For the second time, both the City of Bakersfield and Kern County’s Housing Elements have been deemed out of compliance by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
With both elements needing to be in compliance, the Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability (LCJA) is urging officials to refrain from adopting a non-compliant Housing Element and to work closely with the community and community-based organizations to ensure compliance with the state law.
The City of Bakersfield
On July 18, the HCD wrote a letter to Paul Johnson, the Director of the Planning Division for the City of Bakersfield reviewing the the City’s revised draft housing element for the 2023-2031 planning period.
In the letter, the HCD acknowledged that the City’s draft element meets many of the statutory requirements outlined in their September 20, 2023 review. However, revisions are needed to ensure substantial compliance with the State Housing Element Law.
Of the revisions that the City needs to make, one key revision surrounds Bakersfield’s responsibility to ensure fair housing opportunities across all areas of the city. This is part of a broader legal requirement known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing”(AFFH), which aims to reduce segregation and promote more inclusive, diverse communities.
The city is required to identify where new housing will be built and these sites need to be spread throughout different areas of the city, not just concentrated in certain neighborhoods. While the city’s current draft has analyzed these housing sites based on socio-economic characteristics, it also needs to consider where these sites are located geographically.
During the July 24 Bakersfield City Council meeting, Sandra Melgoza-Plascencia, a policy advocate for LCJA commented that they are raising concerns regarding the overconcentration of sites being proposed in Southeast Bakersfield, East, and Central Bakersfield
“While the sites that will be rezoned are spread throughout the city, it is evident that the majority of R4 sites are located east of the 99. The overconcentration of these sites in low resource areas does not abide by AFFH due to these sites being identified as prone to displacement, cost-burdened, and are racially, ethnically concentrated areas of poverty in the housing element,” said Melgoza-Plascencia.
R4 zoning permits medium- to high-density residential development, typically allowing for the construction of multi-family units such as apartment buildings, townhouses, and condos. While the specific regulations can differ depending on the city or jurisdiction, R4 zones generally support the development of taller buildings with more units compared to lower-density zones like R1, which are often limited to single-family homes.
“Public participation in the development, adoption, and implementation of the housing element is essential to effective housing planning. Throughout the housing element process, the City must continue to engage the community, including organizations that represent lower-income and special-needs households; by making information regularly available while considering and incorporating comments where appropriate,” the HCD wrote in the letter.
Kern County
On August 2, the HCD wrote a letter to Craig Murphy, the Assistant Director of the Planning and Natural Resources Department for Kern County reviewing the the County’s revised draft housing element for the 2023-2031 planning period.
Like the City, the County’s housing element draft also addressed many statutory requirements but still requires further revisions to be in compliance with the State Housing Element Law.
In this letter, the HCD acknowledged the County’s ongoing efforts to identify appropriate sites for the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), but noted that the County and the City have not agreed on how to handle annexation, which affects how these sites can be used to meet RHNA targets. HCD encourages the County and City to reach a mutual agreement to ensure clarity and collaboration in addressing regional housing needs.
RHNA is a state-mandated process in California that determines the number of housing units each region must plan for to meet the housing needs of all economic segments of the population. The RHNA process is part of the state’s broader housing policy framework, aimed at ensuring that cities and counties accommodate their fair share of housing development to address current and projected population growth.
In its own letter written to the county, LCJA emphasized the importance of community engagement and the adoption of programs that address the housing needs of all residents, including those from low-income and marginalized communities.
“The County has a duty to ensure that everyone has access to opportunity,” said Melgoza-Plascecia, who spoke during the Kern County Board of Supervisors August 6 meeting.
Melgoza-Plascencia noted that districts four and five have a high number of special needs homes, like farmworkers and single mothers who are head of household, that are experiencing habitability issues.
“We work in these areas, we go house to house, we knock on doors, we go into apartments. We see horrible habitability issues. That is incredibly true – we have documentation and pictures to prove it. While we appreciate the study that is being recommended by the County, we also suggest that we don’t need a study when we know that we cannot have folks wait eight to 10 more years to meet their housing needs. Folks are suffering now,” she commented.
