Mutual Housing needed a City of Davis $8.4 subsidy to build 69 affordable units and affirms that Village Farms can do 360 affordable units with just $6 million from the developer. The math destroys their own claim. (See City staff memo below)
Mutual Housing needed an $8.4 million subsidy from the city to get a 69-unit project built in South Davis. The same format applied to the 360 units affordable units at Village Farms would need a city subsidy of $44,005,518.25. And the developer is putting in $6 million and Mutual Housing affirms that it will work. Can it, do the math?
On May 29, 2026, Mutual Housing of California wrote an OpEd in favor of the Affordable Housing at Village Farms entitled “We Know What it Takes.” They do, but it is their reality that is the opposite of what they say is in their OpEd.
Mutual Housing claims they have developed 6 projects in Davis when they have done only 2.
On the first of the two (New Harmony) Mutual Housing needed a subsidy of $8,434,391 from the City of Davis to get 69 units built in South Davis. That was $122,237 subsidy per each of 69 units. Without that subsidy, New Harmony would never have been built.
The same format applied to the 360 units affordable units at Village Farms would need a city subsidy of $44,005,518.25.
Mutual Housing should be telling the citizens of Davis that $6 million from the developer will not be enough.
Memo to Davis City Council from City staff;
TO: FROM: January 29, 2013 City Council Successor Agency of the Davis Redevelopment Agency Danielle Foster, Housing & Human Services Superintendent Kelly Stachowicz, Deputy City Manager
SUBJECT: Completion and Permanent Financing of New Harmony Recommendation Informational. The City and its former Redevelopment Agency have provided a combined loan amount of $8,434,391 for the development of the New Harmony Affordable Housing Project.
David J Thompson has spent a forty-year career advocating for, writing about, financing, co-developing affordable housing in Davis, throughout California and five western states. He is a longtime resident of Davis.
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