Welcome to SV@Home’s Policy Rundown, your need-to-know overview of important housing policy actions and developments from the past two weeks. For the latest news from Sacramento, check out our “3Ps” priority bill update.

• On September 10th, the Mountain View City Council discussed how to move forward with an RFP for an affordable housing development on the city-owned, downtown Lot 12 property. SV@Home submitted a letter emphasizing the importance of extremely low and very low income housing and asked the council to consider removing the requirement to replacing all 160 parking spaces on the current lot in order to create more opportunity for affordable homes. After a strong showing of advocates speaking in favor of supportive housing, we were glad to see the council express a desire to see extremely low income and very low income housing in the proposals. While the Council was firm on full replacement parking, members did express openness to replacement parking off-site. City staff will now prepare a request for proposals based on the council feedback and invite the six applicants to submit full proposals. We’re excited to see new affordable homes coming to Mountain View at this great location!

• Also on September 10th, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors decided not to consider adding a 5/8 cent sales tax measure to the November 2020 ballot. Funds from the proposed tax would have gone towards essential services such as childcare, healthcare, as well as potentially towards affordable housing. While a number of different community organizations spoke in favor of the measure, the Board decided to drop the item from the calendar and not consider it at this time. SV@Home continues to support the exploration of new funding mechanisms that would bolster affordable housing development County-wide. We are excited by the progress of the County’s Measure A funds and support efforts to identify funding opportunities targeted to affordable housing production, preservation, and protection.