Those essentially trying to frame Manteca Mayor Ben Cantu as a modern-day Don Quixote tilting at windmills on perplexing issues such as affordable housing are missing the point.

Affordable housing is a real issue that is not the proverbial impossible dream as long as you don’t strive to give people what they want.

The succulent quote attributed to Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses” should be used by both Cantu and those that think the possibility of making a reasonable dent on the local level to spur more affordable housing options is akin to whistling in the wind.

We need to let go of the past and stop pursuing 1970s era theories about affordable housing that runs the gamut of what shape housing takes and embracing preconceived notions of what constitutes the American Dream not in terms of home ownership but lifestyle. Framing the question about affordable housing in terms of traditional concepts of what buying or renting means and dismissing other options such as home sharing, renting rooms and such only sets the stage for minuscule improvements to the housing situation moving forward at the hell-bent speed of a glacier. Just like those in the era when horses provided the means for far-flung people to travel never would have envisioned a contraption such as the automobile to drastically enhance mobility and improve lifestyles, the same old myopic approach to seeking affordable housing solutions will indeed be a comical farce worthy of the Man of La Mancha himself, Don Quixote.

So how can Mayor Cantu not spend the next four years tilting at proverbial windmills and specifically move Manteca forward on daunting issues such as affordable housing that are public policy Rubik Cubes where every move toward a solution sends another piece of the puzzle out of whack?

For starters, instead of relying on textbook cases and experts they might want to hear from those in Manteca who are struggling to keep shelter over their heads. Such a conversation might make leaders realize there is a lot of people either who rent or own that have little if any cushion but may have a spare room or two while there are those who can afford perhaps only $400 to $600 a month for rent. Renting rooms or sharing houses is nothing new but neither is ride sharing. Yet when the State of California years ago established government run platforms to connect those heading to nearby destination —  drivers that could use help with commute expenses and a rider in need of a connection to their work that they can afford to pay a reasonable amount for — ride sharing exploded.

Today it might take the form of an app specific to the Manteca housing market to connect those that need help with housing costs and those that need housing but aren’t flush with money.

Then there are other housing types not even on the radar in Manteca. Modern dormitory housing or semi-communal style housing such as several Orange County complexes where condos are designed with two separate, secured master bedroom suites complete with bathroom and study area that share common kitchen and living room areas. Even an apartment or condo complex with 100 percent studio apartments is an option.

How does the city encourage developers or others to try such possibilities or even build duplexes, smaller lot homes and such intermixed with the larger lots in subdivisions.

The answer is fairly simple. Make what developers need a “scarce” commodity without triggering higher prices for limited resources.

Rework the growth cap tied into sewer allocations to a limit of 400 homes a year and award them twice annually. Anyone can get more sewer allocations in a given year at the rate of four additional hook-ups for traditional single family home for every unit of designated “affordable” housing they build. Those affordable units could be defined as housing being sold at 80 percent of the median market price and could include smaller homes, non-traditional duplexes incorporated into a neighborhood where each unit would be sold separately or the development of housing meeting the affordable definition at another location in the city. Since not all of the development approved has sewer allocations guaranteed, such a move could effective entice “entitled” projects not yet built to be modified to meet the sewer allocation rules.

This may or may not work but one thing is for sure — the city lacks the funding to build or help finance affordable housing so it needs to find hammers to make it happen while striving to avoid driving up the overall cost of housing.

An example is an affordable housing fee that some cities charge on new homes. A $5,000 fee would definitely make new homes affordable to fewer buyers. If 600 homes are built a year in Manteca as is happening currently, it would generate $3 million.

Pursuing traditional partnerships to develop affordable housing with non-profits would be dicey assuming you can secure investors. To replicate the 150-unit Juniper Apartments workforce housing in Atherton Drive it would take easily $28 million or nine plus years of such fees collected. Meanwhile you’ve created just 150 “affordable” housing units while 5,400 larger homes have been built.

But if you take that fee and use them to pay for growth fees for “smaller” new homes built on smaller lots at the rate of $45,000 per home once you take administrative costs out, you could build 60 or so more affordable homes that would have a deed restriction requiring the $45,000 be paid back when the home is sold to help fund future fee paid downs for new housing.

Whether it is the answer is debatable. What isn’t debatable is how ineffective many current affordable housing policies are in other cities and how affordable housing isn’t being addressed in Manteca.

It is safe to bet all of the ideas of the past 40 years have had limited success wherever they have been implemented especially in California.

Cantu could be the mayor that leads Manteca out of the affordable housing wilderness if he can let go of his tendency to look back in time for answers and his colleagues can resist the temptation to dismiss affordable housing as an impossibility.

Granted a council committee strategizing affordable housing options isn’t much better or more effective than coloring in a map to designate areas for affordable housing as is done every 10 years in the general plan exercise to appease Sacramento.

But if Cantu and the council are willing to think out of the box and then put political will behind whatever they come up with, working toward securing affordable housing in Manteca will no longer be the equivalent of tilting at windmills.

This column is the opinion of executive editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209.249.3519.