County to hold public hearing on housing funds

Funds could be used for low-interest housing rehab program

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors at its meeting this morning is scheduled to held a public hearing regarding the county’s Permanent Local Housing Allocation Plan and how to use state funding that could amount to more than $600,000.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development has announced that Inyo County is eligible for $622,622 over five years through the Permanent Local Housing Allocation (PLHA), according to county staff. It is currently year 3 of the program and funds have been available since program year 2019; this year, Inyo County staff plans to apply for years 1, 2, and 3 combined, equaling $490,685.

The final two years of Inyo’s PLHA 5 year allocation will be available next year and the following year, according to county staff.

The board held a similar public hearing last month regarding a draft plan, which the board will review again today. The discussion last month looked at low-interest/forgivable loans depending on the income level a landlord would rent to as well as free plans for accessory dwelling units that could cut costs and speed up the process to develop housing units.

The updated plan that will be reviewed includes the board’s direction to further incentivize the rental of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) developed with PLHA funds to the very low income in the form of increased partial loan forgiveness for landlords renting to tenants under 30% of the area median income.

Meaghan McCamman, assistant county administrative officer, has 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.

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.

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet in regular session at 10 a.m. today with the agenda available at the county website, www.inyocounty.us. The meeting will be held in the Board Chambers at the County Administrative Center in Independence, 224 N. Edwards St. You can stream meetings live and participate via Zoom through the county’s website at www.inyocounty.us/.