Affordable housing in Southern California

St. Joseph Health System (SJHS), Orange, CA, has been committed since the mid-1990s to acting as an advocate for the housing needs of low-income people. In 1997, for example, SJHS became a founder, with Mercy Housing and six other Catholic health care organizations, in creating the Strategic Health Care Partnership, an investment pool designed to bring affordable housing to the most vulnerable. In 1999, SJHS supported Mercy Housing's construction of an 81-unit development for very limited-income senior citizens in Orange County, CA. Two years later, SJHS supported Mercy Housing's creation of a 23-unit development in the county for homeless people with HIV/AIDS. In the same year, SJHS and other local groups formed the Kennedy Commission, a group devoted to improving housing in Orange County. Just last spring, the commission persuaded the city council of Anaheim, CA, to vote unanimously for an ordinance that would offer incentives to developers who set aside portions of their housing projects for low-income renters.