new resource to find affordable housing!

http://www.scchousingsearch.org/

 

Notification of Public Meetings on Ways to Increase Affordable Housing Production

The City of San José faces important challenges in providing affordable housing for all socioeconomic segments of its population, given the highly competitive housing market and limited public dollars for financing affordable housing production. As a result, the City is exploring ways to increase production of affordable housing. One option would to make the City’s current inclusionary housing requirement in redevelopment project areas apply Citywide. The Department of Housing will hold a series of public meetings to explore inclusionary housing and other potential means of increasing affordable housing production in the coming weeks.

What is inclusionary housing? Inclusionary housing requires all new residential developments to have a certain number of homes and apartments available to lower and moderate income individuals and families.

Stakeholder Meetings
Participation in these meetings will generally be limited to the invited representatives of stakeholder groups. At the end of each meeting, there will be allotted time for public comment.

Stakeholder Meeting with Affordable Housing Advocates
Tuesday, September 23rd 6- 8 pm
Willow Glen Senior Community Center
2175 Lincoln Avenue San Jose, California

Stakeholder Meeting with Developers
Thursday, September 25th 6 – 8 pm
City Hall Public Wing Room 120
200 East Santa Clara Street San Jose, California

If additional meetings are needed for either group, an announcement will be made at the end of the meetings on September 23rd (Affordable Housing Advocates Stakeholder Meeting) and September 25th (Developer Stakeholder Meeting).

Open Forum Meetings
Opportunities for the general public to provide comments and feedback on a Citywide inclusionary housing program will be scheduled for late-October or early-November on dates to be determined. If you would like to be on the Housing Department’s list of e-mail addresses to receive notices of public meetings on inclusionary housing, please contact Colleen Lopez at 408.975.4489.

Other Ideas for Increasing Affordable Housing Production
Open Forum on Ways to Finance and Produce Affordable Housing
Tuesday, October 14th 6 – 8 pm
City Hall Public Wing Rooms 118, 119 + 120
200 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose, California 95113

To request an accommodation or alternative format to participate in these meetings, please call Colleen López at 408.975.4489 or 408.294.9337 (TTY) at least three business days prior to the meeting.

 

Housing Element Update 2007-2014 Community Meeting

The City of San Jose has begun the process to update its Housing Element, which is a part of the San Jose 2020 General Plan that addresses housing issues and provides a comprehensive policy direction for accommodating San Jose’s housing needs through 2014. Rapid growth in the San Francisco Bay Area region is expected to generate a need for 214,500 additional housing units between 2007 and 2014. The State of California requires each city and county to plan for its fair share of the regional housing needs.
 
San Jose’s share for 2007-2014 is 34,721 units, including 19,271 units that should be affordable. The Housing Element Update will build on the framework of current San Jose 2020 General Plan Major Strategies to encourage higher density infill development near job centers and transit options within urbanized areas of the City. The revised Housing Element will include specific policies and actions related to housing, including new construction and rehabilitation, workforce housing development, first-time homebuyer programs, housing for seniors, and others with special needs in San Jose.  A draft of the revised Housing Element will be presented to the San Jose City Council and Planning Commission in late 2008 and will then be submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for certification by June 30, 2009.
 
As part of the process, a Community Meeting to discuss the Housing Element has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Wing, Room 118-119.  The City invites all members of the public to attend and learn more about the Housing Element Update.  
 
Please park in the City Hall Garage via the entrance on Sixth Street. Parking validation will be provided.

Contact Us and Get Involved

For information about the Housing Element Update process please contact  Allen Tai in the Planning
Division at 408 535-7866 or by email at allen.tai@sanjoseca.gov 

For questions about housing affordability requirements and the City’s housing programs, please contact Wayne Chen in the City’s Housing Department at 408 975-4442 or by email at wayne.chen@sanjoseca.gov

 

FREE Foreclosure Prevention and Resource Fair

Presented by the City of San Jose
and Don’t Borrow Trouble Silicon Valley Partners

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Independence High School
1776 Educational Park Drive
San José, CA 95133
Use Parking Lot entrance on Jackson Avenue (free parking)
4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
 
Loan modification review by Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, Wachovia, GMAC, Countrywide and other banks and lenders, direct one-on-one counseling
will be provided by local HUD-approved housing counseling agencies, legal assistance, and many more resources will be provided!
 
Participating Agencies:
California Department of Real Estate
Project Sentinel
Neighborhood Housing Services Silicon Valley
Consumer Credit Counseling Services
ACORN Housing
Bay Area Legal Aid
California Association of Mortgage Brokers – Silicon Valley
Santa Clara County Association of Realtors
Don’t Borrow Trouble Silicon Valley
Fair Housing Law Project
Council on Aging Silicon Valley
Asian Inc.
 
For questions, please contact Robert Lopez at 408 975-4402 or Robert.Lopez2@sanjoseca.gov

 

Homeowner Foreclosure Prevention Workshop on July 2nd

Join Mike Honda for a discussion and workshop on how to protect your home from foreclosure. Homeowner resources and direct one-on-one counseling will be provided by local HUD-approved housing counseling agencies.

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Berryessa Branch Library
Community Room
3355 Noble Avenue
San José, CA 95132

Public Transportation – Bus Routes: 71

Attendance is free and open to the public.

