Jackie Krentzman is a Bay Area-based writer and editor.

When Terri Fears moved into Crescent City’s newest senior affordable housing community this past fall, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had been living in a small, rundown apartment complex, barely able to afford the $650 a month rent. She had recently quit her job as a clerk at a mini-mart due to failing health and was living on social security. Moving into another apartment with better upkeep wasn’t feasible, as it would have more than doubled her rent.

So, Fears applied for federal housing assistance. A year later, she was approved — just in time to move into the recently opened and much more affordable Harbor Point development.

“It is so, so nice,” says Fears. “Everything is brand new. Plus, I felt it was time to live around people my own age. There is a sense of community here, as folks organize BBQs. There is a fitness [room] and a TV room where people can gather.”

The 26-unit community is one of several new or in the pipeline affordable housing developments in this city of 6,200 in the far northwestern corner of the state.

City Manager Eric Wier says two events more than any other shaped the city’s trajectory. The first was the 1964 tsunami, caused by the Alaska Earthquake, which decimated the city’s downtown. The area never returned to its bustling glory. Around the same time, jobs in timber and fishing — anchors in the town’s economy — began to dry up.

Today, the town’s key economic drivers are the Pelican Bay Prison, followed by health care and tourism.

Then, the pandemic hit in 2020. For the small, scenic communities that dot the north state, what happened next is a familiar tale. Remote workers gravitated to the city, which sits outside the Redwood National Park. But there weren’t enough units in the city, in part because older baby boomers were staying in their homes. At the same time, many of the town’s beachside and riverfront single-family homes were turned into short-term vacation rentals, further decreasing the number of available homes.

Prices skyrocketed. The affordable rental market was hit especially hard. Many residents have federal housing vouchers — almost 9% of the town’s population last year — but nowhere to use them, says Megan Miller, the city’s housing director.

“Prior to the pandemic, we had families moving pretty regularly, which created a revolving door of available housing,” Miller says. “Those vacated units would be backfilled by families with recently issued vouchers. But during the pandemic, people were hunkering down, and families with newly issued vouchers couldn’t find places to rent.”

Prices continued to rise as landlords sold their homes, eager to cash in while the market was hot. Most homes never returned to the rental market.

This crunch spurred Crescent City to explore ways to expand its housing supply.

“There’s only so much you can do as a government agency, because you’re not necessarily going to be the ones building the developments,” says Wier. “So, we asked, ‘How can we put ourselves in a position where we make it conducive to developers to actually build these needed housing units?’”

The city began investigating the financing tools it had at its disposal. It learned that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Project-Based Vouchers — which tie subsidized rent to the unit, not the individual — could unlock tax credits and grants. The city has 151 such vouchers at its disposal, which, when combined with the state’s Competitive Permanent Local Housing Allocation (CPLHA) grants, make it easier for developers to apply for ultra-competitive tax credits.

“They knew they’d have this sustainable rental income for 20 years,” says Wier.

With Harbor Point, for example, the city partnered with the Danco Group to leverage the assured income from the vouchers and receive a $5 million CPLHA grant, the maximum allowable, to make the project feasible. The community was filled within 35 days of project completion. Another project, the 160-unit Battery Point development with 70 vouchers, is set to welcome its first set of senior tenants this summer.

Since 2022, Crescent City has issued over 300 building permits — far exceeding the 189 units required in the current housing element cycle. This success helped the city secure the state’s pro-housing designation, which in turn unlocked over $1 million in grants for low- to moderate-income family housing. The city used that funding to help finance Redwood Downtown, with 36 affordable units and ground-floor retail, set to break ground next year.

“The goal is to get more activity downtown, to help the city’s overall economic development,” says Wier. “We don’t want our downtown to close down at 5 p.m. — this mix of new residential and retail will add a constant synergy to the area.”

Harbor, Battery, and Redwood are just three of several market-rate and affordable housing projects in the pipeline, along with a major rehab of a 46-unit apartment complex.

“There is a lot of room here for additional mixed-use residential units to really have a thriving downtown and city,” says Wier. “While we surpassed our state-mandated housing goals in this past round, we expect the required numbers will go up quite a bit in the next cycle — and we are ready.”