Letters from the Public - 3 of 3 — San Jose City Council, December 6, 2022

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Fw: Letter from Destination: Home re Affordable Housing Siting Policy (Item 8.2 on 12.6 agenda( City Clerk <[email protected]>
Fri 12/2/2022 3:56 PM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>
Office of the City Clerk | City of San José
200 E. Santa Clara St., Tower 14th Floor
San Jose, CA 95113
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Fax: 408-292-6207
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From: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 2, 2022 3:25 PM
To: Mossing, Mackenzie <[email protected]>; City Clerk <[email protected]> Subject:

Fw: Leer from Desnaon: Home re Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy (Item 8.2 on 12.6 agenda(

From: David Low
Sent: Friday, December 2, 2022 3:05 PM
To: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]>; District1 <[email protected]>; District2 <[email protected]>; District3 <[email protected]>; District4 <[email protected]>; District5 <[email protected]>; District 6 <[email protected]>; District7 <[email protected]>; District8 <[email protected]>; District9 <[email protected]>; District 10 <[email protected]> Cc: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject:

Leer from Desnaon: Home re Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy (Item 8.2 on 12.6 agenda(

Honorable Mayor & City Council,
Attached is a letter from Destination: Home CEO Jennifer Loving expressing our organization's support for the proposed Affordable Housing Siting Policy that will be discussed at your December 6th meeting. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to discuss this issue further.

Thank you,
David

DA VID LOW
Director of Policy & Communications
T (408) 513-8731 | C (408) 499-8328
[email protected]
A 3180 Newberry Dr, Suite 200, San Jose, CA 95118
DestinationHomeSV .org

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P: 408.513.8700 F: 408.559.9515
E: [email protected]
3180 Newberry Dr, Suite 200, San Jose, CA 95118
DESTINATIONHOMESV.ORG

HONORARY COUNCIL

Hon. Ash Kalra
California State Assembly
Member

Hon. Sam Liccardo
Mayor, City of San Jose

Hon. Evan Low
California State Assembly
Member

Councilmember Raul Peralez
City of San Jose

Chuck Robbins
CEO, Cisco

Hon. Mike Wasserman
Santa Clara County Supervisor

Lived Experience
Advisory Board

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Roger Biscay
Cisco

Jan Bernstein Chargin
Gavilan College

Louis Chicoine
Abode Services

Jacky Morales-Ferrand
City of San Jose

Dontae Lartigue
Razing the Bar

Ky Le
County of Santa Clara

Jennifer Loving
Destination: Home

Preston Prince
SCC Housing Authority

Joel John Roberts
PATH

John A. Sobrato
The Sobrato Organization

Ben Spero
Spectrum Equity Investors

Nicole Taylor
Silicon Valley Community
Foundation

Ted Wang
Cowboy Ventures

Gary Wipfler
Apple

ENDING HOMELESSNESS IN SILICON VALLEY

December 2, 2022

Mayor & City Council
City of San Jose
200 East Santa Clara Street, 18th Floor
San Jose, CA 95113

Re: Affordable Housing Siting Policy (Item 8.2 on the Dec. 6th City Council Meeting Agenda)

Dear Mayor Liccardo and Members of the City Council,

We urge you to adopt the updated Affordable Housing Siting Policy, which provides a strong framework for achieving San Jose’s ambitious affordable housing goals.

Affordable housing is critical to the health of our community, and benefits not only the people who live there, but the surrounding neighborhood as well. However, San Jose continues to suffer from an extreme shortfall of affordable housing options. In fact, the City’s next Regional Housing Needs Allocation calls for the development of 23,775 deed-restricted affordable homes over the next 8 years, and in order to meet this enormous need for affordable housing in San Jose, we must continue building affordable housing throughout our city.

At the same time, we must acknowledge that there are some parts of our city that lack any affordable housing options at all. According to previous City reports, 78% of Census blocks do not contain any deed-restricted affordable housing - severely limiting low-income residents’ ability to find housing in many parts of our city, particularly higher opportunity neighborhoods.

