Letter: South Lake Tahoe residents need affordable housing facts, not propaganda

Do not be disillusioned, there are not and will not be other magical solutions for this housing shortage. Take notice now South Lake Tahoe, voting yes for the Measure N vacancy tax may be our one chance to make things right.

Simply arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere our politicians and leaders haven’t. Lately, the divisiveness surrounding the vacancy tax has gone far beyond routine disagreement and turned into personal attacks.

People have aggressively asked me “So how do you contribute?” and “Why don’t you do a better job with your budget?” Essentially, why don’t I just “pull myself up by my bootstraps.” Believe me, I have. Any local who’s survived here more than a year without outside support has, and that’s a whole other op-ed in itself. Animosity towards the working class— the base of South Tahoe’s economy— makes us feel diminished.

I can see how second homeowners could feel the same. Folks with a dream vacation or second home who have worked hard for peace and quiet in these beautiful mountains are assuming they’re being attacked by vacancy tax supporters.

I’d like to believe that all residents of South Lake Tahoe want to live in a thriving community where there’s an adequate workforce and people aren’t forced to live out of their cars just to survive, like our North Shore neighbors. We are not against each other on that. It’s not a new concept to anyone that politicians and investors will ultimately protect the interests of the ultra-rich, leaving the everyday people to fight about the mess.

If we want to be the South Lake Tahoe community that we’ve all fallen in love with, we need to take a step back and look at the actuality of what our options are, rather than pinning the problem on one another.

Plain and simple: what are our options for affordable housing in South Lake Tahoe, and why haven’t they done much?

TOT Taxes: This year 4 of the 5 city council members voted NO on a Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) increase, despite city polling showing a large majority of local voters supported the increase in general funds. Around 1.5% of the city’s general fund goes to affordable housing.

Leasing to Locals Program: The first year had grants for 23 units (58 people), the second 14 units (31 people), and this year only 7 units (16 people). Applications for this program are projected to decrease.

ADUs: Since the TRPA legalized ADUs in 2021, 9 certified units have been built within the city. Expanded opportunities for ADUs are underway and could go into effect within a couple of years. In San Francisco there have been powerful policies to promote ADUs since 2014, yet they represent around 0.2% of the housing supply, and most of them are only in the wealthiest, least affordable neighborhoods (SF Chronicle).

Inclusionary Zoning: This requires large developers to either set aside a portion of affordable housing units, or pay an “in lieu fee” towards affordable housing programs. Very few, if any, housing projects in SLT are large enough to require a significant number of these units. One example of this concept is the Tahoe Beach Club in nearby Stateline. They did acquire 54 income-restricted housing units as a part of their permit deal, but none were newly added units.

Increase Affordable Housing Units via State Law: State bill SB35, intended to speed up approvals for certain affordable housing developments, applies to the city’s permitting process but not the TRPA’s. The TRPA, a federal organization, supersedes state laws related to land use in Tahoe. SB9, which allows up to 4 units in multi-family housing anywhere previously zoned as single-family does not apply under TRPA rules. The city recently provided a planning grant to a developer, Novis, to build a minimum of 75 residential, deed-restricted units for low and/or moderate-income households (55-year minimum) by the 7-Eleven near Midway Rd. This would require an amendment to current TRPA requirements, which is an exception and not the norm. It guarantees the units as affordable for 55 years, after which that could be changed. SLT is a unique place to build, which is why utilizing existing housing could potentially be more realistic.

Independent analysis of Measure N by the city of SLT has shown the tax would recover a significant 540 to 1,543 rental units that currently sit empty (Election Code 9212 Report Residential Vacancy Tax Initiative, June 2024).

- Kelly Bessem

Kelly Bessem has been a full-time resident of the South Lake Tahoe area for seven years and works four jobs locally throughout the year in hydrology, environmental policy, snowboard instructing, and grocery delivery. She studied climate change, geography, water policy, GIS, and journalism at Humboldt State University and Northern Arizona University, where she obtained her MS degree.