Pismo Beach is getting new affordable senior housing. Do you qualify to live there?

Pismo Beach is getting new affordable housing for low-income and homeless seniors in South County.

Shell Beach Senior Apartments will bring 26 new homes and resident support services to its 0.57-acre site on Shell Beach Road in Pismo Beach when construction is completed in the summer of 2024, according to a release from Pacific Development Group said.

Pacific Development Group President Joe Michael said the affordable housing development company partnered with the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo, the city of Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo County and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee to bring the project to life.

“Every affordable housing project is a true public-private partnership, just because you need those sources of funds from the city, the county and the state to make them work,” Michael said. “That’s our bread and butter.”

The project will be available to low- and extremely low-income seniors, and will reserve three units for homeless seniors as a transitional step.

To qualify for these units, applicants must be over the age of 55 and fall into the extremely low-income (making 15-30% of the area median income) — or low-income (making 30-50% of the area median income) categories.

This means applicants will pay between $513 and $896 monthly for one of the eight 335-square-foot studio apartments, while one of the project’s 17 461-square-foot one-bedroom units will cost between $529 and $940.

The two-story project is designed to make the most use of the lot while adhering to Pismo Beach’s sight line, zoning and parking restrictions, Michael said.

“Typically, the more units we could do on a site or at a project, the better, because you make those dollars go farther per unit,” Michael said. “We always try to maximize that.”

Keeping rents manageable for the clients made funding from the city, county and state a necessity as a developer, Michael said.

“The city of Pismo Beach also placed a soft loan on the project in the way of deferring some of the fees for the building permits, as well as impact fees, and so that was kind of shown into the project as a loan,” Michael said.

To “make the project pencil in” and fill out the remaining funding, HASLO provided an additional $600,000, Pismo Beach contributed $1.5 million in housing in-lieu funds and fee deferrals and SLO County contributed $800,000 through its Title 29 and home investment partnership programs.

Using the state’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, loans and investment from the development group, the project’s creators were able to secure the funding in just under four years and break ground in December 2022.

“With those storms that hit early January, it’s slowed us down a little bit,” Michael said. “But for the most part, we’re still on track.”

Senior support services will be included on the property, the release said, such as adult education, health and wellness, and skill-building classes, along with a resident community center, open space, laundry and on-site parking.

The project will also offer senior shuttles and ride shares, Michael said, along with public transit access, and is within walking distance of retail shops and restaurants.

Applicants will be accepted by signing up for a wait list, Michael said, which will then be selected by lottery.