SAN JOSE — In the wake of the state Legislature’s passage of a landmark housing law, San Jose officials may soon activate a city policy that requires developers to build affordable apartments in new rental projects.
San Jose adopted its “inclusionary housing” law, which requires developers to set aside units for low-income residents, seven years ago. But it only applied to for-sale housing, such as homes and condominiums, because of a legal ruling. Apartments — which make up a major chunk of San Jose’s housing stock — were excluded.
In 2009, an appellate court ruled in Palmer/Sixth Street Properties v. City of Los Angeles that inclusionary zoning ordinances for rental housing were an illegal form of rent control. So San Jose quietly put its policy on the shelf, awaiting a legislative fix.
That solution came last week from Santa Monica Assemblyman Richard H. Bloom’s AB 1505, which reaffirms the city’s ability to require subsidized housing in new rental developments. It passed the state Legislature last week and is headed to the governor’s desk.
Because the Palmer decision didn’t allow San Jose to require rental developers to build affordable units, the city instead was charging a fee — about $17 per square foot — for affordable housing projects.
“If the governor signs it, I think the biggest news for us is that it allows us to now require affordable rentals in market-rate developments,” said San Jose Housing Director Jacky Morales-Ferrand. “We’re excited to have the ability to turn the ordinance back on and to have these options.”
The city law today requires for-sale housing developers to set aside 15 percent of their homes for low-income households. Under AB 1505, the same percentage would apply to rental units.
The City Council on Tuesday was expected to expand its inclusionary housing law to for-sale projects with three or more units — it currently exempts anything below 19 units. But Morales-Ferrand decided to delay that discussion to study how AB 1505 could expand the city policies.
While the city explores its inclusionary housing options, Councilman Donald Rocha has suggested a new plan for sheltering some of the city’s 4,000 homeless individuals. Rocha proposes renting out single-family homes for the homeless.
The idea, which heads to the city’s Rules and Open Government Committee on Wednesday, would allow the city to work with nonprofits to rent homes in every City Council district. A few nonprofit groups have already signaled interest, Rocha said.
Unlike the “tiny homes” proposal, which Rocha was concerned about, this plan would use existing buildings — cutting down on time and construction costs — and help the city better distribute the homeless housing sites citywide.
“Maybe we should spend these dollars in a way that we can help more people, more effectively and sooner,” Rocha said. “We’re coming up on another winter here and if we have an opportunity to do something sooner, we should explore it.”
Rocha said tiny homes villages are expensive, take too long to build, and only house 25 people per site. Under Rocha’s rental home proposal, six or fewer people could live in a single-family housing without a city permit.
