Housing For All in Gilroy Part 2

Since I wrote the first blog on housing in August 2020, Gilroy has made strides to plan and promote affordable housing. We have developed interim objective design standards with the full document to be approved later this year in compliance with SB 330, you can build an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) on any residential property in the city, staff's work plan includes developing an inclusionary housing ordinance, and staff will begin working on the next Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) cycle for 2023-2031. That process will require us to look at some modest re-zoning of our General Plan 2040 in order to accommodate the affordable housing that is needed for the future. This next RHNA cycle is going to take some creativity on housing production, and that includes small projects to big ones. We can't grow when a majority of our land is zoned for single family homes. It has already been mentioned in meetings that we need to look at missing middle housing (duplexes, triplexes, and four-plexes).

With the recent adoption of our City’s General Plan 2040, we as a community called for bold actions that include providing high density housing options, affordable housing for all, and continuing to promote cleaner modes of transportation. We encourage existing and proposed development to incorporate Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures such as car-sharing, transit passes, and unbundling of parking (requiring separate purchase or lease of a parking space) where such measures will result in a reduction in vehicle miles traveled, reduction of required amount of parking or an increase in the use of alternate transportation modes.

The City Council has made a bold statement in our strategic goals that we are committed to safe and affordable housing for all Gilroy residents and followed that up with a multi-year contract with HouseKeys to manage our below market rate housing units. HouseKeys will play a key role in advising city hall on programs and policies that we can implement to further strengthen our below market housing portfolio.

California has a statewide housing shortage of nearly 3.5 million homes. Low and middle-income households face historic rent burden in California, and the problem worsens by the day as middle-income households move into naturally affordable housing previously occupied by low-income renters forcing these households to move further away from their jobs, and in some cases, onto the streets. Undersupply of “Missing Middle” housing, or medium density housing near jobs and transit, is one of the key factors contributing to the displacement and rent burden of Californians across the state. This sort of housing is banned in over 70 percent of the state. In Gilroy we have 75.3% of our land zoned for single family homes, 10.2% were small multifamily (2-4 units), and 12.6% were medium or large multifamily (5+ units). 

According to recent data provided by ABAG, 59.1% of Gilroy’s population in 2020 was Latinx, 28.0% was White, 9.1% was Asian, and 1.1% was African American. In Gilroy, 21.0% of households are considered extremely low-income, making less than 30% of AMI. Furthermore, 24.3% of Gilroy households are large households with five or more people, with 20.0% of large family households experiencing a cost burden of 30%-50%, and 16.9% of households spending more than half of their income on housing. Some 20.1% of all other households have a cost burden of 30%-50%, with 21.1% of households spending more than 50% of their income on housing.

As we prepare for the next Housing Element we will need to examine the ways at which the 75.3% zoning can be the limiting factor as we work towards affordability, equity, and not continue to have communities that are segregated based on incomes and race. https://www.cityofgilroy.org/DocumentCenter/View/12196/22-RFP-CDD-464-Housing-Element-FINAL?bidId=93

Duplexes and other modest affordable “Missing Middle” housing types in places that currently exclude them would help our residents who need more affordable homes. City of Gilroy has many examples of properties where we used to do this decades ago before a majority of our city became zoned for single family homes. The four-flex above is located at 7680 Carmel St. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) are allowed by right throughout the state now and that includes properties in home owner associations. http://www.cityofgilroy.org/903/Accessory-Dwelling-Units  

Valley Transportation Agency (VTA) has hosted three community meetings regarding their Transit Oriented Development (TOD) project in Downtown Gilroy. Projects that are transit-oriented allow people to live and work near public transportation, which helps clear the air, ease traffic, and adds infrastructure investments to the community. We are creating more walkable/bikeable places to live that don't require you to own a car, and providing much needed housing for our graduating high school seniors, teachers, city employees other than managers/directors, and college grads to come home to. According to a timeline presented at the meeting, the VTA Board could choose a developer for the project by the end of this year, with design work continuing into 2024. Construction could begin by mid-2024 and end in 2026.

