SMDP is continuing its coverage of the Builder’s Remedy projects with an ongoing series focusing on each project. Here, you’ll find the rundown on the only 100% affordable project among the applicants along with some background information on the city’s overall housing stock.
The Project
On paper, 1215 19th Street doesn’t look out of scale with other Santa Monica developments. It stands about 60 feet tall, will hold 34 units and will be 100 percent affordable. The building includes a rooftop garden space for residents.
However, when placed into the real world, the building is about twice as tall as its neighbors. In addition, the project application calls for zero parking spaces.
The project is one of 10 that have advanced beyond the initial application to include actual plans and renderings.
HOUSING HISTORY
As part of a Housing Element, Santa Monica had to provide a rundown of various housing-related facts to regional regulators. The information below is taken from the local housing data available from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). SCAG oversees the assignment of housing units that a municipality must account for in a housing element and the data below was last updated in 2021.
While the majority of residents in the region are owners (52.5% compared to 47.5% renters), Santa Monica residents are significantly outside that range with 29% owning and 71% renting. Renting is vastly more common among young residents and only 20% of households under the age of 55 own a home.
Of the city’s population, 18% moved here since 2015, 34% arrived between 2010-2014, 20% moved in between 2000-2009, 14% came in the 1990s and 14% have lived here since 1989 or earlier.
The resident distribution over that time by housing time differs greatly. About 40% of renters arrived between 2010 and 2014. Of the total homeowners, about 22% arrived pre-1989, about 21% in the 90’s, and 25% in the 2000’s.
Most households in Santa Monica are one person (46.9%) and the second-most commonly occurring household is two people (31%). Santa Monica has a far higher share of single-person households than the SCAG region overall (46.9% vs. 23.4%) and a lower share of 7+ person households than the SCAG region overall (0.1% vs. 3.1%).
About 67% of the total housing stock is in large multi-family units (five or more units), and 18.5% is single-family homes. Over the past two decades (2000-2020), there has been vastly more development in multi-family residential (MFR) units than single-family homes (SFR). SFR units increased by 379, MFR units increased by 4,472 and mobile homes decreased by 85. About 70% of all units were built pre-1980.
Across Santa Monica’s 32,496 renter households, 14,049 (43.2%) spend 30% or more of gross income on housing cost, compared to 55.3% in the SCAG region. Additionally, 7,152 renter households in Santa Monica (22%) spend 50% or more of gross income on housing cost, compared to 28.9% in the SCAG region. For homeowners, 46% have a mortgage payment of over $4,000.
Between 2000 and 2018, median home sales prices in Santa Monica increased 242% while prices in the SCAG region increased 151%. In 2018 median home sales prices in Santa Monica were $1,455,500 and the highest experienced since 2000 was $1,475,000 in 2017.
- Editor's Note: this story has been corrected to reflect the correct percentage of renters in the city.
