Now, I am going to say the following with the caveat that I don't know if my experience with housing projects would be directly applicable in Irvine.
BUT...
in my experience, coming from a city with many housing projects, and having gone to school/work in close proximity to them, and walking past multiple projects in the course of my previous life, the natural history of a housing project is that they often start off nice. The first residents are so grateful to get the chance to live at a below market rate in a nice place...The big question is what happens over the long run? Some degrade. A lot. This pattern can be seen in many of the older cities in the Northeast. Now Irvine is so new right now, its hard to say what will happen in 30 years. Think about Garden Grove, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Westminster, so many of the Northern OC communities which at one point were also nice new middle class suburbs...
I think there's a big difference between having a few affordable units scattered here and there within mostly market rate complexes (which is the more common scenario in irvine) and having a whole complex dedicated to all low/very low income. The danger is if you get enough bad apples within the complex that creates a bad vibe that drives away all the decent folks who have jobs that just happen to not pay a lot.
There's also a big difference between moderate income housing (targeting middle class like teachers, firefighters and law enforcement though I though there were definitely cops and firefighters who make over six figures with overtime? someone please correct me if I'm wrong) and very low/extremely low income (very low income cut off for a family of 4 is 48,750 per year, for example, at the Anton Portola complex). There are different income categories and you can find the cut offs on-line. You should try to find out what income categories that particular project is targeted for, how many units for each, and what is the mix of market to affordable, if possible. Also, not all affordable projects take section 8. Some do. yes, Section 8 exists in Irvine. You should try to look up those specifics if possible.
Of course, this may not be so important unless you're thinking about the long term value of your property, like 20-30 years. I would hesitate to buy a high end house near affordable housing, like Altair at Portola Springs. But if you're buying a condo and thinking about moving and renting out your place in a few years, then it may not matter so much to you. Many neighborhoods with starter homes/condos end up eventually becoming renter dominated in Irvine, it seems like, further contributing to a more transitory neighborhood feel, coupled with the presence of the apartment complexes and affordable housing nearby.
At any rate living in an area that has a high concentration of these types of projects probably will impact test scores in your neighborhood school. Which will impact your property value, especially in Irvine, since overseas Chinese buyers can't seem to see past test scores. Now personally, I know that school test scores do not actually mean that much about the quality of the teachers and the school itself, but instead is correlated with the socio-economics of its student body. But it seems that many would be buyers can not get past this.
When my parents first moved to Irvine, they rented an apartment in Windwood Glen from IAC, which has a few affordable apartments mixed in with the market rate apartments. They said that they did not like to walk around the complex at night because there were groups of young men (who lived there, I guess) quite loud, somewhat rough looking, etc, hanging out late at night without any apparent purpose, directly outside their ground floor unit. They said they didn't feel quite safe in their ground floor unit with patio, but due to age/disability couldn't handle stairs.