More affordable housing headed to Oceanside

Oceanside has more than 1,100 affordable housing units in the construction pipeline, mostly apartments reserved for very low-income residents, a city official said Tuesday.

Most of those units, 667 of them, are in all-affordable buildings planned or nearing completion, Housing and Community Services Director Leilani Hines said in a presentation to the city’s Housing Commission. Most of the rest are included as a percentage of market-rate developments.

“Over the next few years this is what you are going to see built in Oceanside,” Hines said.

Still, the forecast does not include enough new homes to meet the state and county goals set to address the widespread housing crisis that fuels homelessness and a higher cost of living.

Oceanside’s most recent regional housing needs allocation, released by the San Diego Association of Governments, says the city must add more than 5,400 affordable homes through 2029.

That goal is likely to become more difficult as state and federal money dries up for construction and assistance programs. Cities that fail to meet their housing allocation can be penalized.

“The real issue here is the cost of construction,” Hines said. “There is not enough money out there to solve this problem.”

Housing commissioners said the city and state officials should do more to assure the homes available go to people from Oceanside and not to people who move from elsewhere in the region.

“I want Oceanside to figure out a way to say Oceanside first,” said Commissioner Rachel White. “We need to help our single mothers … veterans … and seniors.”

However, limiting housing applicants to people from one city is not easy because of the many different agencies, laws and policies involved, Hines said.

Commissioner Edward Murphy suggested the city create a housing trust fund to make more money available for residential construction.

“Many cities have done this,” Murphy said. “One way is for a city to pass a 1% transfer tax on the sale of every property. That generates a tremendous amount of money.”

The trust-fund money could be used to pay developers to include more affordable housing in their projects, he said.

Deed-restricted affordable housing is available based on how a potential tenant’s income compares to the average median income or AMI, which in San Diego County is $131,000 annually for a family of four.

Affordable housing categories range from extremely low income, which is 30% or less of the AMI, to moderate income, which is between 80% and 120% of AMI. Tenants have their income re-evaluated annually to assure they remain qualified.

The all-affordable residential projects finished, under construction or near construction in Oceanside, according to a staff report, are:

• South River Village on North River Road, 43 units, completed and now signing tenants.
• The Seagaze on Seagaze Drive, 179 units, under construction.
• The El Camino Real on South El Camino Real, 111 units, under construction.
• Coast Villas on South Coast Highway, 56 units, construction to start in November, completion expected in spring 2027.
• Olive Park Apartments, intersection of College Boulevard and Olive Drive, 199 units, construction expected from early 2026 through summer 2027.
• A 79-unit project proposed for Mission Avenue and Roymar Road, submitted in May and now in the entitlement process.