After a year of tweaking crucial San Jose tenant protections, the City Council on Tuesday could approve new penalty fees for landlords who flout the law. But once more, the stage is set for the lawmakers to argue on the merits of penalizing landlords who break the rules on laws such as just cause eviction, the Ellis...
Could California’s 3.5M home deficit be solved through rezoning?
When Gavin Newsom became California’s governor, he announced a bold goal of solving the state’s 3.5 million-home shortage by 2025, but there’s one major problem: cities across the state are only planning for about 2.8 million new housing units. What’s more, many of the areas where those 2.8 million new homes are allowed to rise,...
Year in review: The biggest housing projects in 2019
Housing has dominated every big policy decision in San Jose this past year, as the city faces a growing housing and homelessness crisis. Slowly, the city is inching its way closer to meeting Mayor Sam Liccardo’s goal of producing at least 25,000 new housing units — 10,000 of them affordable — by 2022. While city...
Hundreds gather in downtown San Jose for warm Thanksgiving meal
More than a hundred volunteers and people in need packed the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) in downtown San Jose Wednesday to enjoy an early Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie. The residents were warmly greeted by an army of nonprofit service providers and volunteers, including Mayor Sam Liccardo, as they...
State ruling on San Jose-owned land sales may hit other cities harder
A ruling this week by a state appeals court on how California cities must sell their surplus land to prioritize affordable housing may have been tailored to San Jose, but the decision will likely affect other cities more, according to the city’s mayor. “San Jose has very little city-owned land that is developable, and for...
San Jose: Volunteers build tiny homes for homeless ahead of Thanksgiving
At a Habitat for Humanity worksite in East San Jose Wednesday morning Mayor Sam Liccardo joined volunteers gathered in the driving rain to put the finishing touches on 40 tiny homes that will be placed on a nearby lot and used as transitional housing for homeless residents next year. The typical tiny home is only...
San Jose housing commission questions homebuyer loans, granny unit subsidies
San Jose’s Housing and Community Development Commission on Thursday asked probing questions about two proposals the City Council is expected to consider in the coming months — a down-payment assistance program for first-time home buyers and a subsidy for homeowners who build secondary units or so-called granny units to rent to low-income residents. Five commissioners...
East San Jose leaders discuss how housing crisis impacts Latino community
A panel discussion on the housing crisis brought dozens of Spanish-speaking residents out to the heart of East San Jose Thursday night to talk about solutions to a problem affecting more than half of the city’s Latino community. Prominent voices from the city and Santa Clara County, as well as local leaders from community organizations, spoke...
Look inside: Villas on the Park for formerly homeless San Jose residents opens
Jimmy Hendrix, who’s been homeless on-and-off for the last 40 years, was recently diagnosed with emphysema and COPD and had nearly given up on finding a safe place to lay his head. But on Friday, Hendrix became the first resident to move into Villas on the Park, one of San Jose’s first permanent supportive housing...
Bill Wilson Center, San Jose State partner with Airbnb to house homeless students
In an effort to make a dent in housing Silicon Valley’s rapidly growing student homeless population, the Bill Wilson Center on Wednesday announced a new program in partnership with Airbnb to connect homeless San Jose State University students with temporary housing using the home sharing website’s technology. Ron Ricci, board president at the Bill Wilson...