Urban Water Management Plan 2015

4.5 WATER USE FOR LOWER INCOME HOUSEHOLDS Law

SB 1087 (Florez, 2005) amended the UWMPA to require urban water suppliers to include single family and multi-family residential units for lower income households as identified by the City, County, or combination of both within the service area of the provider. In the 2010 UWMP the low- income projected water demands were calculated based on the City’s General Plan Housing Element, which provided estimates of lower income housing through 2014. As part of the City’s current General Plan update an updated Housing Element was released, which provides the amount of lower income housing units allocated through 2022. This updated housing element allocates 46 percent of future housing units as lower income. Overall population growth was used to determine lower income housing units and water demands through the 2040 UWMP planning horizon. As indicated by Table 4-5 , the low income water demands are included in the total water demand projection that is summarized in Table 4-2 . 4.6 CLIMATE CHANGE The DWR Guidebook lists discussion of climate change as optional, but suggests the impacts may be considered to provide a comprehensive look at the changing water conditions due to changing climate. It is at the discretion of the water supplier to include discussions on the impact of climate change. For the purposes of the 2015 UWMP, the impact of climate change on water supplies is not documented. As further studies are completed, and the requirements to address climate change are amended, the City will incorporate into future UWMP iterations. 10631.1 (a) The water use projections required by Section 10631 shall include projected water use for single-family and multifamily residential housing needed for lower income households, as defined in Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code, as identified in the housing element of any city, county, or city and county in the service area of the supplier. California Health and Safety Code 50079.5 (a) “Lower income households” means persons and families whose income does not exceed the qualifying limits for lower income families…In the event the federal standards are discontinued, the department shall, by regulation, establish income limits for lower income households for all geographic areas of the state at 80 percent of area median income, adjusted for family size and revised annually.

August 2016

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City of Morgan Hill 2015 Urban Water Management Plan