For the first time in 25 years, an affordable housing complex is being built on VTA property in San Jose.
Steps away from the Tamien Station just south of downtown San Jose, work is underway to open a new housing complex. About 135 affordable homes are expected to be finished and ready for move in by August.
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WATCH HERE“Ideally, families who live in this future housing here can come downstairs, drop off their kids in the childcare, and then hop right on the train alleviating traffic. Not needing cars ideally,” said Josselyn Hazen, manager of transit-oriented development at VTA.
The agency and developers gave tours of the site on Tuesday, noting the apartments range from one to three bedrooms.
The units will be reserved for local families making 60% of the median income or less. For context, that would mean a four-person household, making less than $117,000 a year.
Catalyze SV advocates for more affordable housing like this.
“Transit-oriented development is the future. It’s how cities have actually been built for hundreds of years across this world and we kind of forgot that a little bit. We got a little fixated on the automobile,” said Alex Shoor, Catalyze SV’s executive director.
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San Jose resident Raymond Valenzuela went on the tour as a possible tenant. He said it’s a tough balance trying to qualify for affordable housing and simply affording life in the bay area.
“If you don’t have total rock bottom then it’s easier for the paperwork for them [if you are] to circulate and make you go through a program," He said. "But if you make too much, then you don’t qualify because you’re past that scale, what they look for."
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SIGN UP The VTA said it has seven more projects like this in the works.
“We did the projects 25 years ago and then, the program really went dormant for many years. In 2016, we restarted and that was really a catalyst from the measure a program that was able to bring funding for these important projects,” Hazen said.
The wait list to live here is open and you can apply online through the San Jose affordable housing portal.
There will be some services, including a food bank along with daycare on the bottom floor. While 67 units will be used for rapid rehousing to help people who are victims of domestic violence or just lost their job get back on their feet.
