On December 11th, the San Jose City Council is slated to consider a Commercial Linkage Fee, a fee on new commercial development to fund affordable housing. The commercial linkage fee would be a crucial source of funding for affordable housing. Commercial space usually creates some low-paying retail jobs, which in turn create a need for affordable housing in the area. A Commercial Linkage Fee is a mechanism to meet that the need created by new commercial space.
Additionally, since San Jose’s Measure V only received 62% of the vote and failed to pass (it needed 66.6%), the city is in need of a source of affordable housing funding to bridge the gaps in county and state funding, as well as to leverage the statewide dollars raised by the successful statewide affordable housing bonds Proposition 1 and Proposition 2.
The vote has already been attempted twice before this year, each time failing due to the absence of one of the supporting votes.
The agenda for the meeting can be viewed on the city’s site.