MURRIETA —— The city's first subsidized housing project is under construction on Jefferson Avenue across from the police station and is expected to be completed by the end of February, according to the developer.

An Escondido-based developer, Affirmed Housing Group, is forming a list of people who are interested in living in the 64-unit apartment complex, said Ginger Hitzke, senior project manager for the company. Tenants should be able to move in by the second week of March and the whole complex could be filled by the end of that month, Hitzke said.

The Affirmed project is a good deal for the city, Mayor Jack van Haaster said, because it helps Murrieta meet state goals for affordable housing, which require cities to provide housing for low- and moderate-income families.

"Affordable housing" is defined by the federal government as costing no more than 30 percent of the income of low- or moderate-income families. Low or moderate income is defined by the state as between 80 percent and 120 percent of the county's median income, which for a family of four is $54,300 this year. However, the numbers set by the state are updated every year and soon will be changed.

The Affirmed project is the first —— and so far the only —— affordable-housing complex in Murrieta, City Manager Lori Moss said. However, the city has other ways to bring affordable housing to Murrieta, Moss said.

Murrieta is requiring developers who want to build in the city's redevelopment area to set aside 15 percent of their units as affordable housing, she said. The requirement has helped put Murrieta "ahead of the curve" on state affordable-housing requirements in its recently approved five-year plan, Moss said. No other affordable housing complexes are proposed right now, she said.

Affirmed has developed a number of local affordable-housing projects in the region, including two in Temecula: the Cottages of Old Town, which consists of 17 homes, and the rehabilitation and expansion of the Mission Village apartments on Pujol Street.

Affirmed funded its $10 million Murrieta project with $7.3 million in federal tax credits that it sold for 81 cents on the dollar to get more than $5.9 million in cash, Hitzke said. Murrieta's redevelopment agency also granted the company $1.9 million for the project and carried a $2.1 million mortgage, she said.

Rental rates in the Affirmed complex would range from $300 for a one-bedroom unit to $1,100 for a three-bedroom apartment, Hitzke said.

At least 300 people have put their name on an interest list for the apartments so far, she said. Affirmed sends those names to a management company that sends out applications and checks the information on them when they're returned, she said. Tenants are checked for criminal records, prior evictions and credit history, Hitzke said.

"We don't fill the units on a first-come, first-served basis," she said.

When the applications are processed, they then get numbered according to priority, Hitzke said.

"We would love to have the people that are working at any of the retail stores right there on Madison Avenue. They could walk to work," she said, referring to potential tenants of the complex. "Their income generally fits within our income guidelines."

That's what the city is hoping to encourage —— housing for the people who work in Murrieta and otherwise could not afford to live in the city, van Haaster said.

He said the location, across from the police station, is ideal. Although van Haaster said he does not agree with the thinking, he said there is often a perception by some people that those who live in affordable housing complexes are more inclined to be troublesome, so putting this project across the street from the police station alleviated a lot of those fears.

Gene Wunderlich, a local real estate agent and a director with the California Association of Realtors, said the idea that affordable housing is for people in minimum-wage jobs is not always correct. Many of those who live in affordable housing are people who work as police officers, teachers and firefighters and don't have high incomes, Wunderlich said.

"These are people who aren't making a ton of money," he said. "What used to be first-time buyers' housing is now considered affordable housing because housing prices are so crazy."

Hitzke said income requirements for tenants are set by the state, based on the median income in each county.

To qualify for a unit in the complex, the income of a family of four would have to fall within 30 percent to 80 percent of the median income, Hitzke said. The income range for a family of four would be $16,200 to $43,400, she said.

The complex consists of 16 one-bedroom units, 24 two-bedroom units and 24 three-bedroom units. The units on the first floor are wheelchair-accessible and others are adaptable to fit a wide range of disabilities, Hitzke said.

Call Affirmed Housing Group at (760) 738-8401.

Contact staff writer Laura Mitchell at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2621, or lmitchell@californian.com.