Study Addresses Low-Income, Disabled Housing Needs

With an aging population and a growing ethnic landscape, a study analyzing Glendora’s fair housing found an increasing need to offer services and programs to assist these emerging groups.

Every five years, HUD requires cities participating in the Community Development Block Grant Program to review their fair housing programs.

Glendora city officials contracted Karen Warner of Karen Warner, Inc. to conduct the study.

Her 116-page report yielded information on the city’s housing trends, including mortgage loans, zoning codes, discrimination cases and foreclosures

With Hispanics totaling almost one-third of the population and Asians making up 8 percent, the study identified a need to provide outreach and assistance to a growing lower-income group.

While the city had a 76 percent approval rating for loan applications – higher than the county average of 66 percent – most of the denials came from minority and lower-income communities, said Warner.

“These are areas the city should look at to make sure that financing is available,” said Warner.

She pointed to the city’s housing rehabilitation program to assist those who may be denied for loans in the private sector.

“One of the main things we look at when making a loan is if there is enough equity in the home to cover the cost of the loan,” said Planning Director Jeff Kugel. “We finance the improvements and then place a deed of trust on the property to secure the loans.”

Still, the study concluded there was a high accessibility to financing in Glendora.

With 28 percent of households headed by seniors and more than 7,000 people identified with special needs, the study recommended an emphasis on city zoning codes to accommodate the group.

Other areas of the study included discrimination cases, of where there were only five in Glendora in 2010.

However, the study found the majority of these cases involved special needs or disabled individuals.

The major violators of these cases were small property owners and managers, according to the study.

Warner recommended outreach and education efforts to inform them of renters’ rights.

The full study can be found on the city’s Web site.