Heart and Home Column by Joshua Ishimatsu
Lessons from my Grandpa, Part I I have been thinking a lot lately about building power, building community, and building community power. And into this jumble of thoughts, I read the news that there was an unveiling of a Norm Mineta statue at the San Jose Airport, which got me thinking about my Grandpa and […]
San Jose Tenant Preference Policy
On Monday, February 26, the Community and Economic Development Committee (CED) will review the tenant preference policy in the City of San Jose. Should the committee move the policy forward, the city council will take it up in March. When the city adopted an anti-displacement strategy in 2020, one of the recommendations was to Establish […]
$10-20 Billion Regional Affordable Housing Bond Gaining Steam
At SV@Home, we are very excited about how much good $10 to $20 billion could do to address our Bay Area housing needs with up to $4.5B of that coming directly to Silicon Valley. Last year, we started talking seriously about the possibility of a housing bond measure in all nine Bay Area counties to […]
Community Engagement for Pleasant Hills Golf Course
On February 21st from 6-8 pm, the City of San Jose is holding a virtual Community Visioning Session for the site of the former Pleasant Hills Golf Course in East San Jose. Pleasant Hills, which has been closed and vacant since 2004, represents a rare opportunity for the City to achieve a significant amount of […]
Heart and Home: New Monthly Column from Josh Ishimatsu, Deputy Director
Hi all and welcome to my new column, Heart and Home! Years ago, I used to blog for Shelterforce. And with mynew job here at SV@Home, regular writing about affordable housing and community development issues is something that I am excited about reviving. I intend to publish a monthly column of longer format think-pieces. Big […]
Fair Housing and the State’s Opportunity Maps
By Alison Cingolani Fair Housing & the State’s Opportunity Maps Last week, SV@Home and other members of the Community-Based Developers Collaborative submitted a letter to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC) to share our concerns about the State’s Opportunity Map. We believe that despite […]
Navigating the Storm: Unraveling the Growing Insurance Challenges in Affordable Housing
The Current Landscape: The affordable housing sector is facing a challenging landscape with insurance premiums and deductibles on the rise due to the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters such as wildfires. This surge in costs, coupled with a shift in how insurers evaluate onsite incident risks, presents significant obstacles for developers. A recent […]
Can vacant office spaces in Silicon Valley be repurposed to help meet our housing shortfall?
Cities across the country are thinking about how to turn vacant office buildings into homes, as the rise in remote work leaves more downtown buildings empty, and the nationwide housing crisis continues. At the end of October, even the Biden administration weighed in on the office-to-residential conversion push, releasing a guidebook on how the federal […]
Housing Element Update 10/5
Robust community engagement makes Housing Elements stronger San Jose has been engaged in more than a dozen meetings with stakeholders in recent weeks to collaborate on strengthening programs and addressing the areas of concern identified in HCD’s last review letter. In particular, city staff are working to improve the inventory of sites where new development […]
A Regional Housing Bond is Coming: Support Funding for Affordable Homes!
SV@Home is part of a regional effort to secure game-changing levels of funding for affordable housing through a regional housing bond measure on the November 2024 ballot. Bond funds will be used to boost the production of new affordable housing, preserve existing affordable housing, and protect our residents most vulnerable to displacement, including those at […]
