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San Jose is lagging behind its 2017 promise to build 25,000 units of new housing—10,000 of them affordable—by 2022. Now, officials are looking for solutions to the shortfall and hoping to jumpstart construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs). To meet its goal of 25,000 new units in five years, the city needed to build about...
San Jose residents propose ideas for community-owned housing
When imagining community-owned housing in San Jose, the first thing that comes to mind for some residents is inclusion. “We want to ensure we include very low-income, extremely low-income and those who have no income,” said Delma Hernandez, an organizer with South Bay Community Land Trust, Latinos United for a New America and Next Door Solutions....
Santa Clara County puts another $350M toward affordable housing
Santa Clara County supervisors are set Tuesday to pump another $350 million of affordable housing bond money to build more low-income housing. In 2016, Santa Clara County residents approved a $950 million housing bond, known as Measure A, to fund construction of 4,800 housing units across the Bay Area. The premise of Measure A has...
San Jose RV dwellers fear displacement
As county leaders push plans to revitalize the barren Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, dozens of RV dwellers could soon be pushed out. Tenant Pam Eisenbarth said staff from the nonprofit running the RV park, Fairgrounds Management Corporation, told her and husband Joe Rodriguez in December 2019 that the park would soon close. The corporation was...
San Jose Google project one step closer to reality
More than three years after Google set its sights on San Jose, a major milestone occurred Wednesday for its plan to build a massive campus in the city’s urban core. The San Jose Planning Commission unanimously approved Google’s proposed 80-acre campus at its evening meeting—moving the city’s largest land use project another step forward. “I...
Will South Bay keep expanded homeless housing post-pandemic?
Santa Clara County made strides in housing its unsheltered residents during the pandemic. Now county officials want to make sure it doesn’t backslide as the region prepares for a post-pandemic future. With the help of emergency federal and state funding, the county’s Office of Supportive Housing provided shelter to more than 5,500 households over the last year. COVID-19...
San Jose lawmaker to moonlight as a realtor
San Jose Councilmember Sergio Jimenez is starting a new venture as a realtor for Abitano Group at Compass — and he’s not the only Silicon Valley lawmaker moonlighting on the side. Jimenez said he is a part-time realtor, and his “number one priority” is his work at City Hall. “I have a deep obligation I take very...
Understanding emergency rent relief in Santa Clara County
California’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium ends June 30, but rent relief is on the horizon for Santa Clara County residents. Local housing experts explained emergency rent relief programs and eviction protections serving Santa Clara County at a Wednesday panel hosted by San José Spotlight. Rent assistance includes a state and local program, with the local program...
San Jose RV dwellers find more leniency as tow companies find less profit
As Debbie Guzman got out of the hospital, she received a call from her only neighbor—police officers were trying to get into Guzman’s RV. By the time she got back to her vehicle on Will Wool Drive in San Jose, she said officers told her the vehicle would be impounded for unpaid registration, forcing Guzman...