12 Mar Antioch Holds Off on Affordable Housing Policy

Antioch City Council on Tuesday discussed a proposed Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Antioch is holding off on a policy that would require developers to build a percentage of below-market-rate housing or pay a fee for certain projects.

A majority of council members at their Tuesday meeting cited concerns about how the proposed Inclusionary Housing Ordinance would be managed and questioned how it would work alongside other statewide housing legislation the city has to follow.

Officials opted to wait until at least part of the city’s General Plan, which guides how the city approaches development, is outlined before the ordinance comes back. The wait allows staff to identify the allowable types of land uses across the city, and then bring back a framework of those policies to the City Council.

“We all support affordability. All of us,” said Mayor Pro Tem Don Freitas. “But this is too critical for us to screw up.”

Antioch is considered one of the most affordable places in the Bay Area. Yet it also had the region’s highest number of evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and for the last two years has had the largest share of Contra Costa’s homeless population. So this ordinance looks to address the city’s increasing housing affordability problems by increasing the share of housing for lower-income residents.

The ordinance proposed requirements for developments with five or more units, calling for 15% of units to be for lower-income tenants. Ten percent of those would be designated for very low-income households and 5% for low-income households.

There are three categories defined for affordable housing: Very Low-Income housing, Low-Income housing and Moderate Income housing. Very Low-Income households are those earning between 0% and 50% of the area’s median income; Low-Income households, 51% to 80%; and Moderate-Income households, 80% to 120%.

Freitas, Mayor Ron Bernal and council member Louie Rocha said they had concerns about how the city would pay for any additional staffing and other plans it might take to implement the ordinance.

At least some of that responsibility would be done through a consultant, but David Storer, interim director of community and economic development, said that the cost of a current agreement would “probably not” pay for every staffing hour.

The ordinance would require a trust to hold the fees — $202,500 per unbuilt unit, according to the proposed ordinance — received from developers, but that money can’t be used to pay for staffing.

Council members Tamisha Torres-Walker and Monica Wilson said that they supported the ordinance despite the concerns. Torres-Walker said that the staffing challenges had probably been going on for the last two decades or more.

“I don’t think residents who are trying to afford to live in Antioch should have to suffer because we haven’t figured out our institutional challenges,” said Torres-Walker, who voted against waiting to bring the ordinance back.

The majority of council members said another concern of theirs was how state laws like SB 330 would interact with an IHO. SB 330 was passed in an attempt to speed up housing developments by, in part, freezing standards at the time of a development’s application.

In late 2025, the law gave what Bernal called the City Council’s “first taste” of its effects on the area when it was forced to approve two DeNova Homes developments or risk litigation.

Freitas, who expressed frustration with SB 330 then, said he didn’t want the IHO to be citywide because he doesn’t want every housing type in every area.

Around eight to 10 housing projects are in the pipeline right now, according to Bernal.

“We don’t even know the impacts of current legislation on our city, let alone adding one more moving part to it that’s going to just complicate things,” Bernal said Tuesday.

Homekey+ Housing Could Be Coming to Former Hotel

Nearly a year after initially submitting an application for a permanent supportive housing project using state funding, Antioch could see an award soon, according to an update at the City Council meeting.

The Homekey+ project, known as CSH Mahogany Housing, would award $34.9 million and bring up to 85 affordable units to the former Comfort Inn. The program operates over five-year periods, costing the city $1.2 million annually with matching state funding.

The Homekey+ program is an expansion of the original Homekey program that funds housing for veterans and others who are homeless and have mental health or substance use challenges.

Storer expects the award to come before the City Council in late spring to early summer. Staff from the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers the Homekey+ project, recommended approval to the next step of the application, according to Storer.

It was said at the council meeting that that step could happen as early as Thursday, but Punit Bhargava, chief executive officer and president of California Supportive Housing, said that timeline could change.

The idea is one of the latest from officials to address Antioch’s homeless population, which dipped from 2024 to 2025 but had the largest share for the last two years.

“I want to say that this is not about me or you. This is about Raheem Coe. This is about Tyrone Marshall, the people that I promised this to that are no longer here,” said Andrew Becker, a housing advocate who residents said first alerted officials about the Homekey program.

Ahead of the meeting, Becker, Torres-Walker and Nichole Gardner, founder of Facing Homelessness in Antioch, said that the project provided an exciting opportunity.

“I am so excited and overwhelmed for all of the opportunities that our friends on the streets will have with this hotel,” said Gardner then.

Officials have prioritized addressing homelessness in other ways. The City Council approved a city-dedicated CORE team last year and attempted to house some who are homeless at the site of the Homekey+ project on cold nights.