Monterey City Council discusses possible future affordable housing project
MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) Living on the coast comes with a price.
"My girlfriend is already living at a friend of the family's house and we're just moving into a downstairs room. It's probably only 120 square feet, maybe a little more. It's $800 a month," said resident, Liam Page.
Similar stories can be heard around the Monterey Peninsula. "So many people want to live here, and of course, the prices are so huge," said resident, John Motter.
The housing crisis in Monterey has become a particular problem for the tourism and hospitality industry. With no place to live, and no way to afford it, businesses are struggling to hire enough employees to keep up with demand.
"We are one of the largest employers in the hospitality sector here on the Monterey peninsula. Many of our employees are affected by the lack of affordable housing," said Monterey Bay Aquarium Public Affairs Director, Barbara Meister.
Meister said, of the aquarium's 570 employees, only 184 live in Monterey and Pacific Grove. "Even at our senior positions, we have difficulty recruiting our employees because of the high cost of housing," said Meister.
The City of Monterey is taking steps to mitigate the housing problem. Tuesday night, council members all votes "yes" to the start of a new affordable housing plan.
City manager, Hans Uslar, said they are now opening applications for developers at for potential affordable housing locations. Uslar said the city's goal is to make all new units fit the affordable requirements.
"There are developers in the market that do nothing but 100% affordable units. We feel by offering them land, and water in some instances, it's an attractive proposal to enter into negotiations with the city of Monterey," said Uslar.
Uslar said the city wants to find a way to reserve the new units for people who work and study in Monterey.
"There's a strong demand population wise. the military is based here too. you've got a lot of people," said Motter.
