Cupertino shows state must act on housing crisis
Everyone in Silicon Valley and California knows we have a massive housing crisis. Now’s the time for our state representatives to step up and pass a bold set of solutions so all families — white, black, brown and Asian — can have a safe, decent and affordable place to call home.
At the beginning of the year, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared housing to be “perhaps our most overwhelming challenge.” This legislative session, more than 100 bills dealing with housing issues have been introduced. With businesses struggling to find employees and working families crammed together or pushed out to Nevada or Texas by big rent hikes, the need for structural action grows by the day.
Recent events in Cupertino — home to Apple’s headquarters and one of Silicon Valley’s most dense employment centers — sadly illustrate why the state Legislature must act. At a contentious meeting on June 18, the Cupertino City Council tried to block thousands of homes from being built at the vacant former Vallco mall site. While the previous council had passed a plan for the site with more than 2,900 homes, new anti-housing council members aim to slash that to fewer than 400 homes, instead massively increasing retail space.
It’s the latest in a long pattern of unbalanced and unjust development: smaller, wealthier cities add offices and stores that bring in tax dollars, while refusing to create enough homes for the people doing those jobs. That leaves bigger cities — home to many low-income communities of color — on the hook for providing more homes, schools and other public services, while getting less revenue to fund those services. This approach pits communities against each other, with people of color hit the hardest by unaffordable rents, unhealthy living conditions and inadequate public services.
Addressing the housing crisis with equity requires a multipronged approach known as the 3Ps: producing more homes for people at all income levels, preserving existing naturally affordable housing and protecting renters from being forced out of their homes by huge rent hikes or unfair evictions. With the support of a broad alliance of community, labor and business organizations, a package of bills taking this 3Ps approach is moving through the Legislature.
One bill, SB 330, would prevent anti-housing politicians like those in Cupertino from abusing local power to keep out apartments and (by extension) working people. Others would create more homes affordable to lower-paid families by providing resources (AB 1487 and SB 5) and making it easier to build backyard “granny flats” (AB 68). To protect renters from rent gouging by unscrupulous landlords, another (AB 1482) would place modest limits on excessive rent hikes.
This package of bills represents the largest leap forward for housing in California in many years. These bills are especially important here in Silicon Valley, where lowerpaid working people, immigrant families, and our teachers and public safety employees struggle to keep up with the cost of housing. Between 2011 and 2018, rents in San Jose have increased by 60%. Santa Clara County’s 2019 homelessness survey found a 31% increase in homelessness in the past two years.
No matter what we look like or where we come from, we all need a safe, affordable home to raise our family. We know that passing this sensible package of housing reforms would reduce displacement, improve our health and allow more families to feel secure in their homes. Let’s make sure Silicon Valley remains a place where people with big ideas — whether an entrepreneur pulling all-nighters to launch a startup, or an immigrant mother working two jobs so her daughter can be the first in her family to go to college — can come, stay and turn those dreams into reality.