Subject:            Affordable housing for all income levels

 

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

Direct staff to bring forward necessary actions to:

 

  1. Maintain the triggers for the Central Coyote Urban Reserve, but make the planning triggers zoning triggers which would allow a Specific Plan to be developed.  The Specific Plan Task Force shall be directed to include a requirement in the specific plan that would mandate 20 percent of all units be “deed restricted below market rate units.” 

 

  1. Forward to the Rules Committee the following:

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

Building more affordable housing to meet the needs of families at all income ranges is a critical element for the long-term health of our community and our economy.  We cannot allow ourselves to price Silicon Valley out of competition with other regions of the nation and world, and we must continue to be responsive to the full spectrum of people and families who are the true heart of this wonderful region.

 

San José has led the region in the creation of housing so critically needed by working families in Silicon Valley, but along with every other city, we can and must do more.  We are always searching for innovative and practical ways to create more homes so that we can ensure the continuing economic prosperity and quality of life for our residents in our neighborhoods.  The City of San José has already made remarkable commitments to increase the supply of housing.  More than 4000 new homes are built each year in San José, and we estimate that there is potential for the construction of at least 40,000 more homes under the City’s current General Plan.  These are homes located within our developed urban area, and we focus development where residents in both new and existing neighborhoods will be able to take advantage of transit systems that are being expanded throughout the region.  This helps us sustain the livability of our city for our residents, protect open space from costly sprawl, and improve the effectiveness of our transit systems.

 

San José is already the largest supplier of housing in the entire region with nearly 300,000 homes in our city.  We are well on track to building 6000 affordable homes that will serve nearly 20,000 more people by 2004 using more than $300 million of local redevelopment funds that we are leveraging with state, federal, and private funds.  We continue to work with developers, funding agencies, neighboring communities, businesses, and housing advocates to create more opportunities, identify additional resources, and increase the urgency of building more solutions for more affordable housing.

 

It is vital to the continued community health of the people of Silicon Valley that we all search for solutions.  We must stand together in our commitment, both to celebrate our community’s significant and continuing accomplishments, and to call for more changes and more results for providing more homes in the future.  That is why today we are calling for several additional steps to expand San Jose’s commitment to affordable housing:

 

  1. San José Redevelopment Agency 20% supplement.  San José shall commit to matching dollars into a regional pool matching funds put forward by any other Santa Clara County cities’ Redevelopment Agency above their 20% requirement.  Further, if the Redevelopment Agency can issue bonds after 2004 that we will review an increased percentage of funds to be dedicated to affordable housing if increment receipts exceed current projections.

 

  1. Just Cause Ordinance.  Direct staff to meet with stakeholders to gather input and review the positive and negative effects similar ordinances have had in other jurisdictions.  This analysis would return to Council this summer for the Council to evaluate the policy issue of initiating a Just Cause Ordinance in San José.

 

Important Stakeholders and other jurisdictions to study impacts:

·        Central Labor Council

·        Affordable Housing Network

·        PACT

·        ACORN

·        TCAA

·        Landlords and tenants in jurisdictions which already have a Just Cause Ordinance (San Francisco and Seattle)

·        San Jose Real Estate Board

·        San José/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce

·        Housing For All

·        Ethnic Chambers

·        Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group

 

  1. Preservation of Federal Housing Units.  San José has had an aggressive policy of attempting to preserve affordable housing units.  Recently we have saved hundreds of units at the El Rancho Verde and Don de Dios complexes through financially assisting the preservation of affordability restrictions.  However, we can do more.  San José shall initiate a policy that anytime we receive notification of a conversion that we would review the history of the project to determine if there were any other affordability restrictions placed upon the project at time of City approval to attempt to maintain the units as affordable.  If determined that affordability restrictions are not feasible, then we would notify all tenants as to their rights under our rental ordinances.

 

  1. Rental Housing Task Force.  The Mayor will appoint a Task Force who would work for six months to develop recommendations for the City Council’s review.  This Task Force would review rental public education proposals, the potential for stronger enforcement of current vacancy decontrol ordinances, proposals to reduce the annual allowable increase in rents, the possibilities of changing what are allowable “pass-throughs” to tenants, the potential for tying code enforcement review to any rent increase that exceeds a certain percentage and a tenant referral process to the City Attorney’s Office.

 

  1. Rental Public Education and Outreach Program.  The City Council recently approved $100,000 to create a public education campaign to inform all San José tenants of the City’s existing rent control policies and relevant mediation and arbitration services that are provided by the City.  With 53,000 homes in San José protected by rent control, it is likely that many tenants and landlords are unfamiliar with our ordinance and the services available through the City.  We should make a strong proactive effort to inform all tenants and landlords of our rent control ordinances, dispute resolution services, and related programs to make sure they know their rights and responsibilities.  Such outreach should use communication methods that are effective for reaching a wide range of residents who are renters in our community, including languages other than English, and it should use community-based tools that do not rely on conventional media such as community and business organizations.  Additionally, TCAA is currently working in Project Blossom areas to educate and train landlords as well as sending out a letter to every landlord in San Jose advising them of the existing regulations under San Jose’s ordinance.  TCAA is also translating a pamphlet on the regulations under the rent control ordinance into multiple languages.  These efforts should be coordinated with this public education campaign.

 

  1. Penalties for Landlords who illegally evict tenants. The City Attorney is directed to develop an ordinance and a fee schedule to impose statutory penalties on landlords that illegally evict tenants solely to raise rent.  Code enforcement and public education would be a large component of this.

 

  1. Inclusionary Zoning and a Coyote Valley Specific Plan. The Coyote Valley Urban Reserve planning triggers should be changed to be construction triggers.  The Specific Plan Task Force shall be directed to include an inclusionary zoning requirement in the specific plan that would mandate 20 percent of all units be “deed restricted below market rate units.”  The specifics of what percentage of the units would be dedicated to ELI, VLI, LI and MOD would be determined by the City Council after a recommendation from the Specific Plan Task Force.

 

  1. Inclusionary Zoning – rest of the City.  Staff shall continue a study of an inclusionary zoning ordinance, which would have a minimum number of unit threshold (50?) and review how such ordinances have worked in other cities.  This would relate to the Housing Production Team (HPT) recommendation: "Implementation of an inclusionary zoning policy for affordable housing on all new rental projects in the city and study the impact of adoption of an inclusionary zoning ordinance in other cities."  Council direction was: "Refer to Administration to gather stakeholder input.   Report back to the Council in 2001."

 

  1. Countywide Affordable Housing Fund.  The Mayor will convene a community task force to look at alternative funding mechanisms for affordable housing countywide.

 

  1. Slumlord Task Force.  Direct the City Manager and City Attorney to establish an internal task force of city departments to aggressively target and prosecute slumlords to improve housing conditions and safety in San José. 

 

 

Mayor Ron Gonzales