City backs plan for low-income residents
Officials have laid out a 10-point strategy to keep at-risk ttenants housed
With thousands of San Jose residents teetering on the edge of displacement and evictions, city officials have laid out a 10-point strategy aimed at keeping as many low-income renters in the city as possible — marking a first-of-its-kind blueprint for addressing the pressing problem.
“Our desired outcome is that as San Jose grows and secures planned investment, we will maximize that positive opportunity and prevent or minimize the negative impacts for our vulnerable citizens so that they can succeed in our changing cities,” Jacky Morales-ferrand, the city’s director of housing, said during the City Council meeting on Sept. 22.
The city’s plan, which was passed unanimously by the San Jose City Council in the early morning of Sept. 23, offers a wide range of policies and programs to both help tenants remain in their communities and foster the development of more affordable housing.
It comes on the heels of a nearly two-year effort by city officials from the housing and planning departments, Council member Magdalena Carrasco and leaders at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and Working Partnerships USA to develop a strategy to reduce and deter the displacement of low-income residents across the city.
Nearly 71% of San Jose residents know someone who has been displaced, and 54% fear that they also will be forced out of their homes in the future, according to a recent survey. And since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the region, the situation has become even more dire.
More than 350,000 workers filed unemployment claims in Santa Clara County during the first three months of the pandemic, and advocacy groups estimate some of the nearly 100,000 workers in the county who are here illegally have been shut out of state and federal aid.
A study released by the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and Working Partnerships USA in July estimated that 43,000 renter households in Santa Clara County — headed by adults who have lost work and are not eligible for unemployment benefits — were at risk of eviction because of the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying economic fallout. The anticipated evictions fall heaviest on Black and Latino residents — and potentially could triple the county’s homeless population, the study found.
“During COV ID(-19), we’re at least protecting them (tenants) with eviction moratoriums, but we’re not going to be able to hold onto that much longer,” Councilwoman Magdalena Carrasco said during the meeting. “Post-coVID is going to be brutal.”
The 10-point plan has three main goals for the city to tackle first: helping tenants at risk of eviction navigate the court system; giving nonprofits first dibs on multiunit residential buildings that go up for sale; and setting aside a portion of new affordable rentals on the market for residents who are at risk of displacement and already living in that same neighborhood.
Under the plan, the city will work with the county court’s department and local service providers to develop a “collaborative court” in which a person facing eviction would be matched with an attorney to represent the tenant in a pretrial settlement conference before his eviction court date. The ultimate goal is to encourage a settlement between landlords and tenants earlier in the process and avoid eviction court in its entirety, according to Morales-ferrand.
City staffers also were tasked with exploring the development of a program that would provide certain nonprofit organizations with first dibs on purchasing multifamily residential buildings and the right to match a private buyer’s offer. The intention is to help preserve existing affordable housing in gentrifying neighborhoods, ensuring more stability within communities and deter real estate speculation. San Francisco adopted a similar program about 18 months ago.
As its third — and most legally challenging — priority, San Jose hopes to establish a “neighborhood tenant preference” so that when affordable housing units are placed on the market, residents already living in the neighborhood would get first priority.
The city’s plan comes nine months after a coalition of San Jose leaders and stakeholders released a report — dubbed Community Strategy Report on Ending Displacement in San Jose — with 13 policy recommendations for the city. One noticeable difference between the city’s approved plan and the community report was that the city’s did not include a recommendation to lower the city’s annual rent control increase cap from 5% to the consumer price index, which has hovered around 3.5% over the past decade.
Michael Trujillo, a staff attorney at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, urged the council not to lose sight of the proposed tenant protections — like streng thening existing rent control and implementing a right to counsel in eviction court — that didn’t make it on the council’s priority list.
Nevertheless, he said the plan “charts the right course for addressing the most immediate displacement pressures in our community.
“The top three recommendations are all necessary to ensure that we do not fall further behind in providing a home for every single San Jose resident,” he said.