Protecting Affordable Housing Is More Cost Effective Than Producing It By Ali Sahabi, Optimum Seismic, Inc. The cost of housing in San Diego, like in much of the state, is getting more and more out of reach for many residents. Homelessness is on the rise, and California’s push to build 1.8 million new affordable housing units by 2025 has prompted new legislation that could dramatically alter the look of our cities and suburbs in the years to come. There are two different approaches to addressing this problem. We need to pursue both. Producing new affordable units is a part of the solution, but doing so is very costly – conservatively averaging more than $500,000 per unit around the state and in
locations far more. Producing new affordable units also takes a long time. • Protecting our existing affordable housing units – the many thousands of older apartment buildings throughout California that typically house lower income families, senior and students – can be done for a fraction of the cost and much more quickly with earthquake retrofits. In my industry, one thing that has troubled me is the disparity found in building safety. Too often, our most vulnerable structures are those housing our most vulnerable populations. We can and should make these older, more affordable structures better and safer.
Socio-economic imbalance When it comes to earthquakes, older structures make up most of a city’s dangerous building stock, and much of that is used as housing or in business – for lowerwage commercial operations such as manufacturing, logistics and service-related industries. These structures, because of their age, are more affordable to rent. But many types built in the mid-1970s or earlier – such as soft-story apartments built over open parking areas – can have structural deficiencies that put them at risk in a major earthquake.
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