This story was originally published by Fresnoland.
It’s been one year since a ‘historic’ settlement was reached to open more doors for people with lower incomes hoping to move into Fresno County’s least affordable city.
But while we’re likely still years away from cutting the ribbon on any new homes, affordable housing advocates and developers say they still trust the process – so far.
Last year, a long legal battle between Clovis and Dez Martinez — a Fresno-based homeless advocate — concluded after multiple losses in court for the Central Valley city. Both sides eventually reached a settlement deal, with Clovis agreeing to change and create new policies to reduce zoning and financial barriers to building more affordable housing.
The settlement came as the rental market in the Central Valley spiraled out of reach for some of the region’s lower and fixed-income residents. Just last year, the Fresno metropolitan area ranked as one of the 10 most competitive rental markets in the country.
The home-buying market hasn’t fared any better, as the sticker-price for homes in Fresno County swells to record highs, according to NBC’s latest home buyer index tool.
The agreement was largely considered a win for Martinez and affordable housing advocates. Though there are currently no new homes to show for it a year later, Clovis’ policy changes sparked hope that the status quo can change sooner rather than later.
Jessica Hoff Berzac, a local affordable housing developer, said it’s common to see affordable housing projects take a long time to build. Berzac, the co-principal of UpHoldings, said there are multiple factors that go into projects getting off the ground, including funding — which for affordable housing projects, usually comes through a competitive process.
“We can’t just get this money from a bank, right? These are all programs. They’re all competitive,” Berzac said.
“Affordable housing is simply underfunded, and so it’s slow because there are not enough resources,” she said. “We’re all cobbling together the pennies to make it work.”
But even the promise of big financial backing doesn’t guarantee that a project crosses the finish line, as long timelines make it more likely that nervous or impatient investors will pull their money back in search of faster or greater returns. Berzac said the Libre Commons – a proposed affordable housing development in Old Fig Garden — recently hit a dead-end after previously promised funding fell through.
“If you’re banking on a program, and then it gets defunded…Or it gets gutted, that can set a project back years and years and years,” Berzac said.
“We worked on that Libre Commons deal for five years. The City pulled the funding, and then the County pulled the funding…and now it’ll probably die.”
Stephanie Hamilton Borchers is the director of litigation and advocacy at Central California Legal Services. Part of Martinez’s legal team, it’s people like her who work with the City of Clovis to complete the goals established by the settlement.
While she acknowledges development might move slower than many would like, she told Fresnoland there’s no foul play to report in Clovis.
“Now, is it as fast as everybody would (want) in the perfect world? Of course not,” Borchers said. “But is it in compliance with the settlement agreement (and) in good faith? Yes.”
Clovis’ progress implementing the settlement agreement might, instead, illustrate the difficulties California cities face in a scramble to build more affordable housing, and comply with state housing laws.
How did we get here?
In 2019, Martinez sued the City of Clovis for violating state housing law — specifically with its Housing Element. Martinez argued that the city’s policies were discriminatory toward low-income residents and people of color.
A ruling by the California Fifth District Court of Appeals sided with Martinez in 2023, and they made their message clear — Clovis needed to do more to create and preserve affordable housing. Clovis failed to get the decision appealed by the California Supreme Court.
Last year, the two parties came together to cut a deal, ending the years-long legal battle. The City of Clovis paid $300,715 in legal fees while fighting this case as of April 2024, according to Clovis’ City Manager Andy Haussler in response to a Fresnoland Public Records Request.
Clovis progress is slow and steady
The settlement reached by Martinez and Clovis last year introduced more ways for the city to increase affordable housing stock by trimming regulations and beefing up financing options for local affordable housing developers.
Clovis officials also created a local “housing trust fund” to produce and preserve affordable housing under contract.
Over the course of the next eight years, the Trust will take $1.8 million of the city’s General Fund, with an initial $1 million contribution from the city after the Trust’s implementation. The Trust would continue to be funded with annual $100,000 contributions from the city’s general fund.
Berzac said that the introduction of more local funding makes Clovis more competitive in acquiring the highly coveted state and federal grants for affordable housing developers. She said such financial incentives helped UpHoldings complete the Butterfly Gardens housing development — one of Clovis’ only affordable housing projects.
“It will drive development activity to know that there’s actual resources available to help projects pencil out.”
Clovis awarded the Trust’s initial $1 million to 135 Osmun Apartments senior housing project last September. The allocation was intended to make the proposed project eligible for a funding match through the state’s LHTF program, according to Chad McCollum, the Clovis Economic Development, Housing and Communications director.
“The investment will help ensure new affordable housing is developed in the City of Clovis,” said McCollum in an emailed statement to Fresnoland.
