California's affordable housing crisis appears to be getting worse.
A Los Angeles Times study released Thursday found that "affordable" housing developments in the state are costing $1M per unit to build. The Times study is based on documents and data from state, federal and academic sources.
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With the state already facing a rising cost of construction and now, locked down due to the global coronavirus pandemic that is impacting supply lines and changing the workforce, that cost could get higher in the years to come.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has stated his goal of building more than 3.5 million housing units by 2025. In Southern California, more than 1.35 million housing units need to be built in order to meet the region's growing population, according to a 2019 report by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
The Times found at least seven affordable housing developments in the state that cost more than $900K a unit to build. The median price of a single-family home in the state is about $571K, according to Zillow.
The Everett Commons, a 20-unit development that opened last year in the city of Alameda, cost $947K per apartment, according to the Times. The affordable housing development features a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and provides social services for its residents.
An 18-unit affordable housing development called Pearl in Solana Beach in San Diego cost $1.1M per unit.
Affordable housing developers attribute the high cost to local and state bureaucracy, impact fees, labor and NIMBYs that sometimes force developers to redesign projects and fight lawsuits that increase costs and stall the timeline, according to the Times.
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