LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The city of Clearlake is working to create a new homebuyer assistance program to help it retain employees.
The Clearlake City Council gave staff direction to develop a proposal for the program at its Oct. 6 meeting.
“One of the more difficult tasks we face as an organization is retention, and retention of high performing and committed employees,” said City Manager Alan Flora.
While the city has a great group of employees now, Flora said homeownership is the one of the keys both to bringing people to the city and keeping them as staff.
Access to housing locally is a challenge, and Flora said the city is trying to come up with ways to keep employees here. So he wanted to bring the matter to the council.
“There’s not very many examples of this type of program out there,” he said, although they did track down four such programs in California.
Some of the program’s requirements could include a specific incentive amount, a requirement that the home purchased be within the city and owner-occupied. Other considerations are for there to be a requirement for applicants to be employed with the city a certain amount of time as well as an effort made to be sure that the incentive itself is tax-free.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton said she liked the idea and recalled the city having done such a program for police officers. Councilman Russ Perdock said that program was done through a federal grant.
Councilman David Claffey asked about other city retention programs. Flora said the city doesn’t have any other programs per se. They try to give people meaningful work and training opportunities to advance.
Flora said the city has had a few employees apply for the homestead program — which the city established about two years ago to help develop quality housing for professionals — as well as others outside of the city organization.
“It is even more of a challenge to build a new house,” Flora said, noting that there is a real deficit of quality housing in the city.
The average home price in Clearlake is $230,000 to $240,000. Flora said he spoke to a contractor who said new construction would cost around $420,000 for a 1,200 square foot home. He added that he hates hearing about people taking second jobs to afford a home.
During the discussion Flora said the funding would not come from the general fund but from housing set aside money, the same funding source for the homestead program.
Flora said most of the city’s hires have been from out of the area, and sometimes it has been a real scramble to find them a place to live. “This isn’t going to solve the inventory problem.”
He said he was thinking initially that the program could offer $20,000 or $25,000. Flora said he liked terms in Walnut Creek’s plan, which allows a maximum amount of $65,000 or up to $200,000 under a special exception for hard-to-fill positions. The borrower has to be able to pay closing costs of mortgage and 5% down payment.
That program is structured like a loan in which the employee doesn’t make payments or accrue interest and when the house is sold, the increase in value of the home is split with the city.
Councilman Russ Cremer wanted a requirement that the house not be sold for a certain number of years. Flora said that makes sense, and pointed out that most of the programs he’s looked at require a five-year term before the home can be sold.
Claffey wanted to take a step back and consider whether such a program would be important to employees, adding that housing isn’t unaffordable in Clearlake.
Mayor Dirk Slooten said he thought it is a great idea, that it would definitely help with retention and community building.
Perdock suggested the funds also could be used to buy down interest rates for homebuyers.
The council gave Flora direction to come back with a program proposal at a future meeting.
Also during that meeting, Mark Harden was sworn in as the newest police sergeant, the council presented a proclamation declaring October 2022 as Domestic Violence Awareness
Month and Curt Giambruno to the Lake County Vector Control District Board for a term of four years.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
City of Clearlake considers establishing employee homebuyer assistance program
- Elizabeth Larson