Housing

Housing

Santa Clara lags behind on low-income housing

Santa Clara has thousands of homes in the pipeline, but advocates are skeptical if these developments will make a dent in the shortage of affordable housing. Santa Clara has a state mandate to produce more affordable housing by 2031. The city must construct more than 11,500 homes, with less than half priced at or above market...

Following San Jose, state tosses parking requirements

San Jose and California are in a race to leave the 1960s in the past, at least when it comes to redevelopment and parking. Silicon Valley housing advocates and experts are lauding the approval of a new state law that will do away with minimum parking requirements for new developments within a half-mile of major...

UPDATE: San Jose looks to count RV dwellers

San Jose is closer to counting how many residents living in RVs are lining city streets and creeks. A proposal to tally the city’s RV dwellers passed unanimously at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government committee meeting. The timeline and cost for the RV count will go back to the committee in three to four weeks...

UPDATE: Hundreds of affordable homes planned in San Jose

Following through on a policy priority five years in the making, San Jose is partnering with developers to build affordable housing on several city-owned plots of land, including the first housing project stemming from Google’s major downtown development. The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to approve exclusive negotiating agreements with four different developers Tuesday,...

Lawsuit stalls San Jose food bank development

Plans for a nonprofit food bank’s massive new headquarters in Alviso are on hold after a resident filed a lawsuit against San Jose over its approval of the development. In a lawsuit filed Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, Alviso resident Mark Espinoza claims the environmental review for the 250,000 square foot Second Harvest of...

Fourteen people died on San Jose streets — in one month

Santa Clara County might see another record breaking year in homeless deaths, with 14 people dying on the streets in September alone. As of Friday, 167 unhoused people have died in Santa Clara County this year—roughly 73% of them died in San Jose, according to county’s data. The number is following an alarming trend the region...

San Jose transforms hotel for foster youth

San Jose is partnering with various agencies on a multi-million-dollar project to transform a hotel into housing for youth transitioning out of foster care. The city approved a nearly $2.8 million grant to close the funding gap on a $32 million affordable housing project in San Jose. Developer Jamboree Housing Corporation will transform the Pavilion...

San Jose sidesteps lawsuit from homeless resident

A judge this week ordered the last man living in a massive San Jose homeless camp to move out—with the city’s help. Rudy Ortega is the sole holdout camping near Columbus Park. He filed a temporary restraining order against San Jose and housing provider HomeFirst to prevent being swept and to protect his property from being destroyed. His location needs...

San Jose homeless sweep creates new dangers

The sprawling land once home to hundreds of San Jose homeless residents sits mostly empty this week—but a new crisis is brewing in the baseball field across the street. More than 60 RVs and cars have squeezed into the empty baseball field at the corner of Asbury and Irene streets after the city started its monthlong...