La Oferta
Text and photo by Patty Cruz Lopez
Long commutes coupled with raising gas prices are just some of the sacrifices people are willing to make in order to avoid the high cost of housing in San Jose.
Gone are the days when it was a given that people lived in the same city in which they worked. In San Jose especially there are people who would rather buy a home, or rent in the surrounding valleys rather than pay the rates that are available.
With temperatures plummeting and the words of Mayor Reed still in the air “San Jose has adopted a 10 year plan to END homelessness.” People shivered and huddled closely together outside of San Jose’s city hall for a candle-lit vigil in support of more inclusionary housing.
People Acting in Community Together (P.A.C.T.) organized this vigil in lieu of the city council study session on the subject of inclusionary housing, or housing that is affordable. P.A.C.T. leader Father Jon Pedigo related scripture to the issue at hand by saying, “Just like Mary had to ask for housing, we are here to do the same.”
At the same time as the vigil, at 6:30 p.m. many were getting their families together for dinner in overcrowded homes, in multi-family shelters, in unsafe living structures or, if you can fathom, braving the elements outside. Others hadn’t even made it home yet having hit the customary patch of traffic adding another 20 minutes to their commute while driving to Tracy, Los Banos, or Fresno.
The high cost of living in San Jose is an issue that affects not only people belonging to “low” socioeconomic brackets but also people from every other income level.
Mary Helen Barro, a schoolteacher said, “The salaries school teachers receive are not commensurate with the high rents in San Jose.”
That point was illustrated further during the study session through a slide presented by the Directory of Housing that depicted a side-by-side comparison of the household incomes of those led by a nurse, an accountant, a social worker and two minimum wage earners. The slide proved the harsh reality that no matter what the income level most people couldn’t afford housing in San Jose.
Even a nurse, whose yearly income is approximately $71,000 said, “This is partly the reason there is a nursing shortage across the county. We need to do more to meet the growing need for affordable housing.”
City council members Forrest Williams, and Kansen Chu, addressed the crowd assembled vowing to support inclusionary housing. Williams said that it could only promote the city’s efforts to go green by keeping workers close to their homes ultimately reducing green house emissions.
With redevelopment projects consistently being approved by the city council most of which include residential sites, it’s time to start asking who will be able to afford to live in these buildings?
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