Revised Stevens Creek Promenade Proposal Heads to San Jose City Council After Planning Commission Approval, SV@Home Endorsement
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Stevens Creek Promenade at 4300 Stevens Creek Boulevard in San Jose consists of homes, retail, restaurants, and a hotel concept. Photo courtesy Mercury News
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The Stevens Creek Promenade proposal with 30 percent affordable housing
units sailed through San Jose Planning Commission approval Wednesday and
now heads City Council.
“The affordability in this proposal is great,” said Mathew Reed, SV@Home’s
Senior Policy Director. “This is a well-designed, mixed-use project that will
provide a critical anchor to development in the Steven’s Creek Urban Village.
The most interesting housing opportunity is the affordability for a wide range
of people, which will be critical as this area grows into a new neighborhood.”
SV@Home has been actively engaged in promoting development on this site for the last five years. “It is great to see this moving forward with strong
support from the Planning Commission. Next stop: City Council. We will keep
you informed.”
The proposal offers three multifamily residential buildings with 580 units,
including 173 units of affordable housing (30%), and a 250-room hotel with
8,500 gross square feet of ground floor retail. Of the affordable units, 58 are
proposed for very low-income tenants that earn 50 percent or below AMI.
Also, 29 units are designated for low-income and 57 for moderate-income
residents.
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ICYMI! July’s Policy in Action on Housing Elements: Engaging with HCD’s Review Process
Have you provided input to your city’s Housing Element Update yet to expand everyone’s access to safe, affordable, and inclusive housing? If not, we’ve got you covered. Check out our July Policy In Action recording to explore housing advocates’ vital role after cities have released their Draft Housing Elements for public comment. Learn effective ways to provide input after housing elements have been submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for an initial review. Our panel of distinguished guests includes Sohab Mehmood, Senior Housing Element Reviewer with HCD.
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August 2022 Policy in Action @Home:
Call for Anti-displacement Policies in
Housing Element Updates
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Join SV@Home for a conversation about the purpose and need for anti-displacement policies in local housing elements to affirmatively further fair housing. Register today for the August 2022 Policy In Action @Home Event: Anti-displacement Policies in Housing Elements.
For much of the Housing Element Update process, the focus has been on the scale of the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) and the planning process of identifying potential housing opportunity sites to meet these requirements. But very little attention is paid to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH) in the broader Housing Element process.
Through state law, AFFH not only requires that the city plan and implement policies that allow low-income families to live in high-resource and affluent areas but also to adopt policies that address disproportionate housing needs, including displacement risks, of protected classes. In every jurisdiction in the County, lower-income renters – disproportionately working families of color, and people on fixed incomes, including seniors and people with disabilities – struggle with housing instability due to extreme rent burden and overcrowding. In nearly all jurisdictions, the impact of displacement can be tracked through changing demographics over time.
What policies are cities putting in place in their housing elements to combat displacement? More importantly, what’s missing? Join us to learn more about these topics and learn how you can push for more to ensure that your city affirmatively furthers fair housing.
Featured Speakers:
- Husacar Castro, Associate Director of Housing and Transportation, Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA)
- Lauren Bigelow, Board Chair, Palo Alto Renter’s Association (PARA)
SV@Home’s Policy in Action @ Home series, formerly known as the Housing Action Coalition (HAC), is a monthly, informal brown bag discussion convening Housers to engage on hot topics. Every month, we select a current event, bring in an expert to give a brief presentation, and open up the discussion to ask questions, float new ideas, and identify potential areas for shared action.
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Born and raised in the San José, Maren has always been interested in community engagement and local policy. In high school, she served as District 3 Youth Commissioner for the City of San José. During the summer of 2020, Maren worked as an intern with the San José Peace and Justice Center, where she focused on supporting the organization’s community outreach and communications aspects.
Maren recently graduated with a First-Class BA honors in Social Policy from Bangor University and completed a dissertation focused on the legislative impact of gender quotas in federal governments.
After spending most of the last three years living in North Wales, Maren is happily back in California. When not working, Maren enjoys hiking and playing rugby.
Contact
maren@siliconvalleyathome.org
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Aurion has always been passionate about bringing social justice and equity to her community. She recently graduated from San Jose State University, earning two bachelor’s degrees in Justice and African American Studies. Aurion hopes to bring her unique skillsets and background to the world of housing policy, urban planning, and development.
