The Inland Empire is the key to the future of Southern California and the region's middle class, an economic and social commentator said Thursday.
"Where else are middle-class people going to live?" asked Joel Kotkin, an authority on global, economic and social trends. "Los Angeles is getting too dense and too expensive. Schools are terrible. Middle-class families are leaving Los Angeles. They're going to the Inland Empire or they're leaving the state."
Kotkin, who has written for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, made the remarks in an interview before a symposium Thursday on the Inland Empire's affordable housing needs.
The centerpiece of the symposium — titled "Housing the Future: The Inland Empire as Southern California's Indispensable Geography" — was a report by Kotkin.
Real estate agents, government officials, builders and affordable-housing developers gathered at the DoubleTree Hotel in Ontario to discuss what they see as a need for more affordable housing in the region and the current challenges they say impede increasing supply.
Panelists spoke on what industry and government can do to help the Inland Empire fulfill its role as the place where the Southern California middle class can find affordable housing because coastal regions are far too expensive.
The central problem, according to organizers and panelists, is that building regulations and a shortage of housing supply are raising costs, and the factors are working to push people out of the state.
"Builders are facing a number of hurdles from development impact fees and environmental regulations that make it expensive, and as you drive up those costs, it makes it more difficult for first-time home buyers, young families, and entry-level home buyers to even buy a house, if the starting price is at $400,000...," said Mark Dowling, CEO of the Riverside-based Inland Valleys Association of Realtors, which sponsored the symposium with the Rancho Cucamonga-based affordable housing developer National Community Renaissance, or National CORE.
Steve PonTell, president and CEO of National CORE, which has properties throughout Southern California, said the Southland housing shortage "is causing all sorts of negative consequences for communities and the lives of people, and that has far surpassed the crisis level, and it's not getting anywhere near the attention it should be getting."
"I would argue Southern California is short 600,000 units," he said.
Experts said officials have often had trouble approving affordable housing for construction because of negative perceptions from residents.
"People get that word 'affordable' and they freak out and say, 'We're going to get all these ghetto housing tenements on top of each other,' " said Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren, who was a panelist. "What they don't understand is affordable is sustainable. This means people can move into the house and keep the house. That also brings the jobs, and the head count we need for the restaurants, the retail...If we're going to sustain this community, we have to have housing for everyone — not just certain classes."
Other challenges, according to experts at the symposium, are that retail may be a more financially agreeable option for a city than housing.
"Cities are highly incentivised to build retail space; if they can land a Costco or a car dealership, that's a huge win," PonTell said. "Cities view housing as a negative, so they charge every conceivable fee they can charge on new housing development."
©2015 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency
