County discusses housing options as part of plan

State program makes more than $600,000 available

Inyo County may be implementing a new housing rehabilitation loan program that could lead to more housing while providing provisions for loan forgiveness based on the income level the housing would serve.

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday held a workshop on housing priorities in order to develop a five-year plan for purposes of applying for Inyo County’s Permanent Local Housing Allocation.

Meaghan McCamman, assistant county administrative officer, said the state Office of Housing and Community Development recently released a notice of funding availability for the third year of the Permanent Local Housing Allocation program. She said funding has been available from this program since 2020 but the county not yet “pulled down an allocation.”

McCamman said staff is recommending that the county submit for all three available years at this time, which is a total of $490,685.

In order to access those funds, she said the county must submit a five-year plan by the end of November.

McCamman said the county would receive the $490,000 that’s currently available And then the county will submit smaller applications next year and the year after to obtain allocations for the fourth and fifth years.

She said the county would be able to change its plan with the subsequent allocation applications in the next couple of years.

“So even though we’ll submit a five-year plan right now, we can certainly make adjustments to that plan in years four and five,” she said.

The estimated five-year total of program funds is $622,622, she said.

Allocation funds

McCamman said there appear to be a variety of eligible activities for these funds, which include predevelopment, development, acquisition, rehabilitation and preservation of affordable rental and own

ership housing.

However, she said, after talking more with the state’s Housing and Community Development Office and conducting more research, there are more rules and constraints that might be apparent at first glance Program funds are generally geared toward low- to moderate-income with a priority on households earning 60% or below the area median income.

McCamman noted how earlier this year the board and staff conducted a similar housing priorities workshop. Some of the programs and policies discussed at the time included relaunching the county’s first-time home buyers down-payment assistance program; identifying land and incentivizing developers to build on it; partnering with developers for affordable housing; and offering free accessory dwelling unit plans and prototypes, which is similar to programs Mono County and several other counties have adopted.

McCamman said the county also has discussed implementing a rehabilitation loan program and an accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit loan program. Talks also included working with a consultant to identify future opportunities, especially around financing.

She said when the PLH funds became available, staff looked at the priorities and how they might fit within the funding parameters.

Down Payment Assistance Program

McCamman said the county’s First Time Homebuyers Down Payment Assistance Program has $400,000 that comes from a prior county down payment assistance program that staff is prepared to redeploy through Eastern Sierra Community Housing, formerly Mammoth Lakes Housing.

She said the housing agency is ready to update the county’s rules to meet the new HCD requirements and then launch the program.

Identifying land

McCamman said the county is awaiting word on the application submitted by Visionary Home Builders of California for $19.5 million in multifamily housing funds, which is expected to come down between December and January. The contractor is set to develop the Silver Peaks affordable housing project that would be located at McIver and

Spruce in Bishop and is anticipated to provide 70 housing units.

Meanwhile, she said, the county’s Planning Department continues to work through a consultant to perform California Environmental Quality Act reviews on eight vacant parcels identified in the county’s vacant lands inventory.

The county also is zeroing in on some parcels in Lone Pine to target for affordable housing development, she said.

McCamman said Lone Pine has been identified as a priority for affordable housing development under the county’s housing element, which is a staterequired plan to meet existing and projected housing needs of all economic segments within the county’s jurisdiction.

A plan for land

McCamman said in looking at Permanent Local Housing Allocation funds, the first priority was to set aside some money to purchase “the right property” to perform pre-development or infrastructure work to incentivize developers.

However, she said, PLH funding requirements state that the county must have a firm plan regarding what housing would be developed and what income levels will be available for rental housing.

“We’re not quite there yet,” as the county continues to determine what parcels it wants to target, McCamman said.

She said as the county five-year housing plan develops, it can choose to set aside the remaining two years of PLH funding for the purpose of purchasing land, beginning CEQA reviews and infrastructure development on that land.

ADU plans and prototypes

McCamman said Mono County has just released its accessory dwelling unit prescriptive designs aimed at reducing costs and time to build a secondary separate housing unit on the same land as a detached house.

She said Inyo is working with Mono to determine the best way to share those plans with county residents and develop new plans beyond what Mono County offers. Mono County has designs for studio, one and two bedroom units, rural mountain and high desert plans that range in size from 440 to 1,000 square feet.

Inyo hopes to commission a few more design options, including smaller and bigger units, as well as “over-garage” options.

Rehabilitation and ADU/JADU loans

McCamman said staff at this time is proposing the county dedicate its PLH funding toward rehabilitation loans and accessory dwelling unit or junior accessory dwelling unit loans for now in the county’s five-year housing plan.

She said this would equal $490,000 for the program that could offer loans to homeowners up to 120% of the area median income for rehabilitation or to construct accessory dwelling units or junior accessory dwelling units. This ranges from $69,500 for one person to $107,200 for a household of five people.

McCamman said city of Bishop also is eligible for PLH funding and is interested in mirroring this program with its funding so it would look seamless to the consumer.

She said the county would focus its funding on the unincorporated areas while the city would offer its funds in the city of Bishop.

McCamman said with the funds the county could provide grants, loans or a combination of both, which “could be a great way to help incentivize people to use their loans to provide rental housing and especially rental housing for

Staff recommendations

McCamman said after consulting with the city of Bishop, Eastern Sierra Community Housing and the state HCD, staff is making the following recommendations:

• Provide a low-interest loan program for low- to moderate-income homeowners up to 120% of the average median income in need of repairs on singlefamily homes, or mobile homes set on a permanent foundation (up to $25,000), and owners of multi-family rental properties where at least half of the tenants are low-income under 60% AMI (up to $10,000 per unit).

• Provide low-interest loans to low- to moderateincome homeowners for development of ADUs and JADUs for long-term rental (up to $75,000), with up to 25% of the loan forgivable if the homeowner can show that the ADU has been rented for at least fives years to a tenant with income under 60% AMI.

• Reinvest program income into these programs.

Supervisors said they concurred with staff recommendations and are eager to move forward with the five-year housing plan.