Residents on all sides of San Jose’s housing debate are spoiling for a protracted fight, after the City Council advanced a plan to increase density limits across the city’s sprawling single-family neighborhoods. The policy framework approved Tuesday in an 8-3 vote will guide deliberations over the coming year, as San Jose planners craft an update...
San Jose mobile home residents claim park owner wants them out
San Jose Mobile Home & RV Park residents are fighting back against a landlord who they claim is retaliating against them for standing up for their rights. The residents allege property owner Monte Christo Communities has pressured them to sign new leases, written them up for small infractions and violated their personal space to take...
Affordable townhomes planned for East San Jose
A new East San Jose housing development is providing homeownership pathways for working families. For a place with a reputation as the least affordable city in the world to buy a home, AlphaX RE Capital is making housing affordable by providing below-market-rate townhomes for income-qualified households. The Kirk, an 18-home community at 125 Kirk Ave., offers interest-rate...
Santa Clara County affordable housing stuck in pipeline
Santa Clara County’s affordable housing projects funded by local dollars are stuck in a “logjam” struggling to secure other money needed to start construction. While the county has built more than 3,000 affordable homes over the past decade with Measure A, a $950 million bond approved by voters in 2016, 600 apartments and homes are stuck...
East San Jose school district plans workforce housing
An East Side school district is moving forward on its efforts to provide affordable housing for teachers and other employees. Alum Rock Union School District’s $71.5 million bond known as Measure S is materializing five years after voters approved it to fund workforce housing and other capital improvements. Since then, affordable housing has worsened in...
Silicon Valley land trust begins repairs on aging apartments
Come this spring, plumbing problems, sinking floors and decaying walls will no longer be issues for the low-income families living at an East San Jose apartment complex — thanks to a nonprofit’s effort to preserve the city’s shrinking unsubsidized affordable housing stock. Construction has begun at The Virginian Apartments, located at 1718, 1724 and 1730...
San Jose lawmaker’s bills critical to federal housing package
The largest federal housing bill in decades has the potential to increase the home supply in Silicon Valley, one of the most expensive regions in the U.S. The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, passed earlier this month, contains more than 40 provisions that include fast-tracking housing development by cutting red tape, increasing the...
State gives Mountain View $50M for housing, transit projects
In a windfall for Mountain View, the California Department of Housing and Community Development recently awarded the city $50 million to support an affordable housing project and transportation improvements on Middlefield Road. The City Council authorized the city manager to accept the award last month with the bulk of the funding, $35 million, slated to...
Battle lines drawn in San Jose housing plan overhaul
San Jose housing advocates and neighborhood groups are getting organized as the City Council prepares to take up a raft of proposals that could determine the course of housing development in the city for years to come. The package of recommendations, part of the city’s once-every-four-year review of its general plan, makes changes to the city’s...
San Jose nonprofit gives school supplies to 3,500 students
Inequity remains a growing issue in Santa Clara County, but one nonprofit is trying to help. For families struggling to make ends meet, backpacks and school supplies can be out of reach. Sacred Heart Community Service — which tackles the systemic roots of poverty by offering essential service safety net services such as food aid,...