In 1849, miners from Auburn, New York named the area Auburn after discovering gold while camping on their way to Coloma. Auburn is the county seat of Placer County, California,.[9] and has a dense suburban feel, with many restaurants, coffee shops, and parks. Many young professionals and retirees live in Auburn. It is nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range at a comfortable 1,300 feet elevation. It is on the edge of the Auburn State Recreation Area and overlooks the American River Canyon with many outdoor recreational activities. Its population was 13,776 during the 2020 census. The racial makeup of Auburn was 11,863 (89.0%) White, 100 (0.8%) African American, 129 (1.0%) Native American, 240 (1.8%) Asian, 9 (0.r1%) Pacific Islander, 405 (3.0%) from other races, and 584 (4.4%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,331 persons (10.0%). The median home price in Auburn is $660,000 ($353/sq foot)
I. What are the housing services in Auburn?
Most services are rendered in partnership with the County. Are you in partnership with other jurisdictions to provide tenant protections and rental assistance? If so, what are they? How are these services paid for and are records kept regarding those accessing these resources? We would like to know of any discounts or services that may be rendered on behalf of the unhoused and residents
Affordable housing: Auburn provides Placer County brochures on fair housing, tenant rights, rehabilitation grants and loans, first-time, homebuyer programs, and Section 8. The County Section 8 assistance program helps low and very low-income families, persons with disabilities and seniors so they can live in affordable, safe, and decent housing. (City of Roseville and Rocklin have their own section 8 program). See more below.
Fair Housing: The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination when they are renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, they work with the Fair Housing and Nor Cal Legal Services.
Foreclosure Assistance: Placer County offers foreclosure assistance through programs like the "Workforce Housing Preservation Program" and by providing access to Home Loan Counseling Centers in Sacramento.
Gas: They use PG& E and for gas. There is help with lower-income residents for electric, propane or firewood with the high costs of heating and/or cooling. Annual utility bill assistance can range from. $350 to $1000
Household Hazardous Waste Cleanup: They rely on Placer county.
Landlord Tenant Mediation Services: –In 2021, Placer County entered a contract with Placer Dispute Resolution to provide community mediation and conflict resolution services for Placer County residents, property owners, and business owners, offered at low-cost, are voluntary and confidential.
II. Housing and affordable housing Statistics
a) What percent of the city are homeowners, and what percent renters? 8,017 people (60.1% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 5,035 people (37.8%) lived in rental housing units. It looks like 242 units are short term rentals.
b) What kind of local tenant protections are in place for residents? Are they working? The City is to monitor housing conditions to address the needs of an aging housing stock. As funding permits, the City provides housing rehabilitation assistance to extremely low-, very low- and low-income homeowners and tenants with maintenance, repair, and accessibility problems, as well as those living in an overcrowded situation.
c) Preservation of Affordable Housing: Affordable housing restrictions and covenants typically last anywhere from 15 to 65 years and then must be renewed. A list of existing affordable is on page A-14 of the Auburn Housing element, so that the city will know in advance to assist assuring that they remain affordable. The City is to reach out annually to owners of affordable housing to determine their intent on renewing affordability restrictions, then coordinate with owners with expiring subsidies to ensure the required notices to tenants are sent out at 3 years, 12 months, and 6 months. The City is to identify and apply for federal, state, and local subsidies available to assist with providing funds for the acquisition/rehabilitation of at-risk projects.
d) What kind of community engagement is requirement? The city is to actively recruit residents from neighborhoods of concentrated poverty to serve or participate on boards, committees, and other local government bodies by making applications available in City buildings and high traffic areas such as grocery stores during application periods.
e) How many affordable housing units exist in the city? Section 8? Project based Section 8? Developed and subsidized by developers? Inclusionary units? Who manages these? Are affordable units spread throughout the city? There is no inclusionary. Extremely low-income households are supported by approximately 296 (28 percent) apartment units set aside and subsidized by various local, state, and federal subsidy programs, including HUD Project-Based Housing Choice Vouchers (formerly known as Section 8). A list of all the financially assisted rental units is available on page A-24 of the current Auburn Housing Element. It seems that they have included some of the units in the unincorporated Placer County land. See: https://www.hcd.ca.gov/housing-elements/docs/auburn-6th-draft_update022221.pdf It is important to note that very low-income households must compete with the extremely low-income households for the available subsidized housing units. Some very low-income households can afford some of the market-rate units in the City (Compared to many urban areas, rents are relatively low in Auburn but so are incomes, so many low-income residents are struggling).
f) Are section 8 voucher holders finding landlords willing to rent to them? Are there any efforts or incentives in the city to encourage landlords to do so? Unlike the City of Roseville's Landlord Incentive Program which offers a $1,000 signing bonus to landlords who accept Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) tenants nothing like this seems to be available in Auburn.
