Silicon Valley mayors want fair share of $20B housing bond

A group of Silicon Valley mayors want to know how funds will be divided if voters pass a measure to build and preserve affordable housing across the region.

A letter signed by 12 mayors of Santa Clara County’s 15 municipalities went to the Board of Supervisors on July 5, asking the county to establish an expenditure plan for the $20 billion regional housing bond measure sponsored by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, before the November election.

Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein spearheaded the letter, and said the county needs to outline how it plans to spend the $2.4 billion it expects to receive if the bond passes, so voters know how the money might get used in their city. The estimated cost to residents is $19 per $100,000 of assessed property value, according to a May report from the housing finance authority.

“All the mayors in the county (recognize) that there is a housing crisis,” Klein told San José Spotlight. “It’s important that if our taxpayers are going to be paying into a bond, that we’re at the table when we’re discussing how that money will be distributed.”

A June report on the bond said the housing finance authority will publish its spending plan before the election, but gives no timeline for San Jose and the county, which are direct recipients, to finalize their plans. A presentation from the housing finance authority on the bond sets an early 2025 deadline for local spending plans — after the election.

If approved, the bond’s $20 billion would be spread across nine counties and four individual cities. Santa Clara County would get $2.4 billion, and San Jose is slated to receive a separate $2.1 billion.

Klein said he supports efforts to build more affordable housing, and that his experiences on the Measure A oversight committee have shown him how important it is to identify how money would be allocated. He added it’s important to decide allocations before the election to better inform voters.

The 2016 Measure A housing bond brought in $950 million to help build more than 4,800 affordable homes in over 50 projects.

The letter suggests setting up a committee to decide how funds should be distributed, with representatives from the county and multiple cities, ensuring everyone has a say. It also suggests methods to promote transparency to build public trust in the bond.

Every city’s needs vary depending on what land and tools the cities have available. Klein used Sunnyvale as an example, which has a large stock of office buildings he said could be converted to housing. That might not be an option in cities with fewer office spaces, such as Monte Sereno, where a program facilitating accessory dwelling units might make more sense to add density to single-family neighborhoods.

“Depending on what types of land you have available for developers … there’s lots of different solutions,” Klein said.

County officials are preparing a response from board President Supervisor Susan Ellenberg and Vice President Supervisor Otto Lee. They plan to invite the mayors to an initial conversation at a county board meeting in August, after the summer recess. Ellenberg said she hopes the mayors attend and share what projects are already underway in each of their cities.

She also stressed that building more affordable housing is only one piece of the county’s overarching solutions to homelessness. While the bond would help create more housing, Ellenberg said the county is also working on other options to support vulnerable populations, such as homelessness prevention programs to help people before they lose their housing.

As of last year, the county’s homeless population has grown 3% since 2019, totaling 9,903 people, of which 1,026 are in families. For every one Santa Clara County household that was housed in 2023, nearly two households became homeless, according to the county’s year-end analysis of its 2020-25 Community Plan to End Homelessness.

The conversation in August would give supervisors the opportunity to learn what programs are being explored in various cities at the same time, which Ellenberg said would lead to more direction and potential action from the entire board.

“Measure A has given us the case, the proof point, to show that we can get this done. We can allocate the money, we can build units,” she told San José Spotlight. “If we’re going to make a really visible difference on the street, we can’t just build four times the housing. We also have to stop this pipeline.”

Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.