By Eric Engelbert
54 Affordable Homes. Built for the People Orange County Keeps Leaving Behind.
Orange County is not short on new housing projects. It is short on housing that working families, veterans, and people with limited incomes can actually afford. Lincoln Avenue Apartments at 7101 Lincoln Avenue in Buena Park is directly targeting that gap. C&C Development and Riverside Charitable Corporation broke ground on the 54-unit affordable housing community in February 2025, and construction is on track to finish in October 2026. Four three-story buildings will bring income-restricted rental apartments to a neighborhood that sits within walking distance of bus lines and everyday services. It is the kind of project that does not move markets or generate much press, but it will genuinely change what is available to low-income families and veterans in North Orange County. See all new development projects across Orange County.
Why Buena Park, and Why Now
Buena Park is a dense, working-class city in northwestern Orange County. With about 84,000 residents packed into roughly 10 square miles, it has the population base to justify infill housing at every income level. But like most Orange County cities, it has historically approved far less affordable housing than state mandates require. California's Regional Housing Needs Allocation process assigns each city a production target for housing at various income levels, and Buena Park, like most of its neighbors, has consistently fallen short on the low- and very-low-income tiers.
That is the policy backdrop behind Lincoln Avenue Apartments. The project was filed under CEQA as a Workforce Housing Project (SCH No. 2023070423), and it went through the standard entitlement process with City of Buena Park support. The city's involvement as a funding partner signals that this was a cooperative effort, not an adversarial one. When a city co-funds an affordable project, it is usually because the project checks enough local planning boxes to make that investment worthwhile.
The site at 7101 Lincoln Avenue sits in a neighborhood that is already residential in character, which means the project is not converting commercial land or fighting zoning battles. It is infill development in the most direct sense: adding housing in an area already designated and served for it.
The Funding: Who Is Paying for This
Affordable housing in California almost never has a single funding source. Projects like Lincoln Avenue Apartments are assembled from multiple public and quasi-public funding streams, each with its own requirements and target populations. Lincoln Avenue combines at least two major sources that have been publicly confirmed.
The most notable is a $8 million grant from CalOptima Health, the county-organized health plan that administers Medi-Cal coverage for low-income Orange County residents. CalOptima's investment here reflects a growing recognition in the healthcare world that housing is a health issue. Medi-Cal members who are unstably housed have worse health outcomes and cost the system more. By funding stable, income-restricted housing, CalOptima is investing in a kind of preventive infrastructure for its members. It is an $8 million bet that keeping people housed is cheaper in the long run than treating the conditions that come from not being housed.
The City of Buena Park also contributed funding. The specific amount has not been publicly disclosed, but the city's participation is noted in project reporting from multiple sources. Additional financing likely includes tax credit equity through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which is the primary tool California uses to subsidize affordable apartment construction statewide. LIHTC projects are syndicated through private investors who receive federal tax credits in exchange for equity investment, which is typically how the gap between construction cost and affordable rent revenue gets bridged.
Who Is C&C Development?
C&C Development is one of the most active affordable housing developers in Southern California, with more than 30 years of experience and a portfolio of over 30 communities in Orange County alone. The Irvine-based firm focuses exclusively on affordable and workforce housing, which means they are not balancing this work against a market-rate portfolio. Affordable housing is the business.
Todd Cottle, C&C's principal, put it directly in the Lincoln Avenue groundbreaking announcement: "Building communities like Lincoln Avenue Apartments is our passion, as we embrace collaborative public-private partnerships that lift up low-income Orange County residents." That language is worth taking at face value given C&C's track record. Their completed projects include Serrano Woods in Orange (63 units), Cartwright Family Apartments in Irvine (60 units with veteran preference), and The Meadows in Lake Forest (65 senior units). Lincoln Avenue continues that pattern of mid-size communities in established Orange County cities.
