Santa Clara County is finalizing plans to construct three new reasonably priced housing initiatives in San Jose so as to add greater than 300 desperately wanted residences for low-income and homeless residents.
This week, the county Board of Supervisors accredited spending as much as $17.4 million to buy the properties wanted for the brand new developments. The initiatives embrace:
- The 154-unit Sunol-West San Carlos Flats at 777 West San Carlos St. west of Freeway 87 close to downtown ($11.2 million)
- The 99-unit The Charles complicated at 551 Keyes St. close to Kelley Park ($3.2 million)
- The 60-unit Alum Rock Multifamily undertaking at 1860 Alum Rock Ave. east of downtown between Freeway 101 and Freeway 680 ($3 million)
The cash for the initiatives comes from Measure A, a $950 million reasonably priced housing bond accredited by voters in 2016. In whole, as much as $53.8 million in Measure A funds will go towards the developments, already accredited by native officers, to assist cowl the land purchases and constructing prices.
Every undertaking has additionally secured extra financing, and development is ready to start within the coming months, officers stated. The initiatives will likely be constructed and operated by reasonably priced housing builders. The county will supply supportive companies for previously homeless residents.
“That is all because of the voters of Santa Clara County,” Supervisor Cindy Chavez, one in every of Measure A’s essential backers, stated in a press release.
Along with the property purchases, the board accredited a $4 million mortgage for a 99-unit reasonably priced undertaking at 797 S. Almaden Ave. in San Jose. The mortgage will use a mix of state and Measure A funding.
Mathew Reed, director of coverage on the South Bay housing advocacy group SV@Residence, praised Measure A for serving to create houses for low-income and homeless residents within the county at “a stage and fee we’ve by no means been capable of obtain prior to now.”
Up to now, the 10-year housing bond, funded by property taxes, has supported almost 4,000 models and seems on observe to fulfill its aim of serving to construct or protect roughly 4,800 reasonably priced houses by 2026.
Nonetheless, that quantities to lower than 30% of the greater than 25,000 low-income houses native governments within the county had been alleged to approve between 2015 and 2023, in accordance with state information. And beginning in January, that state-mandated aim doubled to greater than 50,000 for the present eight-year housing cycle.
With Measure A cash now largely spent, considerably extra native funding will seemingly be wanted to even strategy the aggressive goal, particularly as state and federal housing subsidies are more and more oversubscribed.
One proposed choice is a Bay Space-wide housing bond price as much as $20 billion that might come earlier than voters in 2024. It may imply as a lot as $2.1 billion for San Jose and $2.4 billion for the remainder of Santa Clara County.
“We'd like a coordinated regional strategy that brings different counties into the hassle in order that it’s not simply Santa Clara County that’s dedicated, however that everyone is a part of the answer,” Reed stated.
Along with elevating extra money, officers should additionally discover methods to hurry up the typically years-long metropolis planning and allowing course of, which might add crushing prices to reasonably priced initiatives, Reed stated. One other problem: neighbors who oppose low-income developments over considerations starting from visitors and air pollution to the influence on their property values and of homeless folks transferring to their communities.
Reed pointed to controversial state legal guidelines which have stripped away native management over reasonably priced developments lately as a useful begin, although he acknowledged it is going to seemingly take time earlier than their full influence is felt.
He additionally recommended the county’s effort to create extra everlasting housing for its roughly 10,000 homeless residents — however harassed that dedication should proceed, even with the prospect of an impending financial slowdown.
“It doesn’t imply we’re assembly the complete want,” Reed stated. “Our housing market is damaged and we're in a disaster.”