Silicon Valley housing coalition rethinks future without bond measure

With the stripping of a November ballot measure that proposed putting billions of dollars into building affordable homes in the Bay Area, housing advocates are pivoting their efforts.

Regional Measure 4 would’ve infused $20 billion in affordable housing funds across nine Bay Area counties if it had remained on the ballot and passed. Santa Clara County would’ve received $2.4 billion and San Jose $2.1 billion for affordable housing. But after the measure faced legal challenges, commissioners on the Bay Area Finance Housing Authority voted to pull the bond from the ballot on Aug. 14. They said it would be better to wait another election cycle when there is more certainty for the measure to pass.

For now, affordable housing proponents are turning to Proposition 5 which would lower the voting threshold from 66.7% to 55% for affordable housing bond measures. If passed, a regional Bay Area bond would have a better chance in the future.

A coalition of advocates is making an effort to get voters on board with Prop. 5.

“Now that we have such a strong coalition, we will find a way to bring the resources so that we can build this housing,” Regina Williams, executive director of SV@Home who helped lead the regional bond measure’s support campaign in Santa Clara County, told San José Spotlight.

The goal is to try and bring an affordable housing measure back as early as 2026, but whether it’s the same measure is yet to be determined, Williams said.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of listening sessions and discussions and working meetings to really understand how all these different jurisdictions throughout the Bay Area are thinking about what’s next,” she said.

The end of this measure doesn’t mean the end of affordable housing developments, Williams said, though affordable housing will be more difficult to build without money from the government.

In San Jose, Measure E funds are still available for affordable housing projects, including $11 million set aside this fiscal year. Measure E is an ongoing property transfer tax approved by voters in 2020.

At the county level, Measure A , a $950 million affordable housing bond approved by voters in 2016, has brought thousands of homes into the pipeline. This housing bond was the first of its kind in Santa Clara County that prioritized deeply affordable and supportive housing. But the housing crisis is so significant that advocates said a regional bond is needed to help fill the gap.

“I think Measure A has been a smashing success,” Alex Shoor, executive director of Catalyze SV, told San José Spotlight. “Many people know that that money has now all been accounted for and so we definitely need something regionally and locally to continue to get more affordable housing built quickly.”

However, there are no concrete plans to bring another countywide affordable housing measure to the voters, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Susan Ellenberg said. Taking money from the general fund is unlikely, given the county had to cut services to bridge a $250 million deficit this fiscal year.

“If next year’s fiscal outcomes are similar, we will not have dollars to put into this kind of work unless we identify funding beyond the county,” Ellenberg told San José Spotlight. “And while we can’t work on that $2 billion to $4 billion scale, we will work to prioritize projects. We will keep doing everything we can to find revenue because lives depend on it.”

There are 13 to 18 affordable housing projects in the county that are ready to go and need additional funding. Ellenberg said the county is relying on private partnerships to help complete some of the projects.

Efforts like the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund — launched by Destination: Home in partnership with the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, Sobrato Philanthropies and Apple — will put $50 million of private dollars toward developing 400 affordable homes across the Bay Area, though not at the scale that Regional Measure 4 would’ve brought.

Sandy Perry, board vice president of the South Bay Community Land Trust, said that’s still not enough.

“Without help from the state and the federal government, we are in trouble,” Perry told San José Spotlight.

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.