Participating Agencies

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• Project Sentinel
• Catholic Charities of San Jose
• Neighborhood Housing Services of Santa Clara County
• Consumer Credit Counseling Service
• Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

 

Please RSVP by email at Honda.RSVP@mail.house.gov

For more information please contact Christine Pham or Chris Schwarz at 408-558-8085.

 

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson Resigns

NPR’s All Things Considered reported today that Alphonso Jackson, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has resigned under allegations of political cronyism. The allegations are related to housing development deals he made in Philadelphia. The NPR report discusses HUD’s inadequate response to the Katrina disaster given the razing of condemned Section 8 and other public housing, as well as the general decline in federal funding for housing during the Bush administration. Jackson was a Bush appointee who came from Texas.

 

Developers Back Out of Coyote Valley Plan

The housing market and upcoming revisions of the city’s general plan are cited in the Mercury News story about the recent pullout of Coyote Valley, announced on Tuesday, March 19. It is unclear how long developer designs on the area south of Almaden and Evergreen will remain dormant. The Merc’s report suggests that 25,000 homes were planned.

In other news, keep your eyes peeled around the Bay Area and California for previews of San Jose’s upcoming debates about its inclusionary zoning policies. Oakland has been vigorously debating Inclusionary Zoning in city council, and San Francisco will start it own inclusionary zoning brouhaha soon starting in a month or two. Inclusionary zoning policies generally mandate a certain percentage of new housing development be “affordable.”

The policies use state housing laws as a guideline, but can be tweaked in terms of what income brackets they target based on the area’s median income and who the city wants to address. The mandates are for the percentage of the new development that will be “affordable” and the amount of subsidy that will be given to offset the market rate for the unit. (A designation could be, for example, 15% affordable units for a given development at 85% of the area median income.)  San Jose currently mandates affordable housing in areas that fall under the city’s redevelopment plans.

The plans fall within a range of housing development tools to prevent workers from leaving the city, and to maintain a sustainable workforce. While some housing will be provided for very low income individuals and families, the study sessions at city council have revealed that very low income housing is not a priority for the city: they would likely run into political, bureaucratic, and economic snafus if an extensive low income program were launched. The study sessions and inclusionary zoning policy plan are being run and designed by David Rosen and Associates, an Oakland consulting firm.

 

Draft Inclusionary Housing Economic Study

News flash!

The City of San Jose has just posted the draft inclusionary Housing Economic study on their website at http://www.sjhousing.org/ (click on the “Inclusionary Housing Study” link on the right-hand side of the page).

 This study measures the economic effect of potential city-wide inclusionary housing.

There will be a public meeting to discuss this study on March 26th from 6pm to 8pm at City Hall (Wing rooms 118-120).

 

CDBG Application in Multiple Languages?

At the March 13th Housing and Community Development Commission (HCDC) meeting, the issue of language being a potential barrier to CDBG funding was brought forth by Commissioner Bock.  Being a son of immigrants and seeing first hand how difficult living in the United States can be for my parents due to English being their second language, I appreciated Commissioner Bock’s sensitivity to the issue. 

However, specifically to the CDBG application process, how would we be able to address this in a cost effective manner?  Should the CDBG application be produced in multiple languages?  Should applicants be allowed to submit their application in multiple languages? 

The challenges of reviewing dozens of application in different languages would create a logistical nightmare requiring multilingual evaluators, not to mention the overhead to address this one issue.  HUD, the source of CDBG funding, allows for up to 20% administrative overhead.  The Housing Department of San Jose is currently running at 13% allowing for the remaining 7% going directly to client services.  Even 1% additional overhead could potential mean close to $100,000 of service being taken away from our communities.

In addition, when the city of San Jose contracts their services to nonprofit organizations, should it not be the responsibility of the nonprofit organization to have the resource capacity to be able to engage a city staff in English?  I am a strong proponent of language translation and cultural sensitivity/proficiency when the city engages the public directly.  I am also a strong proponent for supporting nonprofit organizations who work on the front line and truly understand the needs of the community and be able to provide the services in the client’s primary language with cultural sensitivity.  If nonprofit organizations are going to be providing these critically necessary services to our communities, shouldn’t their role be to bridge the gap between tax payer dollars and their communities, and a responsibility of being that bridge is English proficiency? 

Every time I see my parents, a part of the day is spent reviewing their mail with them, looking at different insurance plans, helping them navigate this world.  If I wasn’t here to do that for them, I would hope that there was a service provided in the community for them so that they wouldn’t feel and be so lost.  If that service had the same language issues that my parents have, what help would that be? 

 

SJ Inclusionary Zoning Update

On February 13^th, Aaron, Tamon, and I were among the 40+ attendees, including many developers, at the City of San Jose’s inclusionary housing meeting at the Northside Community Center.

David Rosen and Associates (DRA), the consulting team hired by the City of San Jose, presented the pro forma budgets for each of the housing prototypes modeled in the economic analysis of inclusionary housing impacts. Most of the meeting was spent getting feedback from developers on whether or not the budget line items were reasonable assumptions. Some of the key points discussed were:

• The pro forma budgets should accurately reflect the actual current cost of developing housing
• The City and the consultants want to make the process and the numbers as transparent as possible.

The developers are encouraged to review the pro forma budgets at: http://www.sjhousing.org/link/whatsnew.html and submit comments to Leah Rothstein at leah@draconsultants.com by February 20^th.