Yuyi He loved serving on Cupertino’s Housing Commission, where she could make a difference representing renters’ and young residents’ voices. Over the past year and a half, she spent her evenings after her high-tech job advocating for landlords to pay some of the moving fees for residents displaced from affordable homes. But when her landlord refused to budge on a rent hike, He and her partner found themselves caught in a similar dilemma and had to move. She also had to resign from the commission after relocating to Mountain View.
“For younger people and lower-income folks, it’s definitely harder for us to serve because when we are just getting our voice heard, now we have to move,” He told San José Spotlight.
Her rent started at $3,252 three years ago and jumped to $3,573 a month. When she notified the apartment complex she was leaving, He said she saw her apartment listed for a cheaper rate. Her story isn’t unusual in the West Valley, where there are fewer tenant protections and available apartments, coupled with skyrocketing rents. It’s raising concerns about how young people can serve in local government without facing displacement, even with high-paying jobs.
Carole Conn, executive director of housing rights nonprofit Project Sentinel, said all cities need to expand protections under Assembly Bill 1482 to protect young people in the disappearing middle class. The bill, known as the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, limits annual rent increases to 5% plus the consumer price index or 10%, whichever is lower. She added the housing crisis is affecting everyone.
“You actually have people with decent incomes — far above the middle class in any other place — here they’re middle class, or even maybe upper middle class,” Conn told San José Spotlight. “But the competition for resources is so expensive, including housing, and so that wage and that level of education and talent is not translating into affordability.”
Tenant protections vary across the West Valley municipalities, where about 41.7% of residents rent and the average payment is about $3,643 a month, according to 2023 SV@Home and recent Zillow data. The average gross rent in Cupertino alone increased 75% from 2013 to 2023 to $3,500, according to city data.
Cupertino and Campbell rely on AB 1482. Los Gatos has a rent stabilization policy that limits annual increases to 5% or 70% of the consumer price index ceiling, whichever is greater. Mountain View, where He moved, goes further. Its Rental Housing Committee determines the maximum percentage increase each year for most apartment complexes, per the city’s rent stabilization policy. The highest increase allowed between Sept. 1 and Aug. 31 is 2.7%.
Younger residents want in
Juan Rodríguez, who unsuccessfully ran for Campbell City Council last year, was about to apply to the city’s Planning Commission when he was forced to move to San Jose last April. Rodríguez and his partner needed more space than their one-bedroom apartment after they became his young niece’s guardians. They couldn’t find anything in Campbell due to the lack of moderately priced apartments.
Rodríguez would return to Campbell if he could find housing.
“I really love that community,” he told San José Spotlight. “My partner and I, we were quite sad to make this decision.”
The majority of residents serving in local governments in the West Valley are well past their 20s.
Los Gatos Vice Mayor Rob Moore is one of the exceptions. At 27, he serves on the Town Council as the only councilmember under age 60.
He said he’s lucky because he was able to move back to the pricy town he grew up in, partially because he splits the $2,500 rent with his partner for their two-bedroom home. That’s affordable for Los Gatos, where rent averages $3,995, according to recent Zillow data.
Moore said Los Gatos, like other West Valley municipalities, doesn’t have many apartments, much less affordable ones. He said the lack of housing leads to fewer renters and young residents in local government.
“Our government should represent that diversity,” Moore told San José Spotlight.”If we are pricing out… many of the people who come from those more diverse communities, we’re doing ourselves a real disservice, because we are then not representing the will of the people.”
Cupertino Councilmember J.R. Fruen said it’s no surprise rents go up every year in high-demand markets like Cupertino. Fruen wants to explore housing policies that encourage landlord-tenant dialogue, but said the city ultimately needs to create more diverse housing options.
“The vitality of our community depends on it,” Fruen told San José Spotlight. “If generally well-compensated engineers are having a hard time with housing costs in Cupertino, imagine what it’s like for people of fewer means who are just as necessary for making our city a great place to live.”
He is settling into her new apartment, with boxes on the balcony and suitcases next to the dining room table. He said her work isn’t done in Cupertino as she continues to advocate for a dedicated renter seat on the city’s housing commission, even if it’s not her.
“Just because I’m leaving the commission and leaving Cupertino, that doesn’t mean this is goodbye, this is the end,” she said. “I’m gonna be like a spy because Mountain View has a lot of great things that we could learn.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
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