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Board of Directors TRANSMITTED VIA EMAIL
November 15, 2022
Kevin Zwick, Chair
United Way Bar Area
Honorable Mayor Sam Liccardo and Members of the City Council Gina Dalma, Vice Chair City of San Jose
Silicon Valley Community
Foundation 200 East Santa Clara Street, 18th Floor
San Jose, CA 95113
Candice Gonzalez, Secretary
Sand Hill Property Company
Andrea Osgood, Treasure Dear Mayor Liccardo, and Councilmembers Arenas, Carrasco, Cohen, Davis, Esparza, Foley, Eden Housing Jimenez, Jones, Mahan, and Peralez,
Shiloh Ballard
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition 8.2 Housing Crisis Work Plan,
8.3 Maximizing Affordable Homes within Projects Receiving City Financing Bob Brownsteir
Vorking Partnerships US,
We support the Staff recommendations related to the transition of the Housing Crisis Work Amie Fishman
Plan to a newly established Housing Catalyst Team Work Plan aligned with the timeline and Non-Profit Housing
Association of Northern CA goals of the Housing Element. We are also in support of the increase in the Housing Department's per unit affordable housing funding amount.
Ron Gonzales
Hispanic Foundation
of Silicon Valley As the final status memorandum on the Housing Crisis Workplan acknowledges, we have Javier Gonzalez fallen significantly short of the 10,000-unit affordable housing production goal endorsed by Google the City Council in 2018. At the time, this goal felt aggressive. Even as we acknowledged Poncho Guevara that the real housing needs in the city were significantly greater and that the work would Sacred Heart Community need to be sustained.
Service
Janice Jensen Significant progress has been made developing tools and implementing levers to address Habitat for Humanity
East Bay/Silicon Valley many of the obstacles to affordable housing development - streamlining development processes, making more land available, taking steps to reduce costs, and committing to do Janikke Klem
more as lessons were learned. Significant work remains on key elements, but we know that Jan Lindenthal the positive impact of the work over the last four years has yet to be fully seen.
MidPen Housing
Jennifer Loving The evolution of Housing Crisis Workplan since 2018 has illustrated that the housing crisis Destination: Home
will not be addressed solely through the production of new housing units. Council and staff ary Murtag have acknowledged and endorsed the importance of housing preservation, tenant H Housi protections, and homelessness prevention as key elements of an equitable and accountable The core compante response to the multi-dimensional crisis of housing affordability and displacement. These policies, included in the Anti-Displacement Strategy, the Diridon Station Housing Kelly Snider Implementation Plan, and a number of individual work items, remain in development or Kelly Snider Consulting implementation phases and will be augmented by the policies and programs included in the Housing Element update.
Staff
Regina Celestin Williams
Executive Director In addition, the North San Jose Affordable Housing Implementation Plan currently under consideration has the potential to shift the development landscape by confronting other barriers to building inclusive housing communities in North San Jose. There have also been major changes in State Law over the last four years, many of which made progress on key elements of the original Housing Crisis Workplan. Along with local implementation of AB 2011, which streamlines development opportunities in urban villages and commercial sites 350 W. Julian Street, Building 5, San José, CA 95110
www.svathome.org • [email protected]
November 15, 2022
Item 8.2 Housing Crisis Work Plan
outside of planned growth areas, we strongly support the proposed amendment of the Zoning Ordinance to allow for 100% affordable housing development through a Site Development Permit and the temporary suspension of construction Taxes for affordable housing.
Finally, it is essential to ensure that planning processes and legal requirements that establish height and setback regulations should not undermine the affordable housing development process. Too often, we have seen our collective needs undermined by a small number of loud voices. As a result, we support local actions to support our shared interest in optimizing the tools we have to respond to the crisis we face.
Transition to the work outlined in the 6*h Cycle Housing Element Update is essential, having the benefit of being grounded in robust outreach and detailed assessment of steps San Jose can take to respond equitably to housing needs. The San Jose community must continue to strive for solutions to the housing crisis, and this community deserves a renewed commitment from this City Council and the next.
Sincerely,
Regina Celestin Williams
Executive Director
350 W. Julian Street, Building 5, San José, CA 95110
408.780.8411 • www.svathome.org • [email protected]