The city of Riverside earlier this month sent a letter to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) defending its efforts to fulfill several housing goals it pledged to complete years ago.
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“The city takes its commitments to ending cycles of homelessness, providing supportive services to those who need them and fighting to ensure that every Riversider who needs assistance on the path back to housing stability has resources with the utmost seriousness,” Miranda Evans, the director of the Community & Economic Development Department, said in the letter. “Beyond the commitments outlined in the 6th Cycle [Housing Element Update], the city is active across many fronts with a focus on improving housing availability and affordability.”
The letter was in response to last month’s inquiry from HCD requesting an update on several housing policies the city set out to complete over the last few years.
As part of its Housing Element, a state-required plan updated in 2021 that serves as the foundation of the city’s housing strategy, the city committed to a list of policy updates. Compliance with the plan is a requirement to qualify for a Prohousing Designation by the state, which the city currently has, allowing Riverside to be at the front of the line for grants and other benefits.
In the letter, HCD requested clarification about and updated timelines on six of the planned policy updates, set to be completed either in 2023 or 2025, including the city’s zoning code, housing policies and program reports.
“HCD, through the Housing Accountability Unit, monitors implementation of Housing Element program commitments across California,” the department said in an email to The Riverside Record. “At this time, we are reviewing jurisdictions within the Southern California Association of Governments region to assess progress toward meeting their housing element obligations.”
The department’s letter added that Riverside was behind on meeting its state-required housing goals, according to data submitted to by the city, and that the council’s decision to reject $20 million in state grant funding for a permanent supportive housing project raised concerns about whether the city was following through on its stated housing commitments.
The city, in its response, said two of those planned policies, which included updating its zoning code and promoting new neighborhood design standards, would be addressed in 2027 after the city finalized its 25-year general plan update, Riverside 2050. The city also pushed the completion timelines for the other four policy commitments to 2027.
Separate from those six policies, the city said it had been actively working on improving housing affordability and tackling homelessness beyond the commitments it had made as part of the state mandate.
The city said efforts included working with developers to build a combined 401 affordable, supportive and transitional housing units, pursuing a state grant to convert motels into senior housing and achieving functional zero in youth homelessness, among several other achievements.
The letter then pointed to several ongoing projects across the city highlighting how it was prioritizing affordable housing. One of those projects included The Place at Hulen, a 31-bed transitional housing development created in partnership with Riverside County Behavioral Health, set to open by the end of the year.
“The Place will function as a first landing place for individuals exiting homelessness and will offer treatment and supportive services necessary to get back onto the path to stable long-term housing,” Evans said in the letter.
HCD said its next step is to evaluate the city’s response and find whether the city had failed to comply with its outlined objectives. If found noncompliant, the city could lose access to certain grants, receive court-imposed penalties or lose local land use authority.
“HCD will evaluate the city’s response and determine whether further enforcement actions are warranted,” the department said in an email to The Record. “For example, these actions could include revocation of HCD’s finding of compliance if HCD determines the city has taken an action or has failed to take an action inconsistent with its Housing Element.”
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