By Jeremy Ogul | Contributing Editor

Aside from being the largest addition to Allied Gardens in decades, there’s another thing that makes the Verge Apartments on Mission Gorge Road stand out: The 444-unit apartment project includes 89 affordable units.

To be clear, this is not Section 8 housing. Verge does not accept rent paid through the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program (or Section 8, as it’s more commonly known). We’re talking about income-based, rent-restricted units that the developer agreed to provide as a condition of getting the project approved.

At market rate, rents at Verge range from $1,781 for the smallest one-bedroom apartment (714 square feet) to $3,121 for the largest two-bedroom unit, a two-story townhouse (1,233 square feet). Residents with the lowest incomes, however, can qualify to rent the same one-bedroom unit for $913 or a two-bedroom unit for $1,013.

“We have an apartment for everyone here,” said Justin Wald, Verge’s community manager.

Whether an individual or family qualifies for an affordable unit depends on how their income compares to the median among San Diego households. This year, the federal government determined the median income for a family of four in the area is $73,000. In other words, half of San Diego families that size earn less than $73,000, while the other half earn more, according to the government formula.

At Verge, 44 units are reserved for residents who earn no more than 65 percent of the median income. This means that a single person who lives alone and earns $36,000 a year would meet the threshold to rent a one-bedroom apartment for $913. That’s a discount of nearly 50 percent off market rate. A family of four that earns less than $52,650 would meet the threshold to rent a three-bedroom apartment for $1,121.

Forty-five of the units are for people with higher incomes — ranging from a maximum of 110 to 140 percent of the median. At the high end of this scale, a family of three could earn up to $92,000 a year and still qualify for an affordable unit. A family at that income level could rent a two-bedroom for $2,128. A family of five could rent an affordable three-bedroom apartment in this category for $2,360.

The affordable units at Verge are evenly distributed among the market-rate units and are built to the same specifications.

“There’s no difference between a market-rate and an affordable unit,” Wald said.

That means they have the same high-end finishes in each unit, such as quartz countertops and glass mosaic tile backsplashes in the kitchen, and a full-size washer and dryer in the unit. Every unit is accessible to people with disabilities.

Residents in the affordable units will also be able to enjoy all the same luxury amenities as the market-rate tenants. Those include a two-story fitness center open 24 hours a day, an expansive outdoor pool deck with panoramic views of Admiral Baker Golf Course, a large clubhouse room for hosting parties (complete with a beer keg cooler and tap), a small playground for children, dog runs, a dog washing area, covered indoor parking and access to storage closets in the building.

Tom Scott, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, said it’s unlikely anyone will be able to tell the difference between the tenants in the affordable units and the tenants in the market-rate units.

“They’re gonna have to be able to pay that rent, and then they’ll qualify just as any other renter does,” Scott said. “They’re working people, and if it’s a family, they’re working families. Nobody will even notice. Maybe they won’t have as nice of cars or as many cars.”

The affordable units were built into this project as part of the city’s inclusionary housing program, which requires residential developers to make either 10 percent of units affordable to low-income residents or to pay a fee into a fund that the local government uses to build its own affordable housing projects.

Scott said it is unusual for developers to choose to build the units themselves.

“Mostly they pay the fee,” he said. “Here, not only are they building the units, but they agreed to build twice the number that was required.”

That may have been part of the applicant’s strategy to get the project approved by the Planning Commission and City Council when it was under review in 2008, especially considering that the land was previously occupied by a mobile home park. From a practical perspective, city leaders generally prefer that the developer build the units themselves rather than pay the fee, Scott said.

“The fee is a political decision, and so it’s set below what it costs to produce the units,” he said.

As a result, when a developer pays the fee, the city ends up subsidizing the true cost when it goes to build an affordable unit. On the other hand, when the developer builds affordable units into the project, the entire cost of the affordable unit is borne by the developer — or, more likely, by the other residents who pay higher rents that effectively subsidize the affordable units, Scott said.

Wald, the manager at Verge, said he does not expect those affordable units to last long.

“Our waitlist has been filling,” he said.

That should not be a surprise to anyone paying attention to the rental housing market in San Diego. In Downtown’s East Village, for example, leasing agents at the newly erected Pinnacle on the Park tower said they received 500 applications for just 36 affordable units.

Earlier this year, the City Council reached a new milestone: 12 years of declaring a continued state of emergency due to a severe shortage of affordable housing. Clearly, the affordable units at Verge will make a difference in the lives of dozens of families, but the city has a long way to go before it reaches its goal.

—Jeremy Ogul is a freelance writer and former editor of this newspaper. Write to him at [email protected].