Leonard Smith is worried that Manteca doesn’t have options for homeless housing — and more importantly an action plan that realistically  will be implemented — in the latest version of the Manteca Fairy Tales better known as the affordable housing portion of the  general plan housing update.

Smith asked the City Council this week to make sure the public — as well as the council — makes an effort to strengthen the housing plan that is being reviewed by the Manteca Planning Commission on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center.

Smith is taking the wrong approach when it comes to the homeless. Instead of actually implementing policies and investing resources to get people off the street the best way to improve the homeless problem in Manteca is to avoid the home-grown ranks from swelling.

With one bedroom Manteca apartments now costing $1,000 plus a month with some going for $1,350 and Tracy rentals even higher, there is a full-blown housing crisis brewing.

Even if those on the bottom of the economic food chain that work in Manteca are fortunate enough to have a 40 hour job that pays $15 an hour that would generate $30,200 a year before taxes with 32 percent of that needed simply to pay the rent.

Those of us fortunate enough to have a mortgage we can manage that keeps a roof over our heads need to understand that if nothing is done to change the dynamics of the Manteca housing market the people who serve us meals when we dine out, repair our vehicles, and even help teach our children will be forced out of Manteca.

No offense to the Manteca City Council, but they are all old-school homeowners. By that I mean they have homes they’ve either owned for years or have been able to use a steady stream of home ownership to move into their current home. They are either retired on decent pensions or have jobs that pay at least the Manteca median income. And they don’t have non-relatives sharing their house or an adult offspring along with their family due to their inability to secure affordable housing even though they work.

It is why they approach the housing plan mandated by the state as just that — a state mandated plan and nothing more.

The council was satisfied with the answer staff gave them six months ago when they were told the city met state requirements for affordable housing because there was more than enough area colored on maps for high density housing options.

Because of that they allowed a developer to go back on a promise to build high density housing  options such as townhouses, apartments, and condos that have a lower monthly cost to occupy so he could build even more single family homes.

The action the City Council took assures affordable housing will be built but it’s affordable for those being squeezed out of the Bay Area housing market and not those who are working in — and trying to live in —  Manteca.

Seven years ago Ben Cantu— the Harold Stassen of Manteca council politics — implored the City Council to do something about affordable housing needs in Manteca.

The powers that be at the time treated his words as if they were being delivered as a punch line in a comedy nightclub given the endless foreclosures in Manteca.

The market, he was told, would take care of affordable housing.

The council was right. The market did take care of affordable housing. It made it non-existent.

Historically, Manteca City Councils have taken a laissez faire approach to affordable housing when it involves developers. When Mayor Steve DeBrum gets ready to take the council on a tour of Manteca’s alleys as he promised, he might want to add Ripon to his itinerary. That way the council can see how that city got a developer to build affordable housing mixed in with at-market housing in a new neighborhood.

It can be seamless but it takes flexibility and working with a developer.

Yes, apartments can be cost prohibitive on a per unit basis to build. But there are ways to work around that. Some cities have gone to mini-apartments of less than 400 square feet with common use areas, others have encouraged apartments with two master bedroom suites sharing a common living area, and others such as Santa Cruz have aggressively accommodated so-called “granny flats” in single family neighborhoods among other options.

The city in recent years has actually reduced affordable housing options in the form of trailer parks mainly because they were substandard.

Don’t be too surprised if one day in 10 or 20 years from now Manteca may have no mobile home parks left. That’s because Bay Area housing trends ultimately impact the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

Community groups in Palo Alto are now scrambling to raise money to avoid the closure of that city’s last mobile home park — Buena Vista — with its 104 spaces and 12 studio units. The rallying cry is simple. Once the land is sold to developers 116 of the city’s remaining affordable housing options will be gone.

If Manteca City Councils continues to sidestep the tough problems when it comes to housing and let the market take care of affordable housing, don’t be too surprised if one day we aren’t the Palo Alto of the Northern San Joaquin Valley where only the moneyed people can live.


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.