#san-jose-annexation

#san-jose-annexation

"San Jose was an agricultural wonderland. They called it the Valley of Heart's Delight, and most of it has been paved over and turned into high tech now. But this is a connection to our past."

The district promised to spend its money on 'neighborhood schools.' Now, the district is preparing to close five elementary schools, displace one and break neighborhoods apart through rezoning.

City leaders have adjusted the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance to breathe life into dormant projects. The update shifts affordability tiers for rental units from 50, 60, and 100 percent of area median income to 60, 80, and 110 percent, easing the path for developers to move forward. This pivot aims at households caught between subsidized options and soaring market rates, fostering a broader mix of homes that reflect the city's diverse rhythms and needs.

San José is still way behind. It's way behind on its housing, and it's way behind on its thinking about what development should look like. We either build a lot of housing on this site, and we're actually serious about solving the housing crisis, or we have elected officials and civic leaders who continue to pay lip service to housing while doing nowhere near enough to solve the real issues.

A significant number of Santa Clara County residents say they're considering leaving the Bay Area, a reflection of the persistent frustration over housing costs and affordability even as population data suggests the region is not experiencing a mass exodus. Joint Venture Silicon Valley's annual survey found 40% of respondents in Santa Clara County said they are likely to leave in the next few years, a decline from recent years when up to 57% of respondents were looking to move.

Under the Lower Income Voucher and Equity program approved Tuesday, the city will master-lease nearly 200 units providing a subsidy that will lower rents and create more affordable housing for moderate-income households and enter into an equity agreement that will see San Jose recoup all of its investment, plus interest.

The original policy tied private development to the public good. When developers built new market‑rate housing, they had to include affordable homes, some as low as 30% or 50% of the area median income (AMI) or pay fees that helped finance deeply affordable homes elsewhere. It wasn't perfect, but it at least tried to ensure that new development included racial diversity and people at the bottom of the income ladder.

With just five months before landmark housing legislation takes effect throughout California, San Jose officials are racing to exempt broad swaths of the city from the law. Sen. Scott Wiener's Senate Bill 79, signed into law in October, aims to encourage denser housing construction around transit hubs. In San Jose, the law would cover 40,000 parcels of land, in many cases pushing up the maximum height and density limits for newly constructed residential buildings, according to city officials.

The past year ushered in a new age of fiscal challenges for the county as President Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress passed legislation last summer that triggered unprecedented cuts to the federal Medicaid program. Known as Medi-Cal in California, the program provides health insurance to low-income and disabled individuals. As the operators of the second-largest county health and hospital system in the state, Trump's landmark tax-and-spending bill has left a giant hole in Santa Clara County's growing budget for the coming years.