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Low-rent apartments to be built in SLO

April 1, 2016

HASLO Design

The nonprofit Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo has closed escrow on a vacant lot and plans to build 46 apartment units on the property. The project is intended to serve low-income households that cannot afford market rents in San Luis Obispo. [Tribune]

HASLO is purchasing a 1.6-acre property on Broad Street across from the Damon-Garcia Sports Fields. The nonprofit plans to construct two three-story residential buildings, as well as 4,400 square feet of commercial space.

Plans include 12 one-bedroom apartments, 19 two-bedroom apartments and 15 three-bedroom apartments raining in size from 557 to 1,030 square feet. HASLO also wants to increase the commercial space to 8,000 to 10,000 square feet and use a portion of it as office space.

The project is estimated to cost about $17 million. Executive Director Scott Smith said he hopes the apartments could serve someone earning as little as $10 to $12 an hour but also as high as $25 an hour.

Smith would not disclose the purchase price of the property. The lot was most recently assessed at $1.1 million.

The city planning commission has already approved a use permit for HASLO’s project. HASLO hopes to begin construction in December or January. Construction is expected to take about 18 months.


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The trick here is to see what OTHER development companies the people involved with this “non-profit” B.S. scam of a company are involved in.


No developer WANTS to do low-income housing. It’s LOW INCOME. Do you want to work just as hard for a fraction of your income / profit? Yeah, neither do they. Often, what happens is the “evil profiteering” developer wants a nice, crappy golf-course community somewhere and the governing agency shakes them down… you’ll get your cash-cow project… IF you waste money over here to make US look good…


So, see if there’s a nice 100+ million dollar project being held hostage for this 17 million dollar one. I am probably wrong, but that’s my gut’s first instinct here.


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You are NOT wrong!

The old saying “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”

They will always take / get more than they giveth

What they giveth us just to sugar coat


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Oh underlying and realized after is the public will pay for all or part of the sugar coating

Nothing is free


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To hell with zoning. Let’s put housing wherever we want. Commercial zone? OK! Industrial zone? OK! Downtown business area? OK! Zoning is so old school. It’s perfectly fine to let people live near the RR tracks, noisy manufacturing, drunk college students bars, you name it! Whatever it takes to provide more affordable (and non-affordable $1 million dollar townhomes) in downtown SLO and other non-residential areas.


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As long as they are not built with eye shot of Christine Mulholland or any others with those special cell phone number to call there should be no problem. We all know how Christine hates to look at anything she feels spoils her perfect view, just ask Dan De Vaul


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I’d like to live on the beach at Malibu but don’t want to pay the dues to get there….why should I. I guess I could get a government job and be set for life.


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People making $25 an hour need housing authority apartments? Something’s off here. That’s $52K a year — more than I make!


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Nothing is off. It is a scam. Yet another government-involved tax-payer scam.


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Avoid this neighborhood!


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What neighborhood? Isn’t this the empty land in front of the steam-fitter’s union hall? (Or some trade union). There is no neighborhood. This literally just sits along Broad, in one of the most traffic-congested places in the city.


The people who are involved with this are trying to SCAM the tax-payers, and their conniving thief accomplices in local government are only more than happy to encourage the theft.


Mark my words. It. Is. A. Scam.


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I am saying avoid it, like all public housing, when it gets built.


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In keeping with the theme of the affordable housing, the commercial properties should be rented to businesses that don’t make any money. We should also be forced to subsidize failing businesses as well, shouldn’t we?


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Great….Illegal Immigrant housing so the SLO binsineses can keep getting away with paying slave labor and holding down wages…just who’s side is the SLO Government on?

The American Citizens or Illegal Immigrants?


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If you build it, they will come.


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Where do you come up with this stuff? Very unlikely that illegal immigrants are going to get involved in housing authority programs to qualify for this housing. Illegal immigrants are also not broadly participating in the job market in SLO. They are working in specific industries which do not greatly contribute to holding down wages. Believe me, there is plenty of white trash trying to find a place to live in SLO. I’m not being serious of course when I call people white trash, but I figured it’d help you understand the issue based upon how you perceive things.


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SLO is a bubble and does not reflect the rest of Calif. The illegals fill up much of the low cost housing. The rule is, if there is an anchor baby in the family, they are qualified.


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“The rule is”.. STOP making stuff up. You have ZERO idea of what you are talking about


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Another fleecing. Just do the math.

$17 million for 46 units, affordable so they shouldn’t have too many fancy amenities. That’s about $370,000 per unit compared to market costs of around $110,000 per unit. Let’s not forget the bureaucracy cost on top of that.

Pretty expensive photo op for the politicians.

At the same time let’s not forget the new animal shelter they are talking about. It’s planned for around 4500 animals a year at 16,000 sq. ft.. They, politicians, are only talking about $14 million for that.


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Always good to be skeptical.. But you’re not counting in the commercial space in your calculation. I do agree these costs are ridiculously high.


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Maybe they could consult you and cover costs with bankruptcy.


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Not quite. Just the improvement costs for a 2 bedroom apt that is 800 sf built privately is almost 200K. If it was only $110,000 per unit, everyone would be building apartments in SLO and there wouild be no housing shortage. And then there is the land cost on top of that-not cheap either but the total costs are certainly a lot less than $370,000 per unit. The government always overpays for construction in order to feed the unions.


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We all can do anything with numbers. The accepted “door cost” for large multi unit structures is around $110. You can check tax records and assessors figures on large units to get an idea. New 800 sq, ft, housing would not cost this much. These are the tax credit programs where some developers make a fortune. All that money is going somewhere. Once again the politicians will praise themselves for providing affordable housing while squandering your tax money. A new 100 room hotel would cost a whole lot less than this.


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When did you learn that rule of thumb, 1987?


How may large multi-family projects have been built in SLO in the last five years? I’m sure all of those new units gave you a wealth of information on construction costs, land costs and development fees.


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Thank you. You have figured it out. Just check with private developers, as I have, and you too can verify the numbers.


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I’d rather pay for the animals they don’t have a choice for their plight. Humans do have a choice.


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