{"id":319998,"date":"2026-05-17T13:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T13:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/319998\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T13:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T13:02:21","slug":"ocs-biggest-civic-headlines-as-affordable-housing-construction-lags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/319998\/","title":{"rendered":"OC\u2019s Biggest Civic Headlines as Affordable Housing Construction Lags"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cities across Orange County are failing to build enough housing for low-income residents<\/a>, with roughly 4,400 housing units classified as affordable \u2013 about 17% of the overall 25,000 new homes built over the past five years, far behind what state mandates call for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Orange County, a four-person household making less than $135,350 annually is considered low income<\/a>.<\/p>\n

County officials also announced a temporary pause on using chemical weedkillers<\/a> in creek beds after a host of South OC residents began ringing alarm bells about herbicide use in San Juan Creek and Oso Creek.<\/p>\n

Officials in Mission Viejo are eying a potential housing development that could include affordable housing<\/a> on roughly 23 acres of city owned land next to Saddleback College.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, new housing is coming to Trabuco Canyon<\/a> despite residents raising ongoing concerns about the wildfire risk in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most OC cities have stayed silent<\/a> on the ongoing federal deportation efforts, with most municipalities staying out of the debate altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Places like Anaheim and Santa Ana have rolled out direct aid and legal assistance for impacted residents, while Huntington Beach moved the opposite direction as council members called on local police officers to work with federal agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The Huntington Beach Pier on April 22, 2026. Credit: JAKE RANDAZZO, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Huntington Beach also cut spending for an after school program to fund a fishing program for local veterans struggling with PTSD<\/a> \u2013 yet the move is raising questions since a councilman sits on the nonprofit that runs the veterans program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City council members in Orange are inching closer to putting a 1% sales tax increase on November\u2019s ballot<\/a> to bail out the city\u2019s bleak budget after a smaller proposed increase was shot down by voters in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city also overhauled the federally funded rent assistance program<\/a> after staff found that no Orange residents were helped since the program was created early last year.<\/p>\n

Santa Ana\u2019s also facing tough budget projections as council members consider cutting an after school program<\/a> and some park maintenance to curb a $13 million deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Clemente voters are expected to consider a 1% sales tax increase this November<\/a> in an effort to get sand back on the city\u2019s disappearing coastline \u2013 stemming from a successful ballot initiative that garnered thousands of signatures from voters in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While voters are expected to consider a sales tax increase, San Clemente officials overhauled its outdoor dining program<\/a> \u2013 putting in standards on the popular feature, like limiting the size of the outdoor eating areas and curbing impact on nearby businesses.<\/p>\n

City council members in Anaheim stood against a proposal from the California High Speed Rail Authority that could see millions in tax revenue funneled into the rail line<\/a> from developments near high speed train stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cities across Orange County are failing to build enough housing for low-income residents, with roughly 4,400 housing units…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1336,3531,108187,14273],"class_list":["post-319998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ice-raids","tag-orange-county-affordable-housing","tag-orange-county-ice-raids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}