Home > 2022 Election Platform > Housing Policy Recommendations
Housing Policy Recommendations
preservation I PROTECTION I PRODUCTION
1. Preservation
Santa Clara Valley’s economic successes should enhance our diverse community, allowing all neighbors to benefit from our region's economic prosperity. However, the rapid and haphazard growth of our cities are displacing residents, disproportionately impacting low-income tenants and people of color. In 2021, nearly 75% of Law Foundation’s housing clients were people of color, and more than 60% were women.
A growing movement of engaged low-income residents are developing innovative solutions to preserve our communities' affordable homes, an essential resource for supporting families and our aging population. Our elected officials must work with our neighbors to ensure that new development strengthens existing neighborhoods and prevents displacement.
a. RECOMMENDATION: Create a dedicated annual funding stream for the preservation of affordable and subsidized homes
Santa Clara County is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. On average, a family must have an income of at least $108,000 to rent a two-bedroom apartment. With a median income of $140,000 and an average apartment vacancy rate of less than 4.5%, many of our residents are struggling to remain in their homes.
Because housing affordability is critical to preventing displacement and homelessness, our elected officials must prioritize maintaining and increasing our affordable housing stock. Some ways that this can be achieved, is by engaging closely with low-income tenants and community-based organizations, to regularly assess the adequacy of available affordable homes, and funnel preservation funds to critical community resources. Additionally, jurisdictions should explore ways to support a layered fund or community investment guarantee pool to further leverage public preservation dollars.
b. RECOMMENDATION: Support community-led efforts for stabilization funds governed by community such as in the San Jose-Google Community Stabilization Fund, to accompany large developments (e.g. Google)
On May 25, 2021, City Council and Mayor unanimously approved Google's ground-breaking Downtown West proposal, which will bring 4,000 new homes to Diridon Station, 1,000 of them deed-restricted affordable. Additionally, the proposal includes $154.8 million dollars for a Community Stabilization Fund. The fund will be administered by a community advisory committee appointed by the City Council and will work with a fund manager to draft grants for local organizations. The goal of this grant is to help counter displacement pressures city-wide. This historic public-private partnership should serve as a model for future developments and government officials should continue to support community led-movements and creative outcomes such as the San Jose-Google benefits fund initiative.
c. RECOMMENDATION: Support community-led initiatives to grow a thriving Community Land Trust (CLT) preservation ecosystem
CLTs are non-profit, community, and resident-controlled organizations designed to permanently preserve community stewardship of the land. While CLTs can be used for many types of development including commercial and retail, they are most commonly used to ensure housing affordability. CLTs can potentially provide limited equity for low-income residents that would otherwise have no opportunity for homeownership. Jurisdictions should support this preservation method by ensuring that tenants and community-based organizations have structural and financial support to pursue this opportunity.
d. RECOMMENDATION: Support community-led Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) efforts to help prevent displacement of long-term residents
Under TOPA, when a landlord places the housing development on the market, tenants are notified and given the first opportunity to purchase the property. Similarly, under COPA, a qualified non-profit has the opportunity to purchase property to ensure its affordability. In our competitive housing market, COPA and TOPA would help prevent displacement and gentrification by helping residents remain in their homes. TOPA and COPA policies can also preserve naturally affordable housing types through restrictions built into the acquisition process.
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2. Protection
Elected officials should ensure that low-income tenants and homeowners are protected from displacement.
a. RECOMMENDATION: Enact Strong Tenant Protections to prevent the displacement of low-income families, including rent-control and just cause eviction protections
Rent control has been shown to help prevent displacement by keeping rents stable, and in turn, keeping families housed. Just cause eviction protections prevent tenants from being displaced unless there is a good reason. In Santa Clara County, only San Jose and Mountain View have rent control and Just Cause. Jurisdictions throughout and including Santa Clara County should enact just cause ordinances to protect tenants from displacement. This should include expanding the Tenant Protection Ordinance to include single-family homes, duplexes, multiplex homes and lowering the annual rent increase in the Apartment Rent Ordinance to CPI.
b. RECOMMENDATION: Ensure Strong Ellis Act Protections as a way to preserve the affordable housing stock
The Ellis Act permits a landlord to take a unit off the market. Strong Ellis Act Ordinances prevent the displacement of tenants by requiring relocation assistance for tenants whose units are subject to the Ellis Act, and by requiring a right to return for tenants who are displaced. Cities should enact strong Ellis Act protections that provide the maximum relocation assistance as allowable by law, require all units in a redeveloped property to be rent-controlled, and require tenants a right to return to any redeveloped property.
c. RECOMMENDATION: Enact right to counsel and fund legal services to prevent eviction
Tenants facing eviction are more likely to stay housed if they have an attorney representing them. In Santa Clara County, it is estimated that less than 10% of tenants are represented, while almost all landlords have legal representation. Over 90% of tenants served by the Law Foundation either remain housed or are able to bridge into alternative housing. Cities should invest in legal services for tenants facing eviction in order to narrow the justice gap and prevent tenants from falling into homelessness.
d. RECOMMENDATION: Robust code enforcement for tenants with strong relocation assistance for tenants facing displacement
Many low-income tenants live in units where landlords refuse to make repairs. Cities should invest in robust code enforcement, which includes routinely inspecting properties, requiring landlords to immediately repair uninhabitable conditions, requiring landlords to offer moving and relocation assistance to anyone who has to relocate for repairs, and penalties for landlords who refuse to comply. In cases of extreme disrepair or illegal business practices, cities should use their power to nominate a court-appointed receiver to rehabilitate and preserve the property at zero net cost to the city.
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3. Production
Silicon Valley is one of the world's most attractive job centers. However, our housing supply fails to keep pace with demand, placing a disproportionate burden on low-income families of color. Our local representatives must support strong measures to ensure that all residents, regardless of income level, can afford a home in a neighborhood with opportunities for successful financial, educational, and health outcomes.
a. RECOMMENDATION: Remove exclusionary zoning and land use barriers that restrict housing types, and promote the development of homes at low-income affordability levels in all parts of the city
Single-family zoning is a vestige of historically racist and segregative land-use policies. Its impacts are felt today, as many low-income residents are concentrated in multifamily developments with underfunded public services. As reflected in California's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Guidelines, strong cities have diverse affordability levels and housing types throughout the city, to ensure that income levels do not segregate residents into high and low opportunity areas.
b. RECOMMENDATION: Support mandatory inclusionary zoning and provide incentives like density bonuses for all residential projects
This can create more affordable units and support needed development.
c. RECOMMENDATION: Require commercial developers to finance housing production and/or dedicate land to meaningfully balance the jobs: housing ratio, prioritizing homes for residents most at-risk of displacement