On December 18th, the Sunnyvale City Council voted 6-1 in favor of joining a RHNA Subregion with other Santa Clara County jurisdictions. They join 12 of the County’s 16 jurisdictions that have already taken action to join so far. Only San Jose, Milpitas, and Cupertino have not yet officially voted on participation.

A RHNA Subregion provides a unified voice in responding to the area’s housing needs, allowing all cities in the County to work together to plan for housing, develop strategies and tools, and collaborate on regional and Statewide advocacy. Additionally, a Subregion would offer other opportunities for cooperation, including sharing Housing Element consultants, sharing expertise, analyses, and policies, as well as potentially enabling a shared review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) Department. Three of the Bay Area’s nine counties already have RHNA Subregions, including San Mateo County.

Joining a Subregion does not require any city to take on additional housing need that it does not want to accept. Yet the proposal would facilitate added coordination and cooperation between nearby cities, something that is vital if we are going to meet the housing needs of our region.

SV@Home urges San Jose, Milpitas, and Cupertino to take action  to participate alongside their neighbors. We look forward to their decisions.

Once the Subregion is officially formed, the next step will be determining its policies, rules, and governance. SV@Home believes it is crucial that cities seek to collaborate in this forum to find creative avenues for addressing our shared regional housing crisis.