The Housing Needs of Undocumented Residents

JOIN US VIRTUALLY ON FRIDAY, JULY 25TH 12PM

Undocumented immigrants face unique and often invisible barriers to housing—exclusion from federal programs, fear of retaliation, and discriminatory screening practices.

Join us for a timely conversation on how we can break down these barriers and advance housing solutions that include everyone—regardless of immigration status.

We’ll explore:
– Why undocumented immigrants are excluded from key housing programs
– How fear and discrimination drive housing instability
– Local policies and community-based models creating real change

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Santa Clara County and to other parts of the Bay Area faces a significant jobs-housing imbalance. Every day, 100,000 Santa Clara County workers leave the County for work in surrounding counties, and 200,000 people come in, a net 100,000 people. While there are no requirements that people live near their jobs, the fact that so many more workers travel into Santa Clara County than travel out illustrates that many of our workers have no choice to live near work. We simply don’t have enough housing for the jobs.

Map: Which cities in Santa Clara County have the greatest jobs-housing imbalance?

Answer: Palo Alto (3.54 jobs for every housing unit), Santa Clara (2.58 jobs for every housing unit), and Mountain View (2.51 jobs for every housing unit).  This map shows the jobs-housing balance ratio – calculated by dividing the number of jobs by the number of housing units – for each city in the County. Click on the map to discover the jobs-housing balance ratios for other cities.
Sources: 2017 ACS analysis completed by SV@Home

Jobs-Housing Balance and Jobs Housing Fit

The jobs-housing balance ratio and other similar ratios like housing to employed worker are used frequently by cities in developing plans for growth.

  • Jobs Housing Imbalance: The mismatch between the number of jobs and the number of homes within a community. In Santa Clara County, some cities have two to three times as many jobs as homes.
  • Jobs-Housing Balance: A measurement used by planners that assumes that a balanced community is one where people can both live and work. Therefore the jobs-housing balance ratio compares the number of jobs in a community to the number of housing units.
  • Jobs-Housing Fit (Low-Wage Jobs-Housing Fit): the mismatch between wages and housing affordability. The UC Davis Jobs-Housing Fit Ratio considers the right fit between the housing stock and the income level of households in a community. In Santa Clara County, some cities have as many as 19 low-wage workers competing for each affordable home.

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