As a Bay Area native, Aurion understands the emerging housing crisis and would love to gain more knowledge and skills to ensure fewer people are affected by the crisis and other housing-related issues. Aurion’s interest in housing began through a Summer internship with Presidio Bay, a commercial real estate investment and development firm based out of San Francisco. She was primarily intrigued by the unique opportunity that affordable development and housing have to address other environmental, social, and cultural issues. From there, she has made it her mission to seek housing-related opportunities to shape better communities of today and tomorrow. In all rooms Aurion enters, she hopes to create a meaningful impact and inspire others to do the same.
Contact
aurion@siliconvalleyathome.org
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#MembershipMatters –
Become a Member Today!
Become a member today to help us secure the financial resources and land we need to create deed-restricted affordable housing for our neediest neighbors and families.
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Welcome to SV@Home’s Policy Rundown, your need-to-know overview of important housing policy actions and developments from the past two weeks
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It’s Here! San José’s Draft Housing Element Debuts:
Seize the Chance to Weigh In!
San José’s Draft Housing Element was released Friday for a public comment period that ends on August 21st. This housing element could create conditions to develop the homes needed for residents of all income levels and successfully meet San José’s RHNA allocation. Over the next few weeks, many of us will review and digest the nearly 500 pages that make up the Draft Housing Element and its appendices. SV@Home’s Housing Element Toolkit can help connect you with the resources you need to analyze this vital document. Stay tuned, as we will have more to report out and more opportunities for engagement in the weeks ahead!
An in-person Draft Housing Element open house is scheduled for August 8th from 6:30-8 p.m. at Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave. Spanish and Vietnamese translation and interpretation will be provided. Register here.
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CDLAC Adds Two Counties to Bay Area Affordable Housing Funding Without Changing the Region’s Allocation Proportion
Last week, the governing body that allocates the distribution for one of California’s most significant funding sources for affordable housing, the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC), met to discuss recently proposed changes to the CDLAC regulations.
These regulations provide the guidelines that affordable housing developers all over the State use to apply for tax-exempt bond funding and 4% low-income housing tax credits to produce much-needed homes. These guidelines provide insight into the State’s priorities in deciding where, how, and when affordable housing gets built. These priorities were discussed last week as CDLAC declined to increase the Bay Area’s regional allocation, currently at 21% of the total, while simultaneously adding two counties, Marin and Santa Cruz Counties, to the Bay Area geographic region. No other geographic region gained counties without an increased level of funding. It is worrisome that such a tremendous need for affordable homes in the Bay Area failed to trigger a more considerate response from the State.
The other significant change is the inclusion of a 50% “soft cap” for developments seeking the maximum points under the affirmatively furthering fair housing scoring section. This soft cap will allow proposed affordable communities that are not located within a high or highest resource area, per the Opportunity Map, to compete for funding through other scoring metrics and development characteristics. Currently, the majority of tax-exempt bond funding goes to projects in communities defined as “high or highest resource” to incentivize development opportunities in neighborhoods that have either traditionally opposed affordable housing or succeeded in preventing much of it from being built, which are predominately wealthy, predominately white communities.
The need to break down barriers to developing in exclusive areas and ensuring that housing options are available to all California residents throughout our cities is critical to realizing the housing justice that we seek. However, this shift in emphasis to mobility for low-income people threatens to significantly reduce investment in many lower-income, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities that struggle with limited housing supply and greater risk of displacement. In these communities, major investments can be central to community development efforts to build urban and transit-oriented communities where everyone can thrive.
A new tiebreaker also emphasizes a “public benefit per unit” rather than just focusing solely on cost. This change and those mentioned above accomplish a great deal to advance a more equitable allocation of affordable housing dollars, but more can be done. While SV@Home recognizes that the 21% allocation to the Bay Area geographic region represents an increase from previous levels, we are committed to working with CDLAC to ensure a proper allocation that accounts for the addition of Marin and Santa Cruz counties, as well as continual engagement in the process of updating the regulations.
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City of San Jose Housing Element In-Person Open House
Aug. 8, 6:30 p.m.
Spanish and Vietnamese translation and interpretation will be provided. Stay tuned for more information soon!
MEXICAN HERITAGE PLAZA, 1700 ALUM ROCK AVE, SAN JOSE, CA 95116
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August 2022 Policy in Action @Home: Call for Anti-displacement Policies in Housing Element Updates
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Join SV@Home for a conversation about the purpose and need for anti-displacement policies in local housing elements to affirmatively further fair housing.
