San Jose tenants say the city’s rent control policy is ineffective. This bleak finding comes from a recent survey featuring more than 200 tenants and landlords who report feeling underwhelmed by ongoing city efforts to slow soaring rent costs. The survey, conducted by consulting firm RSG, is part of a larger effort to collect feedback from tenants...
What’s next for blighted San Jose theater?
A dilapidated theater is ready to be annexed into San Jose. How it will be used is up in the air. The San Jose City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to annex nearly an acre of land that’s home to the 74-year-old Burbank Theater at the intersection of South Bascom and Parkmoor avenues. The annexation enables a developer to...
Could new San Jose policy save affordable housing?
More than 100 residents stood in front of San Jose City Hall with empty moving boxes and suitcases in hand on Monday to represent the increasing displacement rates in the city, as housing and cost of living prices remain high. About 20 nonprofits, including SOMOS Mayfair and the South Bay Progressive Alliance, organized the rally...
Silicon Valley lawmaker says ‘missing middle’ can’t afford housing
One Silicon Valley lawmaker wants the state to get into the housing market to assist residents who earn too much to qualify for low-income housing, but don’t earn enough to afford a market-rate home. To help these residents, known as the “missing middle,” Assemblymember Alex Lee introduced Assembly Bill 309 earlier this year. If approved, AB 309 would...
Downtown San Jose hotel wants to sell south tower
Owners of the former Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, rebranded as Signia by Hilton last year, are planning to sell off about a third of the hotel’s guest rooms. Depending on what a potential buyer does with the property, some city boosters said the change could be a positive one for the downtown area, though...
Will San Jose greenlight new affordable housing policy?
An affordable housing proposal that would enable community groups to buy multi-family homes could finally make it back to the San Jose City Council next month. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, would give qualified nonprofits the ability to make the first offer on multi-family residential properties in San Jose. These nonprofits would then...
Empty San Jose offices could convert to housing
As major cities like San Jose and San Francisco struggle with emptied out downtowns after the pandemic pushed huge swaths of people to remote work, discussion of converting empty offices to housing is gaining traction. The Office to Housing Conversion Act, or AB 1532, would allow certain office buildings to be converted to housing across...
State law may overshadow San Jose affordable housing policy
A controversial policy that could make affordable housing more attainable is coming back to the San Jose City Council—but it might be a moot point if a similar policy is passed at the state level. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, is a policy that would give qualified nonprofits first rights to make an offer...
Chinese developer starts selling San Jose projects
A China-based real estate firm whose co-founder was recently arrested in connection with a bribery scheme is selling off a premier residential development site in San Jose, while the fate of two others is still unclear. The former Greyhound bus station site at 70 S. Almaden Ave. in downtown San Jose, owned by Z&L Properties,...
State housing law fizzles in San Jose
One year after a state law aimed at increasing housing supply went into effect, the destruction of single-family neighborhood character that many of the bill’s opponents raised alarms about has not yet come to pass. Senate Bill 9 effectively ended exclusionary single-family zoning statewide, allowing homeowners in some long unchanged neighborhoods to subdivide their lots...