After months living out of an RV at a sprawling homeless camp north of downtown San Jose, Heidi White was relieved to move her 1995 Ford motorhome into the city’s first long-term managed 24/7 safe parking lot. She no longer needed to worry about encampment fires or drug dealing outside her door, and staff running … Read more
A bill to ban homeless encampments statewide near parks, schools and transit hubs failed to get out of the same legislative committee as last year. For the second year in a row, Democrats on Tuesday voted down a bill that sought to ban homeless encampments near schools, transit stops and other areas throughout California. Despite … Read more
More than a year after the deadline and being hit with a lawsuit over the delay, Cupertino has received a green light from state regulators for a housing plan to add more than 4,500 homes by 2031. Every eight years, California law requires cities to submit a blueprint, known as a housing element, for how … Read more
For the last two years the “builder’s remedy” has been the unruly teenager of California housing laws. Running roughshod over zoning regulations while sowing angst among local elected officials, the law lets developers build as much as they like, wherever they like, in cities and counties that have blown past deadlines to get their housing … Read more
It is estimated that the U.S. government owns 45,000 underutilized buildings and Representative Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, wants to see this vast resource repurposed to fight the nation’s affordable housing crisis. That is why on Tuesday morning, April 1, he introduced the Government Facilities to Affordable Housing Conversion Act. If passed, the bill would create an … Read more
The San Jose City Council this week unanimously approved a new “tenant preference” policy meant to keep low-income tenants at risk of displacement in the city. Under the law, 20% of affordable apartments in new city-funded properties will be reserved for lower-income applicants living in “high-displacement” areas. Additionally, 15% of affordable apartments will be set … Read more
Recently released government data hammered home what we have known for at least a year: A national housing shortage, not broad-based price increases, is driving inflation. Inflation over the past year was 3.1% — far less than in 2021 but still high enough for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated. However, unlike the … Read more
A city only exists with tax revenues — and the collection of those taxes should be simple, streamlined and fair. Candidates for San Jose City Council are calling for a complicated, dubious and unwieldy new tax. It’s called The Empty Homes Tax (EHT), and it would create an invasive new bureaucracy with little promise of … Read more
BY MARISA KENDALL | CalMatters When Sacramento changed its plan to demolish a homeless encampment on a vacant lot on Colfax Street, instead offering the homeless occupants a lease, activists and camp residents celebrated it as a win. The first-of-its-kind deal, which allows the camp to remain in place and govern itself without city interference, … Read more
As the economic landscape continues to evolve, UK homeowners find themselves on the cusp of a financial challenge, with a staggering £19 billion increase in mortgage costs looming on the horizon. Approximately 1.5 million households are anticipated to encounter a significant rise in their expenditures this year, compounded by the impacts of inflation and tax … Read more