Co-developer Riverside Charitable Corporation is a nonprofit organization with a mission focused on affordable housing and community development. Nonprofit co-developers on projects like this often serve a compliance and ownership function, holding the affordable regulatory agreements and ensuring the project meets its income-restriction commitments over time. The partnership model between a for-profit developer like C&C and a nonprofit like Riverside Charitable is standard in LIHTC-financed affordable housing and often required by state funders.
What Gets Built: Units, Sizes, and Amenities
Lincoln Avenue Apartments will deliver 54 rental apartments across four three-story buildings. The unit mix is designed to accommodate a range of household sizes, with one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom options available. Units will range in size from approximately 500 square feet to 900 square feet, covering the spectrum from a single adult or couple to a family with children.
All units will be ADA-accessible and adaptable, meeting federal accessibility standards from day one rather than through future retrofits. The project also incorporates sustainability features throughout: drought-tolerant landscaping to reduce outdoor water use, and energy-efficient HVAC systems, water heaters, and appliances in every home. In a state where utility costs have become a meaningful burden for low-income households, those efficient systems translate directly to lower monthly costs for residents.
On-site amenities include a community room, a laundry room, a children's tot lot, a teen outdoor fitness area, and a barbecue pavilion. The community room and outdoor spaces give residents areas to gather beyond their individual units, which matters particularly for families in a denser building format. LifeSTEPS, a nonprofit social services organization that works at affordable housing communities across California, will offer on-site programming including adult education and after-school activities for children.
Who It Serves: Special Populations and Income Tiers
Lincoln Avenue Apartments is an affordable housing project at every unit, but within that, the development carves out dedicated allocations for specific populations who face particular difficulty finding stable housing in Orange County.
Units (special needs)
The 11 veteran units address one of the more visible affordable housing gaps in Orange County, where veteran homelessness has been a persistent problem despite county-level funding commitments. The 13 permanent supportive housing units are for families and individuals with special needs, which typically means residents who also receive wraparound services to help them maintain stable housing. Permanent supportive housing is considered one of the most effective interventions for people who cycle in and out of shelter or who have not been able to maintain housing independently.
The five units for student families are a less common designation. They recognize that students with dependents are a population that often falls outside both student housing programs and standard family housing assistance. The remaining units serve low-income families who meet general income restrictions, typically set at or below 60 percent of the area median income under LIHTC guidelines. All 54 units in the project are income-restricted, meaning no market-rate component is mixed in.
Timeline and What to Expect
The groundbreaking took place on February 18, 2025, with construction now underway. The project's expected completion date is October 2026, which puts the timeline at roughly 20 months of construction. That is consistent with mid-size affordable apartment projects in Southern California, where financing complexity and workforce constraints often extend timelines beyond what market-rate projects require.
When the project completes, units will be leased through a waitlist process. Affordable housing managed under LIHTC regulations typically opens a waitlist prior to completion, and demand in Orange County for income-restricted rentals almost always outpaces supply. If you or someone you know may qualify for affordable housing in Buena Park, it is worth watching for announcements from C&C Development or the City of Buena Park about when the Lincoln Avenue waitlist opens.
For the surrounding neighborhood, the project adds 54 new households to a block in a city that has more demand for rental housing than it has supply. New residents will be families and individuals who work in the area, attend school, receive health services through CalOptima, and spend money in the local economy. The project's CalOptima connection is particularly relevant given how many Medi-Cal members rely on services along the Lincoln Avenue corridor. Stable housing for those residents reduces emergency room visits, improves chronic disease management, and cuts costs that ultimately ripple back through the county health system.
You can track this and other upcoming projects across Orange County on the OC New Developments page.
Questions About Buena Park Real Estate?
Lincoln Avenue Apartments is one of several new housing projects moving forward in Buena Park right now, from affordable rental communities to for-sale townhomes. If you are thinking about buying, selling, or investing in North Orange County, we can help you understand what is happening in the market and where the opportunities are.