g) What percent of the city is cost burdened? Those spending more than 30% and those spending more than 50% of their income on housing considered extremely cost burdened? Approximately 61 percent of all households within the City are overpaying (spending over 30 percent of their income on housing in Auburn) for housing. Of all households, 13 percent of extremely low-income households are overpaying, and 15 percent are very low-income households; and 18 percent low-income households. There was no data on those spending more than 50% of their income on housing. To determine these income levels, according to the 2013–2017 ACS, the median household income in the City of Auburn was $57,289, while the median family income was $77,569 (Table A-6). In comparison, the median household income in Placer County was $80,488 and the median family income was $98,552. This indicates that incomes in Auburn were roughly 70 to 80 percent of the countywide income.
h) What is the need for more affordable housing according to the Reginal Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) How has the city faired on meeting the RHNA numbers and reaching benchmarks in the past and today? According to the Auburn Housing Element (AHE) listing the RHNA numbers for the City of Auburn, they were to plan for 310 units, which equates to an annual need of approximately 39 units. You can see is this table how the city did (or didn’t do) in reaching these goals for the 2013-2021 RHNA compared to the newer 2021-2029 goals.
Auburn 2013-2021 2021-2029
i) Does the city have plans to build affordable housing? Are they accessing funding for this? What is the attitude of the City Council and staff about the need for more affordable housing? Are they able to afford to live in the city? How far do they need to drive to work? Or if they live in the city, do they hope their children and grandchildren can also afford to live close by?
According to the AHE, they will support and facilitate the construction of affordable rental housing for extremely low to low- income seniors and older adults as opportunities arise. Auburn provides developers with guidance on State incentives during the predevelopment application process. The AHE says that non-profits and housing advocates are contacted when funding has become available to the City to create potential public and private partnerships and staff coordinates with property owners with underutilized buildings to promote conversion for affordable and senior rental housing.
j) Are there any plans to do TOD –Transit Oriented Development? Are there any policy incentives in the city to encourage affordable units in TOD areas? Or any other areas of the city? If so, are they working? No.
k) Has there been any interest on the part of staff, city council and public to have Inclusionary housing? Auburn has no Inclusionary housing or in-lieu fees. In a public meeting attendees expressed support for mixed-use development, inclusionary housing, high-density rental options, accessory dwelling units, fee waivers, density bonuses, and overall pursuing solutions to housing shortages.
l) Have there been efforts to support congregations interested in providing affordable housing on a portion of their underutilized land? If so, in what way? Have the city staff studied SB 4? No, in fact prior to SB 4 the city council made a church detach itself from the nomadic shelter, no overnight guests as condition of use
m) What percent of the city’s budget is for historical preservation? What percent on affordable housing? There is a historic preservation commission https://www.auburnalabama.org/HPC/ but no budget information was found.
m) Describe how code enforcement is working in the city? approximately ¾ of the housing stock is older than 30 years and is likely in need of some type of repair or rehabilitation. In some cases, the cost of repairs can be prohibitive, causing the owner or renter to live in substandard conditions or being or displaced if uninhabitable. City will assist homeowners to identify and apply for rehabilitation
n) Has there been interest in building ADUs? What are the city’s policies on this? Is there any interest in creating incentives to help folks get low-cost loans to convert their garage or of other structures into and ADU in exchange for Section 8? There is support via pre-approved plans for ADUs
III. Questions about Homelessness.
a) How would you describe the extent of homelessness in your jurisdiction? How many were officially counted in the last count? Do you think this is accurate? What have been the homeless counts in the city for the past 5 years? The AHE estimates that there are between 22 and 30 unhoused residents, based on police reports and the county homeless count.
b) How would you describe the attitude of the city regarding homelessness and what measures are being discussed and implemented to address this? Do the city leaders generally adopt the housing first model? They rely on the county, and do not adopt housing first as preferred model. The Placer County Homeless Services is involved. There are homeless outreach teams.
c) Is there an openness to having permanent supportive housing? Shelters? And if so, are the steps to make this happen? Have they purchased land for this? Auburn has zoned for supportive housing and permits permanent emergency shelters in the Regional Commercial – Emergency Shelter (C-3-ES) zone district by right (i.e., without discretionary action). Their SB2 zone does not seem to provide for adequate shelter by right. Shelters in Auburn are, The Gathering Inn and Stand Up Placer (for victims of domestic abuse). Placer County has a first-of-its-kind mobile, temporary shelter in Auburn, located in the Placer County Government Center and consists of approximately 50 heavy-duty tents with cots and basic bedding, shower and restroom facilities, trash service, drinking water access, and picnic tables. Supportive services, such as referrals for drug treatment and housing resources, are available next to the shelter in a county facility that will double as a warming and cooling center during extreme weather.
d) Are there homeless prevention plans and programs in place? All of Placer and Navada Counties have one Continuum of Care plan to address homelessness. See: https://dashboard.nubi.io/customfile/7794b811ac8155d9f9ff8f6d79236542.pdf