GO FISH
On Wednesday night, Mammoth Lakes Town Council approved an additional $7.2 million to fund the Kingfisher 2 affordable housing project at the Parcel. Town staff expect this funding will allow Pacific West Communities, the developers building the Parcel, to accept an award from the state of approximately $42 million.
The Kingfisher 2 project is the third piece of the Parcel, a low-income housing development spearheaded by the Town of Mammoth Lakes. People are currently living in the Sawyer, the first piece of the Parcel project, and Kingfisher 1, the second piece of the puzzle, is under construction. The housing is intended for individuals who make 30-80% of the Mono County Area Median Income (AMI).
Who qualifies to live in the Parcel? Shellan Rodriguez, a consultant from SMR development, compiled a list of jobs an individual with a dependent in a two-person household could hold while living there, if the dependent does not work. These included a custodian working in Mono County (making $43,272-$52,597; 37-44% AMI).
“If you are a single person working full-time, you just have to make under $27.50 [an hour] to qualify for 80% AMI,” said a voice from the audience. It belonged to Amanda Greenberg, a social worker living at the Sawyer.
There is also an income cap on these units.
“When you get to 140% of the area median income, that unit no longer qualifies for the welfare tax exemption, so generally speaking, we would not re-up that lease,” Rodriguez said. “That has never happened at the Sawyer.”
Before the council approved the additional funding, members of the audience gave public comments in support of the project.
“You are building connections and fighting the loneliness epidemic,” said Robin Roberts, Director of Behavioral Health for Mono County.
“My housing at the Sawyer has been a huge asset,” a Sawyer resident and long-time employee at DIY homegoods echoed. “Now that my rent is affordable, I can also afford to take better care of my health.”
The vote from the Town Council was passed relatively quickly, given the extensive discussion on the funds during the last council meeting in October.
The council’s affirmative vote came with a contingency: prior to distributing any portion of the committed funds, the town can amend or terminate the Development Agreement for the Parcel and negotiate an option agreement with Pacific Communities to bring the agreement back to the Town Council. In layman’s terms: in case something disastrous happens in Sacramento, and the state isn’t able to deliver on the $42 million, Mammoth Lakes won’t have to pay the $7.2. An insurance policy of sorts.
The $7.2 million will come from the General Fund, which consists of Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) money. Since voters approved a TOT from 12% to 15% last year, the town has more money in the General Fund.
A presentation given earlier in the night by Aaron Nousaine, a consultant for BAE Urban Economics, highlighted the need for housing in Mammoth Lakes. He drew on a variety of data sources, ranging from the US census bureau to reported data from The Sheet. Some of his numbers were from 2017 and 2020, although he included 2025 market rate rents.
Nousaine began his presentation with data which displayed a declining population in both Inyo and Mono Counties. He stated the population decreased between 2010 and 2020, and is projected to continue to decrease. Inyo’s population loss, he said, will be more stable between 2025 and 2035, whereas Mono’s is projected to lose up to 1.5% of its population by 2035.
“It seems as though housing availability and cost may be one contributing factor [to the declining population],” Nousaine said.
He then turned to migration patterns in Mammoth, presenting numbers from 2019 to 2022 which showed 1,368 people requested to change addresses to leave Mono County in 2022. Who are these people? Nousaine did not know.
“Can we get data from ‘23 and ‘24?” Mayor Chris Bubser asked. “The period from ‘19 to ‘22 was odd. I would feel more comfortable saying this was a real thing if we had some more recent data.”
Nousaine responded that the most recent data from the source they previously collected this data from was too expensive to collect, he said.
He also presented data from a worker response survey which showed 34% of workers in Mono and Inyo counties are looking for a new place to live, 35% are concerned about finding housing, and 53% are overpaying for housing, meaning these individuals spend more than a third of their income on housing.
In the final part of his presentation, Nousaine laid out the housing needs per income bracket in the town, which he listed as 1,170 units. Roughly a third of the need exists at the low income bracket, which serves individuals who make 80% of the AMI or below (the Parcel sweet spot). About 19% of the need is categorized as “upper incomes,” meaning 150-350% AMI, and usually encompasses median priced single-family homes. But the majority of housing needs exist in the middle income bracket, totalling 560 units at 80-150% AMI.
Mayor Bubser hopes completing the Parcel project will alleviate some of these housing needs.
“A lot of people have asked us why we’re not focusing more on the missing middle,” she told The Sheet on Wednesday. By the “missing middle,” she means the middle income bracket most in need of housing. “When you help people in the lowest income bracket get into housing, they move from somewhere, so it opens up housing that these people could move into.”
Bubser added Pacific West Communities is able to receive federal tax breaks on the Parcel project due to the income bracket the developer is focused on. Those tax breaks are not available for building units in the missing middle.
