21-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Santa Clara County approves $28.7 million for affordable housing projects
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved nearly $29 million in funding for affordable housing projects in San Jose on Tuesday.
The $28.7 million authorized by the board will add 612 units, Santa Clara County said in a press release, and includes financing for two projects to be built on land near public transportation stations. The funding will be used for four multifamily affordable housing projects and one affordable homeownership development, the county said.
The projects will include 238 units for low-income tenants, 191 units for people considered to have 'very low incomes' and 120 units of supportive housing for previously unhoused seniors and families, the county said.
'As housing costs continue to rise in San Jose and throughout our region, the need for more affordable housing becomes clearer and more urgent by the day,' Santa Clara County Executive James R. Williams said in a statement. 'Unless cities significantly expand our housing supply, we will never be able to combat housing insecurity and unaffordability in our community.'
Two of the affordable housing projects will be built in partnership between Santa Clara County and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which owns the land where the apartments will be located.
The projects will be 'transit-oriented affordable housing' built next to the Berryessa and Capitol VTA stations, the county said.
The affordable homeownership development that received funding from the county will include 36 units for sale at 'affordable' prices. The development, called East Santa Clara Townhomes, is 'important for the diversity of the local housing ecosystem,' the county said.
The county said that Tuesday's authorization brings total funding for the five projects from the board of supervisors up to $48.2 million, with more than $38 million of that coming from funds provided by Measure A, a 2016 affordable housing bond measure. The county credited Measure A with funding more than 5,800 units of affordable housing from the more than $890 million that has been committed from the bond so far.
More than 2,700 Measure A-funded units house nearly 6,300 people currently, the county said, and more than 1,100 units are currently under construction.
'Thanks to Measure A, the county has been making and continues to make a difference to address the region's need for housing,' Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Otto Lee said in a statement. 'More than 6,000 people who were unhoused or at risk of homelessness now have the safety and dignity of a home.'
The county cited high costs of housing in the area — where the median home price is just over $2 million — and lack of affordable housing, along with rising rents and 'structural inequities,' as contributors to 'housing insecurity and homelessness in the county.'
