South Bay Affordable Housing: Here’s the Latest Scoop!

You might have heard about Regional Measure 4, which was supposed to be on the November ballot. This measure would have provided a whopping $20 billion for affordable housing across the Bay Area, including $2.4 billion for Santa Clara County and $2.1 billion for San Jose. However, due to some legal challenges, the decision was made to pull it from the ballot and wait for a better time when it has a stronger chance of passing.

Advocates are now shifting their focus to Proposition 5, which could lower the voting threshold for affordable housing bond measures. If this passes, it’ll make it easier to get similar measures approved in the future. They’re already working on bringing a new affordable housing measure back, possibly as early as 2026. It’s still up in the air what it will look like, but they’ll be gathering input from communities across the Bay Area.

In the meantime, San Jose is still making progress on affordable housing through Measure E, the property transfer tax approved in 2020. There’s $11 million set aside this year alone for these projects. And let’s not forget about Measure A, the $950 million affordable housing bond from 2016, which has already helped get thousands of homes in the pipeline.

While there aren't any immediate plans for another countywide measure, there are quite a few affordable housing projects in Santa Clara County that are ready to go and just need a bit more funding. The county is also working with private partners to help move things along.

I’ll keep you posted as things develop, but if you have any questions or just want to chat about what this all means for our community, feel free to reach out. I’m always here to help!