Despite considerable sticker shock over a sudden rise in construction costs, the county supervisors voted to approve a $1.5 million loan needed to make a 49-unit affordable-supportive housing project slated for Mission Hills just outside of Lompoc possible. The county’s loan — of federal housing funds over 20 years at 3 percent interest — will help the County Housing Authority leverage the wide array of funding needed to make the $51.6 million construction project possible.
When the project was first proposed several years ago, it weighed in at $22.1 million. And it was bigger too — 70 units — indicating that what comes down also goes up at the same time. Even the developer’s representative, Frank Thompson, termed the increase — from $443,000 per unit to $765,000 — “outrageous.”
So too did County Supervisor Bob Nelson, who represents the district in which the development is slated to be built. “I would agree that’s outrageous,” Nelson said. He pressed Thompson to answer the question — “When does it become too expensive?“ The board’s most outspoken fiscal hawk, Nelson noted that at the end of the day, tax payer dollars are involved for which someone eventually has to pay…