Sunnyvale Adopts an Ordinance Reducing Retail Requirements for Affordable Housing Along El Camino Real
Last week, SV@Home submitted a letter to the Sunnyvale City Council supporting a proposed ordinance to reduce retail requirements for 100% affordable housing developments along El Camino Real. In our letter, we praised the City for taking bold action to expand affordable housing opportunities in high-demand areas where the need is most pressing. Additionally, we […]
Fair Chance Ordinance in Palo Alto
In 2017, SV@Home worked closely with the residents of a downtown apartment building in Palo Alto, the President’s Hotel, facing mass displacement with no local protections. After passing an urgency ordinance guaranteeing relocation benefits to the tenants, the city council directed staff to look into ways to protect Palo Alto renters and keep them housed. […]
Heart and Home Column by Josh Ishimatsu: The Fall of MACSA and Lessons for the Future of Community Development in Santa Clara County
In this edition of our newsletter, we have a couple of other pieces about community development and community development corporations (CDCs) – we have Gabriel Frank-McPheter’s (one of our super interns from last summer) piece about the California Neighborhood-based Community Development Coalition and an update from SV@Home’s Community Roots Collaborative, a community development capacity building […]
New Laws Clarifying and Limiting Builder’s Remedy Will Take Effect Soon
Image: Redco Development and Midar Investment want to employ the state builder’s remedy to build three buildings with nearly 400 apartments at 156 California Avenue in Palo Alto. (Redco Development) Two recent housing element laws moving through the state legislature clarified and changed the Builder’s Remedy, which could impact cities in Santa Clara County. Builder’s […]
Potential Changes to Inclusionary Housing Requirements in San Jose
Image: Prado Apartments, Santa Clara What is an Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO)? Inclusionary housing ordinances require market-rate developments to restrict a percentage of new housing, usually, 15% of units, to be affordable to residents with incomes at lower income levels. Every major city in Santa Clara County now has an Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. Cities often […]
The City of San Jose takes action to require safety retrofits of soft-story buildings, but more analysis of financial impacts on tenants is needed
Image: Soft-story apartment building collapse in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, L.A. Times Soft-story buildings are susceptible to collapse during earthquakes because the ground floor is too weak to support the weight of the upper floors, endangering both structures and lives. The City of San Jose estimates there are about 3,500 soft-story buildings in San José, […]
Tasman East Update: Community Meeting and Development Progress
On September 12th, Related Santa Clara hosted a vibrant community meeting to update residents on the transformative journey of the Tasman East neighborhood. Attendees learned about exciting milestones, including the projected completion of over 2,000 new residences and more than 25,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail by 2025—an ambitious step towards creating a thriving community. […]
Heart and Home Column by Josh Ishimatsu: The Value of a Home
This will be a shorter column this month. By the time this is posted, my mom (see my column about her from a couple months ago) will be moved into an assisted living/memory care facility. As I write, I am in the thick of preparing to move her. It’s a lot (just one side note […]
SV@Home Advocates for Mountain View Gatekeeper Project
We are pleased to share our recent advocacy efforts for a vital mixed-use project at 2400–2470 E. Charleston Road in Mountain View. On September 9th, SV@Home formally expressed our support for the project’s gatekeeper application through a letter to the City Council. On September 10th, we reinforced our position with public comments during a Mountain […]
Policy Intern Project: Mapping the History and Displacement of Santa Clara County’s Black Community
By: Gabriel Frank-McPheter This summer, I had the honor of working at SV@Home as a Housing Policy Intern. Under the direction of our Executive Director, Regina Celestin Williams, my primary project was analyzing historical literature and census data to produce a deliverable on the history of Santa Clara County’s African American population. By better understanding […]
