San Diego Leaders Trying To Cope With Housing Crunch

On Wednesday, a San Diego City Council committee will wrestle with a controversial scheme that would address the problem by mandating the construction of low-and moderate-income housing in most communities throughout the city where home builders propose new projects. The issue returns to center stage 10 years after a similar program went down to defeat in the wake of strong builder opposition. The council's Land Use and Housing Committee will be faced with a half-dozen proposals, all seeking to boost San Diego's meager supply of affordable rental units and houses. This time, the building industry is reluctantly supporting one of the proposals, while lobbying hard against any requirement that home builders actually build affordable housing in conjunction with their market-rate projects. This week's meeting, part of a day-long hearing on housing issues, is expected to draw a standing-room-only crowd of activists and building-industry representatives."