wage. What Encinitas needs, she said, is subsidized housing and an emergency shelter.

Steve Feher, president of the Esperanza Housing and Community Development Corp., which is building the 10 four-bedroom units, agreed that his project is not geared for migrant workers. But it’s a start.

“Our project is the first affordable housing project in Encinitas since it became a city,” he said. “It’s a very modest beginning, but it’s a beginning. We’re trying to really break the ice.”

The units cater to families of four who make about $22,000 a year, and will run between $400 and $650 to rent, Feher said.

“There’s no question . . . that the city needs additional affordable housing,” he said. “Some opponents claim that there is housing, but that’s just not the case, especially for people who work for minimum wage.”

Housing for migrants has proved a touchy issue in Encinitas. Those living in hillside hooches don’t want to pay even minimal rents, and laborers who seek employment from day to day should not be encouraged to stay in an area where work has dried up, Hano said.

“I don’t think that we should be required to create housing for a job market that doesn’t exist,” she said. “I am opposed to people living in the hills. The people in the hills are for the most part looking for a free ride. They are not willing to spend more than $25 a week on rent. My concern is to get them out of the hills and into conventional housing that they are going to pay for, not that residents of Encinitas will pay for.

“We do have 10 units coming through, and we’re darn lucky to have those,” she said.