Friday, December 28, 2018

[Santa Clara County] Letter: Region is past a piecemeal approach to housing crisis

Editorial was right in saying plan ‘fails to examine how much responsibility employers … have to participate.’


Blog note: this letter-to-the-editor references a grand jury report on the housing crisis.
The Mercury News hit the nail on the head with your editorial “Good and bad in Bay Area plan for housing crisis” (Dec. 19), analyzing the regional CASA Compact for affordable (and overall) housing.
As you stated, the plan “fails to examine how much responsibility employers … have to participate in solving the crisis.” Employers helping to pay for affordable housing, perhaps with a head tax, is a profoundly tough proposition. It wouldn’t make a region popular with many employers.
San Jose has an imbalance of housing to jobs and aims to attract and retain employers. Cities such as Mountain View point to measures in which employers, directly and indirectly, are paying. Still, Silicon Valley might differ from other regions. Some companies are helping, but we’re past a piecemeal approach.
That employers contribute is discussed in the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report “Affordable Housing Crisis: Density is Our Destiny,” at scscourt.org.
December 26, 2018
The Mercury News
Letter by Mike Krey, Campbell


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