Fair Rents, Fair Bills: Understanding Rent & Utility Regulations

JOIN US VIRTUALLY ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH 12PM

Join us for a learning session about San José’s Rent Stabilization Program and possible updates to the city’s rules on how utilities are billed in rental housing (known as Ratio Utility Billing Services, or RUBS).

We’ll break down:

  • What rent stabilization means
  • How RUBS works
  • And what these proposed changes could mean for renters and housing providers

You’ll also learn how to share your feedback and get involved as the city considers these updates and how it can impact you.

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July 31, 2025

Stories from the Ground: CRC’s Journey to Build Community Power

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Last week, SV@Home held the third Community Roots Collaborative’s (CRC) convening of the year at SOMOS Mayfair’s headquarters in the Queztal Gardens affordable housing apartment complex! This year’s cohort came into this convening pumped from their tour of San Francisco Community Land Trust  properties last month. We invited three special guests to talk about their profoundly informative and unique approaches in acquiring and rehabilitating properties with CRC cohort members, they included:

We also received a riveting update along with advice from CRC cohort member, Co- Executive Director Victor Vasquez of  SOMOS Mayfair on their community development journey with their partners in the Si Se Puede Collective. He talked about the vision, strategies, decision-making structures, and their approach to working on acquisition/rehabilitation of properties. Victor also discussed their efforts to revitalize the historic Mexican American Community Services Agency site, a property owned by the Alum Rock School District.

CRC cohort members left the convening deeply informed, more connected with each other, and feeling supported in their efforts to begin or continue their work in community development. Our turnout for the CRC convenings remains high and consistent, resulting in a lot of buzz around the excitement for the next convening. Deepening our commitment to budding community development in Santa Clara County, we are also in the midst of providing a one-on-one strategic consulting service to five CRC cohort members, giving them intimate support in their aspirations.

SV@Home will continue to bring this group of over 15 Santa Clara County community-based organizations together to learn more about and incubate community development in Santa Clara County. The next convening in August will focus on learning the basics on how and who to build and maintain strong partnerships within the real estate development industry, as community-led developers. The CRC is also looking forward to the second tour of the year in September to the Unity Council in Fruitvale, Oakland. The CRC will convene two more times on a monthly basis after that through November.

Lastly, we would like to congratulate CRC cohort member, the School of Arts and Culture, for being selected to be part of a capacity-building cohort grant program provided by Housing Trust Silicon Valley to grow their organizational capacity and access funds to build affordable housing in the Mayfair community.