As a result, we must adopt an Affordable Housing Siting Policy that will continue investing in affordable housing in all parts of San Jose, while also incentivizing development in parts of the city that currently lack affordable housing options.

This is exactly that type of balanced approach embodied in the updated Affordable Housing Siting Policy and we appreciate all of the hard work from City Staff to craft a smart and thoughtful policy that will help meet the affordable housing needs of our community.

Please approve the proposed Affordable Housing Siting Policy.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Loving
CEO

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FW: Please Adopt Housing Department Staff Changes to Affordable Housing Siting Policy City Clerk <[email protected]>
Mon 12/5/2022 2:10 PM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2022 2:10 PM
To: Mossing, Mackenzie <[email protected]>; City Clerk <[email protected]> Subject:

Fw: Please Adopt Housing Department Staﬀ Changes to Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy

From: Kathy Cordova
Sent: Monday, December 5, 2022 1:52 PM
To: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]> Subject: Please Adopt Housing Department Staﬀ Changes to Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy

Mayor Sam Liccardo,
Dear Mayor Liccardo, Vice Mayor Jones, and Members of the San José City Council, I urge you to adopt the Housing Department Staff’s direction on the Affordable Housing Siting Policy as presented at the October 13, 2022 Community Meeting.

I support the Housing Department Staff’s proposed changes because the Affordable Housing Siting Policy now centers equity in many ways. For example, it:
•Provides diverse housing choices so everyone can access affordable housing throughout San José,
•Increases funding for affordable housing in historically-redlined communities, •Incentivizes and funds historically-exclusive communities to build their fair share of affordable housing in their neighborhoods, and
•Uses inclusive language, abandoning divisive classifications.

In my role as Executive Director of Recovery Café San Jose I see, on a daily basis, individuals struggling to find affordable housing. In this city of great wealth it is truly a human tragedy to see so many living on the streets or in substandard housing.

I wish to see a San José where every neighborhood is accessible to people of all income levels and every neighborhood is a desirable place to live. I am confident that you also share this vision and will make the right choice tomorrow as you vote to adopt the Housing Department Staff Changes to Affordable Housing Siting Policy.

This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.

Kathy Cordova
Kathy Cordova

[External Email]
Fw: Adopt Housing Dept. Staff Changes to Affordable Housing Siting Policy City Clerk <[email protected]>
Mon 12/5/2022 2:46 PM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>
Office of the City Clerk | City of San José
200 E. Santa Clara St., Tower 14th Floor
San Jose, CA 95113
Main: 408-535-1260
Fax: 408-292-6207
How is our service? Please take our short survey.

From: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 5, 2022 2:25 PM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject:

Fw: Adopt Housing Dept. Staﬀ Changes to Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy

From: albert carlson
Sent: Monday, December 5, 2022 2:23 PM
To: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]> Subject: Adopt Housing Dept. Staﬀ Changes to Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy

Mayor Sam Liccardo,
Dear Mayor Liccardo, Vice Mayor Jones, and Members of the San José City Council, I want you to adopt the Housing Department Staff’s direction on the Affordable Housing Siting Policy as presented at the October 13, 2022 Community Meeting.

I am in favor of the Housing Department Staff’s proposed changes because the Affordable Housing Siting Policy now centers equity in many ways. For example, it:
•Provides diverse housing choices so everyone can access affordable housing throughout San José,
•Increases funding for affordable housing in historically-redlined communities, •Incentivizes and funds historically-exclusive communities to build their fair share of affordable housing in their neighborhoods, and
•Uses inclusive language, abandoning divisive classifications.

