THE CITY OF MERCED MUST BE MORE THAN THE BARE MINIMUM

With every budget that passes in Merced, the city only narrowly reaches the bare minimum when it comes to allocating funding for affordable housing.In recent years, the only affordable housing developments that have been passed in the city use money that has been specifically earmarked for it — money that cannot be used for anything but affordable housing. In 2021-22 budget documents, the City of Merced’s Housing Department is stated to “[strive] to provide and maintain affordable housing, public services, infrastructure improvements, and public facilities for low to moderate-income residents by using federal and state funds.” It seems it is doing that — the bare minimum using federal and state funds, not addressing the needs of the community and allocating more funding than what is already provided. But that’s not enough. Read more at We'ced.