What policies are cities putting in place in their housing elements to combat displacement? More importantly, what’s missing? Join us to learn more about these topics and learn how you can push for more to ensure that your city affirmatively furthers fair housing.
Featured Speakers:
- Husacar Castro, Associate Director of Housing and Transportation, Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA)
- Lauren Bigelow, Board Chair, Palo Alto Renter’s Association (PARA)
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Organizing San Jose
July 29, 6 p.m.
Meet in-person to talk as organizers about how we’re building power in our city. Join South Bay YIMBY, Housing Action Coalition, Greenbelt Alliance, Catalyze SV, SVatHome & SVYD for Organizing San Jose! The list is growing!
Feel free to bring organizing-minded folks, no matter their issue! Programming is light to keep people talking with each other. (Keep an eye out for our South Bay YIMBY sign)
The first round of drinks is on South Bay YIMBY!
SAN PEDRO SQUARE MARKET, 87 N. SAN PEDRO ST, SAN JOSE, CA 95110
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Palo Alto Renters’ Association Presents: PARA’s Second Annual Renter Picnic
Lunch, learn and connect with other renters in the community!
JULY 30, 11:00AM
Come meet up with PARA for our Second Annual Renter Picnic. We’ll talk about how to get involved in the community and what resources are out there. There will be plenty of good food and nice people to enjoy, too. All served with your recommended daily dosage of sunshine (unless we just jinxed ourselves)
Children and well-behaved pet are welcome. If we can make this event more accessible to you, please shoot us an email with the accommodations necessary and we’ll try our best to make them happen. Our email can be found on paloaltorenters.org.
MITCHELL PARK, 600 E. MEADOW DR, PALO ALTO
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NPH Presents: Annual Narrative Polling with EMC Research
AUGUST 4, 3:30PM
Join us with EMC Research as we review our annual Bay Area polling work, tracking underlying values that influence narrative shift and how these values change over time. We’ll walk away with research-driven recommendations for which messages can best advance housing and racial justice.
This is a presentation from EMC Research regarding their 2022 Shift the Narrative poll tracking findings and analysis.
This presentation is open to Shift the Bay partners and coalition members new and old.
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SPUR Presents: Answering the Call to Build Equitable Housing
AUGUST 11, 5:00PM
Come participate in a multi-part series that will examine the lasting impacts of property ownership on families, neighborhoods and cities and probe its relationship to intergenerational wealth, exclusionary housing and recently-passed legislation that strives to address inequities of the past and present. In this first program, Joaquin Torres, San Francisco’s Assessor-Recorder, will lead a discussion about the myriad tools once used to enable exclusionary practices, from redlining to racist covenants, and how less overt, but equally malicious, transcriptions continue to persist today, such as under-appraisals for property owners of color. Hear from housing justice advocates, researchers, lawmakers and journalists that are taking action to actuate equity in housing and build stronger communities across the country.
- Joaquin Torres / San Francisco Office of the Assessor-Recorder
- Lexi P. Howard / Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP
- Stephen Menendian / Othering & Belonging Institute
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YIMBY Action Presents: How to Achieve Racial Justice in Housing
AUGUST 14, 11:00AM
Did you know that our neighborhoods are more segregated today than they were in 1990?
For decades, racist housing laws throughout the country have historically excluded people of color from wealthy, predominantly white neighborhoods. This has kept folks away from homeownership, high-paying jobs, high-quality schools, and other key opportunities to help families thrive. This webinar will go through the history of these racist policies, how they perpetuate segregation today, and how we can achieve racial justice in housing.
Come learn why neighborhoods are still segregated and how we can make housing equitable for everyone.
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Somos Mayfair Presents: COPA Cumbia!
AUGUST 19, 6:00PM
Calling all community! Join us as we explore the many benefits of COPA!
All are welcomed to our COPA Cumbia where we’ll dance, eat, connect and learn more about housing solutions like COPA (Community Opportunity to Purchase Act). See you there!
Hosted by Somos Mayfair, in partnership with Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, Amigos de Guadalupe, Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and SV@Home.
Todos son bienvenidos a nuestra COPA Cumbia donde bailaremos, comeremos, nos conectaremos y aprenderemos más sobre soluciones de vivienda como COPA (Ley de Oportunidad de Compra Comunitaria). ¡Te veo allí!
MEXICAN HERITAGE PLAZA, 1700 ALUM ROCK AVE, SAN JOSE, CA 95116
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