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Strategic Plan — FY 2000 -FY 2004 City of San Leandro Page 9 of 35 PART I. PRIORITY AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEEDS Priority: Increase the availability of affordable rental housing for low and moderate- income households. Priority Analysis and Obstacles to Meeting Underserved Needs The City of San Leandro is a participating jurisdiction in the Alameda County HOME Consortium. The following analysis of the availability of affordable rental housing for low- and moderate - income households, and obstacles to meeting this need, was prepared by the Consortium. As a Consortium member, the City of San Leandro subscribes to this priority and has proposed activities that meet the objective of providing affordable rental housing for low- and moderate- income households. The need for affordable rental housing in Alameda County has increased dramatically in the past five years. The need far exceeds the supply of affordable rental housing in the Alameda County HOME Consortium. The Alameda County HOME Consortium Housing Needs Analysis indicates that the majority of low- income rental households (earning 80 percent or less of the area's median income) spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing costs. Affordable housing is in short supply throughout the county. Very high cost housing markets reduce the supply of affordable housing even further. As rents increase, subsidies in rental assistance programs also increase, which results in a reduction in the number of persons that can be served in these programs. For the past three years, rents have been going up while the vacancy rate has been decreasing. South County faces an extremely tight rental market, and now some landlords who had previously accepted Section 8 are no longer willing to do so because of the limitations placed on the rents that can be charged under the program. This effect is starting to be felt in other areas of the county as well. The 1990 Census information indicates that there are over 86,000 low- income renters in Alameda County. The need for affordable housing is especially acute among extremely low- income renters (35% of median income). Over seventy -five percent of extremely low- income renters have difficulty finding suitable housing that they can afford. Almost all (92 %) extremely low- income renters with large families have problems finding housing. The Alameda County Subsidized Housing Inventory (1997) includes 19,764 rental housing units with long -term affordability and income level restrictions. Despite this, there are over 37,000 low- income renter households that pay more than 30% of income for rent. In addition, the majority of the available supply of units are smaller units, more suitable for singles, elderly and smaller households than for larger families. Of the total designated subsidized rental units, 9,350 units are designated for family housing, 6,753 units are designated for senior housing, 997 are Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units, and 757 units have been identified as accessible to people with disabilities (these units often overlap with other types of housing). Classifications are unknown for 1,907 units.