Survey: Most of lowest-income residents pay too much for shelter

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE -- A survey has nailed down South Lake Tahoe's perplexing housing problem: More than half of the lowest-income residents pay more than they should for shelter.

Fifty-seven percent of those making less than $25,749 a year are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the South Lake Tahoe City Council learned Tuesday from a Sacramento-based planning consulting firm.

As home seekers have come to know, the city lacks affordable housing, and existing units in some areas need work to make a diverse work force comfortable.

"On one hand, we knew what was going to be in the report. But on the other hand, we didn't have the list, and now we have the list," Councilman John Upton said during a Tuesday workshop.

The city is updating its general plan, with a final document due for compliance with state requirements by Dec. 31. Leading up to that date, consultants were paid $75,000 by the city to complete the legwork.

Along with conducting more than 50 interviews with community leaders, consultants surveyed 5,166 units in the city -- from Al Tahoe to the Triangle. The latter is east of Ski Run Boulevard along Highway 50. The 988 units near Stateline ranked the worst for housing conditions, with about half in need of rehabilitation, the survey found.

It also rated 110 of 451 units in the Sierra Tract area as needing repair.

Almost two-thirds of the housing stock were built between 1960 and 1979.

Given land-use restrictions and availability, providing housing to sustain the diverse work force has presented a challenge -- particularly for the lower classes. Real estate values have risen 21 percent during the last six years.

A California mandate requires the city provide 11 more housing units for very low-income residents; 11 for low income; 31 for moderate income; and 213 above that level by 2007.

"It's that moderate income group where we'll have to be creative," city planner Lisa O'Daly told the council.

The survey rated the moderate segment of El Dorado County as earning between $41,189 and $61,779, while South Lake Tahoe's median household income is $34,707.

The issue is so widespread in the basin that Sacramento Area Council of Governments Director of Planning Ken Hough suggested the area come up with a regional housing plan that taps into several surrounding jurisdictions.

There's talk of doing so through the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's affordable housing committee, which will meet April 4 to take up the matter -- which includes the rollover of building allocations necessary for constructing units.