Affordable Housing

By Rudy J Rodriguez

Affordable housing and creating opportunities for first-time home ownership.

"One of the biggest challenges we face as a city is providing affordable housing for our children and new workforce. San Jose has one of the lowest rates of homeownership in the nation. And I want to change that."

Rudy Rodriguez

Our City's Housing Crisis:

The need for affordable housing in San Jose is critical. Nationwide, two-thirds of all residents are homeowners. But in San Jose, less then 40% are homeowners.

We face three great challenges:

We must use new and innovative approaches to build affordable housing.

We must build new housing in ways that reduce traffic and stimulate our local economy.

We must dramatically increase homeownership by opening the housing market to first-time homebuyers and create incentives for continued middle-class homeownership. Unfortunately, the present situation provides District 7 with no vision and no plan for meeting our communities' future housing needs.

The Rodriguez Plan: Action & Results for Affordable Housing ___________________________________________________________

Create a Comprehensive Building Plan for Housing: Our community needs one, comprehensive housing plan that looks to our future. If we continue down the present path of haphazard, patchwork planning we will never see a day when traffic is moving, housing is affordable and the safety of our neighborhoods is addressed.

I will work towards a plan that requires the construction of new middle class and workforce housing that will include even more designated affordable housing.

I will ensure that this plan is designed to minimize the impact of new housing on our already overburdened transportation system.

I will ensure that we address all public safety concerns of our neighborhoods.

I will insist that our planning department coordinate with the transportation, housing and community development departments so that this new growth is smart growth. Increase First-Time Home Ownership: One of the primary goals in my housing plan is to dramatically increase homeownership in San Jose. Neighborhoods with more homeowners have less crime, less graffiti, fewer gangs and better schools. The reason for this is simple when residents become homeowners they take a more active role in their communities they take ownership.

It is time to use tax incentives to help young families achieve the basic American dream home ownership. I will work with our delegations in Sacramento and Washington to pass legislation to allow potential first-time homebuyers to establish tax-free savings accounts so they can save for down payments on their first homes. These accounts have proven to help families save for retirement, medical bills and college tuition for their children and it will provide a tangible mechanism to help families achieve the American dream.

I will stand up for the community and our residents to ensure we receive our fair share of Proposition 46 funding for first-time homebuyer loans and down payment assistance programs.

I will support and expand outreach efforts for existing state and federal home loan programs such as the Extra Credit Teacher Program, California Homebuyer Down Payment Assistance Program, Homeownership In Revitalization Areas Program, Cal-Vet Home Loan Program and California's Single Family Homeownership Program to make the dream of homeownership a reality for more families in San Jose. Implement a Real Partnership with the Private Sector: In order to stimulate the construction of middle-class housing in San Jose neighborhoods' and increase our stock of housing, we need capital investments. If we bring investors to the opportunities, rather than waiting for the opportunities to find the investors, we will be more competitive with other cities.

I will organize and lead an annual tour of housing and commercial investment opportunities for financial institutions and lending companies in order to attract capital to District 7.

I will establish a public-private partnership council to create stronger relationships between policymakers, financial institutions and builders. Make Existing Housing More Livable: As a Councilmember I will establish a new process to effectively enforce housing standards in my district. I will then work this system for our district so that we can make our existing housing stock more livable.

I will involve residents and owners early on to resolve code violations rather than relying on repetitive and overly punitive actions that often fail to compel owner compliance.

I will provide workshops on available resources to both tenants and owners in order to encourage and assist with compliance.