Santa Clara County lawmakers approve new affordable housing projects

An empty dirt lot just south of Downtown San Jose will now be one of two new sites for low-income and homeless housing funded by the latest round of revenue from Measure A, a $950 million affordable housing bond overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2016.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the two new affordable housing projects Tuesday morning.

The two proposals are located at 425 Auzerais Ave. and the corner of Gallup and Mesa Drives in San Jose. As part of the 10-year goal of creating 4,800 housing units across Santa Clara County, these sites will add 176 new homes for low-income and homeless residents. The board approved allocating up to $33 million to support the developments – $15.6 million in Measure A funding and $17.4 million from No Place Like Home funds.

“This next wave of Measure A housing keeps us on track to build a home for every homeless person – that is really the goal,” Cortese said at the Auzerais Ave. site Monday. “Most would say that we’re ahead of pace, and we want to stay that way going forward.”

More than 31 percent of Measure A’s $950 million in funding has now been committed to extremely low- and low-income housing.

Chavez said that in addition to leveraging county money and working quickly, local support is the third requirement for success.

“In order to move these projects forward, we need neighborhood leaders and communities to be welcoming to these projects and and to these new neighbors,” she said.

One of those supportive neighbors is Sarah Springer, president of the Delmas Neighborhood Association, who has lived in the area for seven years. She’s excited to get the site at 425 Auzerais Ave. developed, especially with the reputation developer Eden Housing has with affordable housing.

“This site has been sitting here too long with nothing on it, and we need residential buildings. To have affordable housing here, that’s great,” Springer said. “We need to house homeless people and low-income residents. When they move into this property, we’re gong to welcome them in our neighborhood.”

Local auto repairman Sergio Salguero agreed. Working at El Camino Auto Transmissions nearby the lot, he thinks the project is a good idea and will help his business by bringing more people into the area.

425 Auzerais Ave. 

The proposal on the 1.02-acre site is planned to feature 130 units: 82 studio units, 24 one-bedrooms and 22 two-bedrooms. Additionally, 64 units would be set aside as permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless households.

The project – located 0.7 miles from Diridon Station, which will soon be home to the massive Google tech campus – is next to iJava Cafe and San Jose Fire Department Station 30, as well as minutes from Interstate 280 and the Guadalupe Freeway.

Gallup & Mesa 

Located at 1171 Mesa Drive & 5647 Gallup Drive, this .38-acre site in San Jose will provide 46 new units, comprised of 16 studios, 19 one-bedrooms, five two-bedrooms and five three-bedrooms. Of those, 23 will be used as permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless households.

The site, near the intersection of Almaden Expressway and Blossom Hill Road, is in walking distance from a Whole Foods and seven miles south of downtown.

Contact Katie Lauer at [email protected] or follow @_katielauer on Twitter.