Long-vacant Sacramento lot to become affordable senior housing, but at a price
A long-vacant lot in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood is set to become affordable housing for seniors, but at a not-so-affordable price to build.
Eden Housing is building a 67-unit apartment complex near the corner of Stockton Boulevard and Ninth Avenue, with construction starting in November.
The project, called Donner Field Apartments, is primarily funded from equity generated through the federal government’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, with $12.5 million from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, and $1.25 million from the city, which the council approved earlier this month, said Charles Liuzzo of Eden Housing.
The project is costing about $576,000 per unit to construct, Liuzzo said. It will pay prevailing wage and comply with federal government’s local hiring requirements, which contribute to the cost, he said.
That cost is fairly typical to build government-subsidized affordable apartments in Sacramento — something Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty has raised concerns about. Earlier this year he calculated that under the current system, it will take over 300 years to build enough housing for all the capital city’s homeless people.
In the Bay Area, it’s even more expensive to build affordable housing, topping $1 million a door in some cases, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2022.
The new apartment complex, like many government-subsidized affordable projects, took over four years to assemble enough financing. It’s set to open in March 2027.
Meanwhile, at any given time about 3,000 people sit on a wait list to get into a Sacramento shelter, where people have the best chance of finding housing, the county’s director of homeless services and housing Emily Halcon told the Board of Supervisors in March.
Sacramento is in dire need of more affordable housing. Last year it issued 407 permits to build housing for extremely low or low-income tenants, which was far less than the goal of 1,308, according to a city report.
Who can live there?
Donner Field Apartments will be open to residents who are ages 55 and older, Liuzzo said.
Forty-eight of the units will be for households making 50% of the area median income or less, which is considered very low income. For a person living alone in Sacramento to qualify for those units in 2025, they would need to earn $45,050 or less per year, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requirements. Eighteen units will be for those making 30% of the area median income or less.
Seventeen of the units will be reserved for people who are homeless with behavioral health needs, for whom services will be included, according to a city news release.
Homeless seniors’ only income is often their Social Security check, around $850 a month, which is not enough for market-rate housing in Sacramento.
Who owns the lot?
SHRA and its affiliates, which are government entities, have owned the 1.23-acre vacant lot since at least 1986, according to the county assessor’s office.
At least two other affordable housing developers have tried to build on the site in the past but were unsuccessful, Liuzzo said. SHRA issued a request for proposals to developers in 2020 and chose Eden Housing. The project got all necessary financing secured this year.
“Seniors were chosen for this site to give them a place in Oak Park to continue to live as they age and as the area experiences some changes due to Aggie Square’s development,” Liuzzo said in an email.
The $1.1 billion UC Davis Aggie Square project will include new research facilities, classrooms and office space near the corner of Second Avenue and Stockton Boulevard.
The apartment complex will include a U-shaped two to three-story residential building and a single-story community building, the city release said. It will also include a computer room, shared kitchen, multipurpose room, barbecue area, bocce court, laundry facilities and a community garden.
On the other side of Stockton Boulevard, at a different vacant lot, Vrilakas Architects has submitted an application for a three-story building with 65 affordable units, 55 parking spaces and ground floor retail/commercial space, according to a city webpage.
