Jan. 24, 2026 7 AM PT <\/p>\n
To the editor: San Diego has indeed laid out the welcome mat for apartment builders and their investors (\u201cSan Diego shows what happens when a city actually lets builders build,\u201d<\/a> Jan. 20). But my city\u2019s laissez-faire approach to development has failed to supply truly affordable housing while virtually ignoring the obvious need for additional parks, schools, fire and police stations and parking for car-dependent, working-class families.<\/p>\n Some of these new rental projects offer small studios for $2,500 per month and one-bedrooms for $3,000. Parking, when available, can cost $300 a month more. The so-called affordable units required by the city in some of those high-density buildings still cost more than $2,000 per month<\/a>, well beyond the reach of our low- and very low-income residents.<\/p>\n Our mayor and his building-industry allies now claim their fast-track approval processes \u2014 which disregard neighborhood concerns about the negative impacts of these high-density\/high-rise projects \u2014 are pushing down rental rates. But according to data from RentCafe.com<\/a>, the recent 1.85% drop in monthly rental rates equates to just $55 per month in savings and a still expensive $2,938 average monthly rent.<\/p>\n