Almaden Resident

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New housing plan for SJ's Coyote unveiled

Advocates call for affordable land to be pre-designated

By Monica Heger

What appeared to be a grim outlook for affordable housing in Coyote Valley has made an 180-degree turnaround, leaving stakeholders hopeful.

At a May 22 Coyote Valley task force meeting, the affordable housing task force presented a proposal to designate a specific amount of land for affordable housing in the 7,000-acre development that's slated to bring 25,000 homes and 50,000 jobs to the area just south of Almaden Valley.

In March, consulting firm Economic and Planning Systems suggested that in order for the project to be financially feasible, the average home price would have to be $660,000, with only 15 percent of the units designated affordable, rather than 20 percent as originally suggested by the city council.

Affordable-housing advocates didn't stay quiet about the discrepancy. A new housing group consisting of Leslye Krutko, director of San Jose's housing department; Bob Brownstein from Working Partnerships USA; Dan Hancock, a consultant from Shapell Industries; and Chris Block, executive director of Charities Housing, joined forces to come up with the plan presented last week.

Under the new plan, about 5,000 units are proposed to be designated affordable. In order to leverage funds, the plan calls for using land dedication as a major source of funding. Land dedication means developers would not be required to build affordable housing, but instead just buy the land. Then, affordable-housing developers could build units on the dedicated land.

Eighty-eight acres would be dedicated for 3,600 units of affordable housing. The other 1,400 units would be built as inclusionary housing, meaning developers would build affordable units within market rate projects.

Representatives from various affordable-housing organizations were supportive of the new proposal.

"I was very pleased with the proposed program," said Stephanie Schaaf of EHC Lifebuilders, a nonprofit agency that works to provide shelter for homeless people and housing for low-income families. "It recognizes the need for affordable homes for families of all income levels. Families making less than $30,000 a year are no longer invisible."

One concern advocates had was how the units would be phased in since the plan is not specific, but Schaaf said she was encouraged by the fact the dedicated land was being pre-selected.

"The land parcels are being set aside right from the start, which is a huge deposit toward making sure those homes happen," she said. "The most important thing and the biggest victory [of the proposed plan] is the recognition that there are folks who will be living and working in Coyote Valley making $30,000 a year or less, and that we're planning for them and not putting on the blinders."

Another component of the proposed plan involves using city funds to increase affordability for extremely low-income families.

San Jose housing director Krutko, said financing extremely low-income units was the most challenging because they are significantly more expensive then other units. She said one option would be to use money from the city's affordable-housing fund to subsidize those units. Under the proposed plan, Coyote Valley would not be able to receive more than 20 percent of the city's affordable-housing funds in any given year.

The prospect of using city funds for any part of Coyote Valley doesn't sit well with the council members on the task force, who have been charged with ensuring that Coyote Valley is a completely self-sustaining project.

"If one pothole can't be fixed in San Jose, than Coyote Valley should not be built," said councilwoman and task force co-chair Nancy Pyle. "If developed, Coyote Valley needs to pay its way."

The next piece of the puzzle will be making sure the plan is financially feasible when added in with all the other expenses in Coyote Valley, such as infrastructure costs.

For more information visit www.sanjoseca.gov/coyotevalley.