Written by Carrie Chang, Housing Justice Intern, 2025
It’s been so wonderful and humbling to have spent the past nine weeks as a Housing Justice Intern this summer with such a sharp team who are deeply invested in making a more equitable Silicon Valley for all of us, not just some of us. Throughout my time with SV@Home, I conducted an analysis of the 2024 affordable housing development pipeline in Santa Clara County by tracking the number of rental units at each income level (i.e. very-low income to above market rate) in the pipeline at each stage of development across all jurisdictions (i.e. entitlements, building permits, and certificate of occupancy).
I didn’t realize how valuable coalition building is prior to this internship. SV@Home helped me understand how important it is to work with community partners to achieve housing justice while learning the best practices around sustaining such relationships. I also learned how to conduct policy research, coordinate swiftly with staff, and understand generally how the affordable housing development pipeline works and how that pipeline is influenced by state, local, and regional policies. Which leads me to my capstone project!
I conducted an analysis of the 2024 affordable housing development pipeline in Santa Clara County based on data from California’s Office of the Treasurer, California Department of Housing and Community Development, the County of Santa Clara Office of Supportive Housing, California YIMBY, SV@Home, and California Open Data Portal. I tracked the number of rental units at each income level (i.e. very-low income to above market rate) in the pipeline at each stage of development across all jurisdictions (i.e. entitlements, building permits, and certificate of occupancy) and analyzed:
- How long they took to get all their permits
- Which populations the units serve
- Which units were Low-income Housing Tax Credits-awarded and where they’re located
- How many units were inclusionary
I found that we’re falling behind on creating affordable housing across the county for most vulnerable residents that would benefit from very-low income affordable units. And although low-income units are completing construction just under the same pace as above moderate income units, we’re overall not likely to meet the Regional Housing Need Allocation targets. Lastly, something worth highlighting is that albeit LIHTC-funded projects on average take longer to receive permits in the building permit stage, they take less time on average to receive their certificates of occupancy.
I recommended that SV@Home build a more robust data tracking and collection system to more accurately assess outcomes to advocate for potential streamlining policy solutions and funding sources.
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