ICYMI– Last Tuesday the San José City Council unanimously approved Google’s ground-breaking Downtown West proposal, which will bring 4,000 new homes to Diridon Station, 1,000 of them deed-restricted affordable. Additionally, the proposal includes a $154.8m Community Stabilization Fund, which will help counter displacement pressures city-wide.

The San José City Council also unanimously adopted amendments to the Diridon Station Area Plan, which paves the way for 13,519 new homes across the entire Station Area, 25% of which will be affordable to households with a broad range of incomes, including permanent supportive housing.  To reach these goals and realize the City’s priority to prevent displacement in the surrounding area, the Council also approved an Affordable Housing Implementation Plan (AHIP) as proposed by the Housing Department. The AHIP lays out the tools that are needed to produce the affordable homes, preserve existing local resources, and protect tenants from the intense market impact of this plan.

Overall, this was a major win for housing and affordable housing in San José and a major step towards creating the Housing-Rich Station Area that SV@Home and other housing advocates have been fighting for!  But as we look back years from now, the implementation of the affordable housing targets will be an essential measure of whether this was an inclusive, equitable redevelopment. We believe that the collective commitment to these priorities is both clear and sincere, but there is a whole lot of work to do to live up to this commitment.

Our thanks go to the City Council, City Staff, Google, and all of the community members and advocates who helped shape the future of the Diridon Station Area.

While there will still be plenty of work to do to support housing and affordable housing development at Diridon moving forward, last week was a major Houser victory!