Santa Clara County Set To Approve Another $100 Million For Affordable Housing

Campbell CA

23 February, 2021

4:35 PM

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By Madelyn Reese, San Jose Spotlight February 22, 2021 Santa Clara County supervisors are set to approve spending more than $100 million to build five housing complexes for low-income residents. The funds would come from the Measure A housing bond, passed by a majority of voters in 2016. The bond will eventually raise just under $1 billion for affordable housing projects and incentives across the county. The county set a goal of building 4,800 units, and set a deadline of 2028 to allocate the funds. So far 174 units have been built, or a little more than 3% of the county's goal. Santa Clara County's Measure A Housing Bond progress website shows 174 units of affordable housing have been built so far with the measure's funds. Courtesy County of Santa Clara. The developments up for consideration Tuesday are in San Jose, primarily in the central and eastern areas of the city. Supervisor Cindy Chavez said she expects all supervisors to approve the investment. "By sticking to our plan and keeping our word to the voters, we know that we are going to be able to make sure we get folks housed," Chavez said. "This is our 'all in' program meaning were going to make sure we get our homeless community housed, and those who are also in high need of housing." The five projects consist of 566 apartments. County officials estimate more than 2,100 people could be housed in the units. The housing will be split between varying groups of income levels, and 233 of the apartments, or about 41%, will be dedicated to rapid rehousing. Rapid rehousing refers to units that are intended for getting unhoused individuals into shelter immediately along with supportive services. These units will be time limited, and reserved for residents in immediate need of support. "One of the primary goals we wanted to (focus on) with this round of projects was to fund rapid rehousing," said Consuelo Hernandez, director of the Office of Supportive Housing. "These are families that are homeless and have struggled over the last year or so because of COVID-19 or other reasons." Estimates currently put the number of unhoused individuals in Santa Clara County at more than 10,000 on any given night. Santa Clara County supervisors will consider five proposed developments to allocate Measure A funding toward. Courtesy County of Santa Clara. The last time supervisors approved allocating Measure A funds was in March, just before the COVID-19 pandemic took off in earnest. The last round of funding totaled just more than $137 million and was set aside for 865 units. Of the 29 developments supervisors have approved to date, five are open, eight are under construction and six will begin construction in the next six months. The remaining 10 are in pre-construction. While the approval of the next set of funds would bring the county's total Measure A commitment to more than $600 million, about $260 million remains unspent. Two projects up for approval Tuesday are expected to be ready for occupancy by late 2023, and three more are expected to be ready by 2024. The Board of Supervisors meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. The agenda and documents about the Measure A affordable housing items can be found on the county website here. Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] or follow @MadelynGReese on Twitter.