San Jose's Creative Housing Funding: Certificates & Equity

0:00It's April 16th. I'm Cory with the story. This is California News today, driven by AI. San Jose is getting creative with funding for super affordable housing as public money dries up. The city wants to build homes for folks earning 30-50% of area median income. They think $42,200 to $70, $1350 a year for a single person. They're eyeing two tools, certificates of participation to pull cash from private investors without a voter say and taking equity stakes in projects. Built with city funds to get that money back over time. Earlier this week, a rules committee unanimously backed a memo directing staff to bring back detailed plans to the full council by August. Mayor Matt Mahan teamed up with council members Anthony Tordillo's Pamela Campos, David Cohen, and Peter Ortiz to push this forward. Council member Tordillo's highlighted how sky high rents are forcing families out or into homelessness, with many barely scraping by paycheck too.

1:01Paycheck. Mayor Mahan agrees, stressing the need to build all kinds of housing first, but not ditching the deepest affordability levels. He says getting outside the box is key amid funding shortages. Other cities are ahead. San Francisco okayed certificates of participation last year and places like Chicago and New York have tried similar. Least revenue tricks. Meanwhile, San Jose faces a $56 million budget hole and must zone over 60,000 units by 2031, the second toughest. Target in the Bay Area. This move shows the city doubling down on mixed income neighborhoods to boost housing stock and property taxes without breaking the bank, setting the all for. Stage for real progress by summer's end.