I wish to see a San José where every neighborhood is accessible to people of all income levels and every neighborhood is a desirable place to live. I am confident that you also share

This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. this vision and will make the right choice come December 6, 2022. albert carlson

[External Email]
FW: I Support Housing Dept. Staff Changes to Affordable Housing Siting Policy City Clerk <[email protected]>
Tue 12/6/2022 7:47 AM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2022 5:55 PM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject:

Fw: I Support Housing Dept. Staﬀ Changes to Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy

From: Elizabeth Conlan <
Sent: Monday, December 5, 2022 5:45 PM
To: The Oﬃce of Mayor Sam Liccardo <TheOﬃ[email protected]> Subject: I Support Housing Dept. Staﬀ Changes to Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy

This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.

Mayor Sam Liccardo,
Dear Mayor Liccardo, Vice Mayor Jones, and Members of the San José City Council, I support adoption of the Housing Department Staff’s direction on the Affordable Housing Siting Policy as presented at the October 13, 2022 Community Meeting. These purposed changes are important as they center equity in many ways, including:
•Providing diverse housing choices so everyone can access affordable housing throughout San José,
•Increasing funding for affordable housing in historically-redlined communities, and •Incentivizing historically-exclusive communities to build their fair share of affordable housing in their neighborhoods.

As a resident of San José, I want my community to be accessible to people of all income levels and for all neighborhoods to be a desirable place to live. Please support this vision and support staff's purposed changes to the Affordable Housing Siting Policy at December 6, 2022 Council meeting.

Thank you!
Elizabeth Conlan

December 5, 2022

City Council Committee Members
Community and Economic Development Committee
City of San José
200 East Santa Clara St.

San José, CA 95113

RE: San Jose’s Affordable Housing Siting Policy

Dear Mayor Sam Liccardo and Members of the San Jose City Council,

The Law Foundation of Silicon Valley advances the rights of under-represented individuals and families in our diverse community through legal services, strategic advocacy, and educational outreach; we use the law to address issues like poverty, discrimination, and child abuse and neglect through our free legal services. We write to express support for the Housing Department’s latest draft of the affordable housing siting policy. The Law Foundation and the housing advocate community had several concerns about the previous draft of the affordable housing siting policy, particularly the use of violence as a factor in determining the placement of affordable housing developments. We are happy to see that the Housing Department has removed this factor and instead created a more inclusive siting policy. We urge you to pass the current version of the affordable housing siting policy that will be presented at the December 6, 2022 city council meeting.

The affordable housing siting policy is a means of fulfilling state law requirements under Assembly Bill 686 to affirmatively further fair housing. AB 686 defines affirmatively furthering fair housing as, “…taking meaningful actions that, taken together, address significant disparities in housing needs and in access to opportunity, replacing segregated living patterns with truly integrated and balanced living patterns, transforming racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity, and fostering and maintaining compliance with civil rights and fair housing laws.” We believe the current iteration of the siting policy meets this goal by removing poverty and crime statistics to determine the location of affordable housing. The policy also ensures affordable housing is built throughout the city, giving San Jose residents a choice of where they can live. While the City needs to expand affordable housing into neighborhoods with more resources and wealth, it cannot neglect historically redlined neighborhoods and perpetuate practices that disinvest from these communities. Housing should also be built in these areas and the City must consider ways to increase access to resources in these neighborhoods.

We further urge you to no longer consider violence as a factor in any proposed changes to the policy or in future affordable housing policies. AB 686 does not provide any directives to assess the crime rates or rates of violence of a neighborhood in a manner that prevents the development of housing in those areas. Further, California’s Department of Housing and Urban

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Victoria Ramirez
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Director of Policy and Communications
The Health Trust | healthtrust.org
3180 Newberry Dr., Suite 200, San Jose, CA 95118

Because everyone’s health matters.

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FianSan Jose City Council
City of San Jose
200 East Santa Clara St.

