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According to the Consolidated Plan, there were many obstacles to the City's goal of increasing and/or preserving affordable rental and ownership housing. These included a severe shortage of affordable housing stock for renters and homeowners, the staggering cost of housing, and a decrease in the amount of subsidies for existing rental programs. Additionally, many subsidized housing units were facing conversion to market -rate housing, which explains why increasingly larger numbers of certificates or vouchers were being returned to housing authorities, as the participants were unable to fmd landlords who were willing to accept them. In order to meet these challenges, the City implemented actions to: • Increase the number of affordable rental housing units through construction and rehabilitation; • Preserve existing affordable rental and ownership housing through programs such as Below Market Rate (BMR) rental agreements and the Pleasanton Homeownership Assistance Program; • Assist low- and moderate - income, first -time homebuyers through mortgage assistance and lease - purchase programs; and assist in land acquisition for the construction of affordable ownership units. As part of the City's initiative to increase the number of affordable rental housing units through the construction of at least 50 rental units for extremely low -, low -, and moderate - income households within the live-year period, the City approved a 350 -unit apartment project by Windstar Communities. We are pleased to hear that the developer of the project agreed to construct a total of 70 units for very low- income households. Furthermore, in PY2009 the City approved an addition to the Civic Square apartments that will create 36 units of affordable housing for low- and moderate- income families. Therefore, the City exceeded its five -year goal regarding rental housing by 56 units. Another of the City's components to assist low- and moderate - income, first -time homebuyers is the provision of homebuyer assistance programs. The five -year Consolidated Plan contained a goal to assist 20 low- income households with low interest, deferred payment of second mortgage loans of up to $20,000 per unit through the City's Lower Income Housing Fund. Thus far, a total of 20 loans have been awarded and five applicants are in the pre - approval process as of August 2010. We commend the City for its progress in accomplishing its goal despite the high cost of the housing market. Furthermore, we would like to recognize the City's efforts in addressing the diminishing availability of land designated for high- density development, which is one of the major impediments to the development of affordable rental housing. The City identified new sites for higher density residential development through the update of its General Plan. Moreover, the City is also in the process of rezoning several properties which could provide new opportunities for the development of additional affordable housing. Page 26 of 32