Advertisement

Irvine Veterans Committee shifts focus to affordable housing

Share

The Irvine City Council is reshaping the committee dedicated to establishing a memorial cemetery in Orange County to focus on affordable housing for qualified veterans.

Formed in January, the committee passed a resolution in July designating a 125-acre site for the veterans’ cemetery inside the Orange County Great Park’s northern border.

The unanimous approval propelled Assembly Bill 1453 to establish funding for a Southern California veterans’ cemetery through the state Legislature. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

Advertisement

Councilwoman Christina Shea brought affordable housing up for discussion Tuesday night and accepted nomination to chair the Veterans Housing Committee.

Mayor Stephen Choi agreed to step down after serving as the Cemetery Committee chairman. Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Lalloway will continue as a committee member with the remaining members to be selected from local veterans and affordable housing development leaders.

Shea, who’d originally suggested a seven-member panel, tabled discussion of the committee’s breadth in order to determine all the interest groups that should be included on the panel.

“I want it to be very interactive,” Shea said of the possibility of expanding the committee to nine or more, “so that we can really get a lot of good ideas and really try to accomplish something here.”

Demand for affordable housing appears to be high.

“There’s not much straight veterans’ affordable housing that’s been processed or built, truly just for veterans,” said Mitchell Bradford of the National Community Renaissance, a non-profit affordable housing organization based in Rancho Cucamonga.

Bradford urged the council to create more than a single committee seat for affordable-housing representatives.

“It’s complex, the whole process of conceptualizing affordable housing to the point of it being a plan,” he said after the meeting, “then getting it financed and finally getting it developed. We think it would help to have some other experience at the table.”

While the committee is being re-formed, Shea believes housing for veterans will be available relatively soon. She says current city building contracts could provide some housing in the next two to three years.

“That’s what I am envisioning,” she said. “We have so many projects that will need to be built because of entitlements that have been given to the developers — the Irvine Co. and Five Points — so within these affordable units that they are already required to build, how many can we set aside for our vets?”

Ultimately the vision is for several hundred units available to low-income veterans in Orange County.

“There would be long-term affordability and that they would have that security to know that they rebuilt their lives here,” added Shea, “and feel like they’re being honored, finally, for serving our country.”

Advertisement