Mayor Sam Liccardo Unveils 15-point Housing Plan

Mayor sets an ambitious goal to construct 25,000 new homes – including at least 10,000 affordable homes – over the next 5 years to help address the region’s growing housing crisis

Mayor Sam Liccardo has unveiled a 15-point plan to help accelerate the development of new housing in the City of San Jose, with an ambitious goal for constructing 25,000 new homes over the next five years – including at least 10,000 affordable homes.

“The Bay Area housing crisis affects residents across the income spectrum, from the homeless to our high-tech workforce,” said Mayor Liccardo. “This plan provides a roadmap for accelerating the development of new housing in ways that are both smart and sustainable for our community. While achieving our goal will not be easy, we must think big and act boldly to address this growing crisis.”

Over the past few years, the City has taken numerous steps to help residents struggling to keep up with the high cost of living in the region, including the development of new housing across all income levels. In 2016 alone, the City issued building permits for 2,088 new housing units and exceeded its annualized goal for new above-moderate income housing. And despite the loss of redevelopment funding which had long been the primary source for affordable housing, the City added approximately 300 rent-restricted apartments in the past year-and-a-half, with plans to fund hundreds of more affordable apartments in the next year.

While these actions have often outpaced the efforts of San Jose’s neighboring cities, they still fall short of meeting the tremendous need for more housing in the region.

Over the past few months, Mayor Liccardo has engaged with a wide variety of stakeholders to develop a robust plan to expand the availability of housing in our community – with a strong emphasis on locating housing in areas along public transit corridors and significantly expanding construction of affordable homes. In particular, Mayor Liccardo’s plan includes proposals for:

• Financing Housing for the “Missing Middle”: Craft a private-public financing mechanism for rent-restricted housing for modest- and middle-income workers, such as teachers, nurses and police officers struggling with the high cost-of-living.
• Doubling Down on Downtown: Eliminating constraints in development guidelines to facilitate more housing adjacent to new and existing public transit options, adding vitality to our core without the burden of freeway traffic.
• Facilitating Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing in North San Jose: Eliminating longstanding legal hurdles can enable construction of 2,400 affordable homes adjacent to light rail and BART stations in North San Jose.
• Revitalizing Struggling Business Districts:  Encourage mixed-use developments that integrate housing that can create needed foot traffic in several declining neighborhood business districts.
• Generating More Funding for Affordable Housing: Explore options to increase affordable housing funding, such as an “empty home” fee, higher inclusionary housing mandate for certain general plan changes, and the use of tax-increment financing.

You can view a summary of the Housing Plan here: http://sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/72265.

The entire text of the Mayor’s Housing Plan is available at: http://sanjose.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?meta_id=667033.