The state has not yet awarded funding for the program.
The parties also agreed to dedicate at least two properties toward the newly minted Trust — 650 Fowler Ave. and 354 Osmun Circle.
The city can sell the properties at market-value should they both fail to materialize into new affordable housing developments by the end of this year, with all of the sale proceeds being deposited into the Trust. The fair market value for the properties is not known yet, but appraisals are already in the works, McCollum said.
Clovis also agreed to either acquire or enter an agreement with an affordable housing developer for a third property. The agreement was met when Clovis partnered with local developers Affordable Housing Development Corporation and Better Opportunities Builder for the senior housing project. Clovis allocated $1.5 million in Permanent Local Housing Allocation funds for the project, and the project was fully acquired last May.
And after years of fighting against higher-density projects, Clovis officials also agreed to rezone some older, infill neighborhoods to make way for 1,300 new affordable homes.
“Several of the agreed to items in the settlement are far more complicated than others, taking more time to implement and complete than the date initially agreed upon,” McCollum said in an emailed statement. “But the parties are cooperating through the agreed upon meet and confer process as needed to complete the remaining items.”
The infill program has one of the latest deadlines for completion as Clovis is partnering with CCLS and local affordable housing developers to find suitable properties.
Other rezoning efforts have already been met. The city has already amended its Medium Density Zoning to increase the number of allowed housing units per acre from 15 to 20.
One of the biggest zoning changes to Clovis comes from the adoption of a new mixed income zoning ordinance making it easier for the city to keep adding to its affordable housing stock. All new developments in the city with more than 10 units must set some of those rooms aside as affordable housing.
Berzac said that the dedication of property and rezoning of land helps communicate to developers like her a sense of “partnership” and an eagerness to get work done.
“I often recommend it as just a strategy.” Berzac said, “If you want to really show the development community that this isn’t a NIMBY community, and that you really do have a pro housing perspective, like, you do the work, right? Tell us the land, you do the zoning, and take that part off the developer.”
Clovis has also committed to waiving water and sewer fees for these projects. The city rolled out the Affordable Housing Development Impact Fee Program last July.
When the deal was reached, Patience Milrod, one of Martinez’s attorneys, said the deal could set a precedent for other areas in the central San Joaquin Valley.
“We’re beyond proud of this agreement—it’s revolutionary. And it’s historic,” Milrod said last year over email. “This settlement sets a new bar for local governments in the region who claim to be serious about housing families at all income levels.
The implementation of these programs will be key to Clovis catching up with its Central Valley neighbors in increasing its stock of affordable housing. But the settlement was never a guarantee that progress would come quickly.
Self-Help Enterprises, which Borchers said is one of the affordable housing partners involved with implementing the settlement agreement, declined to comment for this story.
To critics who would say Clovis’ deadlines lapsing and changing means the settlement has no teeth, Borchers said the role of her and her team is not to be an enforcer, but a collaborative partner with the City.
“I suppose the best way that I can describe it is that the purpose behind having the facilitators involved is because CCLS wanted this to be cooperative with the city,” Borchers said.
“We want to be cooperative partners with the cities to help them do that when they’re acting in good faith and complying with the law,” she said.
The future of affordable housing in Clovis
“The City of Clovis remains committed to implementing each agreed upon item in the settlement agreement, and we expect that each agreed to item will be fully implemented by the end of the calendar year,” McCollum said in a statement to Fresnoland.
Though she celebrated a win after getting a settlement with the City of Clovis, Martinez said she understands there is still work to be done to truly cross the finish line.
Clovis is a city that is relatively wealthy compared to its neighboring Central Valley counterparts. Martinez said she hopes it’s people like her, disabled and formerly homeless, that will one day enjoy housing and job opportunities that have been historically shut out for people like her.
“We don’t get to grow up and enjoy the same thing that certain people enjoy,” Martinez said. “If we take our children in poverty and allow them to move into a neighborhood that is thriving…you can change that child, right? So why not give an opportunity to the low income individuals to be able to pick and choose where they live.
“We don’t have green grass in our neighborhoods. We’ve got dirt, broken fences and loose dogs and all kinds of parties and drugs and all kinds of stuff happening, you know, like sometimes we just get tired of that. You get disabled, you don’t want to be around that. In my mind, I wanted peace.”
Like Borchers, Berzac said she hopes Central Valley residents understand that the process will take time to complete. She said affordable housing developers like here are just “doing our best right now” to help solve a major issue.
“You know, there’s no bad guy in this situation,” Berzac said. “Like, this is simply, to me, a human rights crisis, that people literally can’t find a place to live. And I wish we could see it from that perspective and stop getting into the weeds about the dollars and the politics and think of (this work with) more as a humanity kind of response.”