San Jose City Hall, 801 North First Street, Room 436, San Jose, CA 95110 (408)277-5131

Mayor Gonzales and Working Partnerships, USA Announce Bold Plan to Increase Affordable Housing and Protect Renters

San José, California – San José Mayor Ron Gonzales announced a comprehensive plan to create more affordable housing in San José and Santa Clara County, to protect the rights of renters, and aggressively target and prosecute slumlords.

“These bold actions will make San José a better place to live for all San Jose families,” Gonzales said. “A place where we provide affordable housing for all income levels.”

Mayor Gonzales was joined by fellow members of the City Council; Amy Dean, Executive Officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council; Dan Hancock of Shappel Industries; John Doherty of the Santa Clara County Tenants Association (SCCTA); and Rabbi Melanie Aron of the Interfaith Council. Also in attendance were members from the Housing for All--An Alliance of Community, Labor and Faith, a coalition advocating for affordable housing and renters’ rights.

Highlights of the Mayor’s 10-point proposal include recommendations to mandate that 20% of the new housing constructed in the Coyote Valley Urban Reserve be set aside as affordable housing, potentially yielding an additional 5,000 affordable homes; the formation of an internal City task force to target slumlords to improve housing conditions in the city; and a Rental Housing Task Force to develop recommendations to the Council on how to keep San José an affordable community to live for renters. Gonzales worked in collaboration with Working Partnerships, USA to create this comprehensive list of proposals.

Immediately following the press conference, Amy Dean, Executive Officer of the South Bay Labor AFL-CIO Council announced the release of “Everyone’s Valley,” a major report on the housing crisis in Silicon Valley written by Working Partnerships, USA. “Affordable housing is a necessity if working families are to continue to live in Silicon Valley,” Dean said. “With these actions, we can roll up our sleeves and get to work to make real progress on solving our housing crisis.” “Everyone’s Valley” calls for a comprehensive response to our affordable housing shortage of unprecedented scale. As part of a broad analysis, the report highlights the merits of inclusionary zoning in Central Coyote Urban Reserve and explains why protection for renters is an essential component of a successful housing strategy in this region.

San José families continue to face skyrocketing rents and home prices. Mayor Gonzales recommended a comprehensive approach to find new ways to increase the supply of affordable housing both in the city and the region, protect the rights and interests of renters and crackdown on slumlords who own substandard property that jeopardizes the health and safety of San José families. Specific items of the Mayor’s Recommendation include:

1. Establish an Inclusionary Zoning requirement for the Coyote Valley Urban Reserve, mandating that 20% of all new housing units be set aside as affordable housing. This proposal could potentially yield an additional 5,000 affordable homes.
2. Begin a study to assess the positive and negative impacts of creating a city-wide Inclusionary Zoning ordinance.
3. Establish an internal task force of city departments to aggressively target and prosecute slumlords to improve housing conditions and safety in San José.
4. Begin a study to quickly assess the positive and negative impacts of adding a “just cause” ordinance in San Jose and report to the City Council this summer.
5. Develop penalties for landlords who evict tenants for the sole purpose of raising rents.
6. Create a regional housing fund where San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency will match dollar for dollar any Santa Clara County city’s redevelopment agency that contributes funds above their 20% state mandate for regional affordable housing. San Jose currently contributes 30% of its RDA dollars for housing.
7. Create a Rental Housing Task Force to study issues affecting renters including stronger enforcement of San Jose’s Rent Control Ordinance and possibly requiring code enforcement inspections to units that have large rent increases.
8. Prevent the conversion of Federal Section 8 housing units to market rate units whenever feasible. This will help us keep up the existing supply of affordable housing in our community.
9. Establish a comprehensive public education and outreach program to ensure all renters and landlords know their rights under San José’s Rent Control Ordinance. The City set aside $100,000 in the FY 01-02 budget to accomplish this goal.
10. Convening a community task force to look at alternative funding mechanisms for affordable housing countywide. We need to explore new ways to fund housing for families in our region.

San José is already the largest supplier of housing in the entire region with nearly 300,000 homes. San Jose created 4,500 new homes of all income levels last year, more than all of the other cities in Santa Clara County combined. The City is on track to building 6,000 affordable homes that will serve nearly 20,000 more people by 2004 using more than $300 million of local redevelopment leveraged with state, federal, and private funds.

Earlier this month, the City Council approved Mayor Gonzales June Budget message which set aside funding to create an enforcement team to inspect substandard housing and prosecute negligent landlords and $100,000 to educate both renters and landlords about their rights under San José’s Rent Control Ordinance.

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