San Jose, CA 95113
Re: Approving Changes to City of San Jose Housing Siting Policy Dear Mayor Liccardo, Vice Mayor Jones, and Members of the San Jose City Council:

We write to ask you to adopt a Resolution approving the Housing Department staff’s proposed revisions to the Affordable Housing Siting Policy, as written in the Housing Department staff memorandum, dated November 18, 2022 and as recommended by the Community and Economic Development Committee (CEDC) last Monday on November 28, 2022.

This cover letter was prepared by the Housing Justice Workgroup of the nonprofit Race Equity Action Leadership (REAL) Coalition. We are submitting our original letter dated October 3, 2022, with this cover letter because we continue to maintain our position, thoroughly documented in that letter, that affordable housing should be equitably located and funded in San Jose. We are also attaching the housing siting vision statement adopted by the broader REAL Coalition.

Since our October letter was submitted, Housing Department staff (Staff) has updated the Affordable Housing Siting Policy (Siting Policy); we acknowledge and support Staff’s updated proposed policy. We commend Staff and CEDC members for being responsive to our comments and other comments from the community about previous versions of this policy. These changes recognize that the need for affordable housing is great throughout the City, especially in communities experiencing displacement pressures.

We also specifically support the following recommended changes to the siting policy:

A. Eliminating earlier language that stereotyped lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

B. Focusing on both funding and incentivizing development in historically segregated areas that have excluded affordable housing development, now called Affordable Housing Expansion Areas, rather than closing off other areas that also need additional affordable housing.

C. Committing to identifying funding and other resources that would be directed into neighborhoods that have been historically redlined and disinvested, now called Continued Investment Areas.

We appreciate the Staff for its commitment to the ethnically, racially, socioeconomically, and otherwise diverse communities that call this City home.

We ask you, as our leaders, to support these policy recommendations because they center belonging and justice.

Regards, the following members of the REAL Housing Justice Workgroup Jaime Alvarado
Alum Rock Urban Village Advocates (ARUVA)
Matt King
Sacred Heart Community Service
Kenneth Rosales
Regina Williams
SV@Home
Claire Kennedy
Kyra Kazantzis
Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits (SVCN)
Gabriel Hernandez
Sí Se Puede Collective
Kylie Clark
Josh Selo
West Valley Community Services
cc: City Council, Mayor, Jacky Morales-Ferrand, CED staff [External Email]
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FW: 8.2 – Affordable Housing Siting Policy.

City Clerk <
Thu 12/8/2022 12:41 PM
To:Agendadesk <

From: Mathew Reed <
Sent: Tuesday, December 6, 2022 3:08 PM
To: Jimenez, Sergio < Peralez, Raul < Cohen, David
< Carrasco, Magdalena < Davis, Dev <
Arenas, Sylvia < Mahan, Ma <Ma Foley, Pam <
Esparza, Maya < Liccardo, Sam < Jones, Chappie
<
Cc: Morales-Ferrand, Jacky < VanderVeen, Rachel <
Clements, Kristen < Regina Celesn Williams < City Clerk <
Subject: 8.2 – Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy.

Dear Mayor Liccardo, and Councilmembers Arenas, Carrasco, Cohen, Davis, Esparza, Foley, Jimenez, Jones, Mahan, and Peralez,

Please ﬁnd the aached leer in support of the staﬀ recommendaon for Item 8.2 – Aﬀordable Housing Sing Policy.

We are appreciate the opportunity to share our perspecve and those of our partners in the Aﬀ ordable Housing Development Community.

Sincerely,
Mathew Reed

Mathew Reed
Dir
ector of Policy

December 6, 2022
Re: Item 8.2 – Affordable Housing Siting Policy

Page 3 of 3 ends

350 W. Julian Street, Building 5, San José, CA 95110
408.780.8411 • www.svathome.org • [email protected] Preston Prince, Executive Director
Santa Clara County Housing Authority

Noni Ramos, Chief Executive Officer
Housing Trust Silicon Valley

San Jose City CouncilDecember 6, 2022

San Jose City Council
December 6, 2022