In 2021, the Area Median Income (AMI) for a four-person household in for Santa Clara County, as defined by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) was $151,300. Based on this, the following are the income limits for the various affordable housing categories (family of four): 

• Extremely Low Income (ELI) 0–30% AMI – $49,700 

• Very Low Income (VLI) 31–50% AMI –$82,850

• Low Income (LI) 51–80% AMI – $117,750

• Moderate Income 81–120% AMI - $181,550 

• Above Moderate- Above 120% AMI 

Cities and counties subject to SB 35 streamlining provisions when proposed developments include ≥ 50% affordability. Gilroy is one of the jurisdictions that has insufficient progress toward their lower income RHNA (Very Low and Low income) and are therefore subject to the streamlined ministerial approval process (SB 35 (Chapter 366, Statutes of 2017) streamlining) for proposed developments with at least 50% affordability. 

Below is an updated chart that shows our progress as of April 1, 2020 to meet our RHNA numbers. You can see that we are unbalanced in our categories. At the June 21, 2021 City Council meeting, we decided to not appeal our 2023-2031 RHNA allocation. 

Moving Gilroy Forward in 2021

To my council colleagues, city staff, and the public I am very excited to be a part of the many changes coming to Gilroy this year. I will continue to bring to these meeting not just the views of myself but those of my constituents. We have many policies and practices that need to be updated to 2021 standards and fortunately these are finally coming with the recent adoption of the General Plan 2040. Legislating policy in house often times doesn’t require budget allocations, and many best practices are already open sourced. Our entire Zoning Ordinance will be amended to meet the standards of our general plan too, and I look forward to being a part of that process. 

I’d like to find some common ground when it comes to homelessness, affordable housing, climate action, streamlining business permits, technology implementation, and most important our human capital or our employees. Many of these issues we can’t solve alone, and we need to leverage partnerships that currently exist and be flexible when it comes to new partnerships. Many organizations have a for-profit and non-profit side of their business structure. The non-profit side can obtain grant funding for the city and often times are more in touch with grant funding opportunities in places where we aren’t. 

For homelessness, the community has partners like the Gilroy Compassion Center and St. Joseph’s already, but we need to learn how we can become better partners. Destination Home has provided $1.4 million to Gilroy residents since the pandemic began March 2020, that directly prevented homelessness. As stated at a recent Gilroy Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization Committee meeting by Compassion Center’s Tim Davis “Funding is not the biggest obstacle, it is the political will.” We do know the right policies and programs to end homelessness. 

For affordable housing, we have a partnership with HouseKeys, who currently manages our below market rate housing and has brought in just shy of a million dollars recently to Gilroy. We can work with them to further strengthen our housing options for all residents of Gilroy and make changes to our housing policies with items like a housing inclusionary ordinance which requires a percentage of affordable housing to be built in all developments. 

For climate action we can utilize REACH building codes that require all electric construction of new buildings, join the other cities within Silicon Valley Clean Energy and adopt clean building codes that keeps cost of construction low, prevents pollution, and utilizes the grids clean energy. Installing infrastructure to City assets like solar and EV charging capabilities will move us in the right direction. Grant funding is available. State Law is once again ahead of us by requiring EV capabilities in multi-family residential and commercial developments but we still have time to further strengthen it and set a good example. 

For streamlining the business permit process, we need to cut out the parts that slow down the grand opening days for a business. It’s not a fair playing game when a potential business that knows a council member can get special attention, while those that don’t have any connections are subject to delays. After completion of the building checklist, the business should be allowed to open, and not prevented from opening their doors based on subjective findings. When we remove barriers to opening businesses quickly, then local jobs of all incomes will be more readily available. Everyone should have access to jobs that pay a living wage, and the ability to expand their skills. 

Lastly, we need to continue to invest in smart technology and human capital of our workforce. Our ability to manage our assets and infrastructure by email, phone calls, and log books needs to be in the past. We have a GIS based asset management program called Cityworks that’s not being used to its full potential and our public works crews don’t have that technology at their fingertips yet. This program can take our entire recent citywide sidewalk inspection, and build out budget requests to enhance our sidewalk program. We currently can’t take care of an aging city and at the same time future projects that are here at our doorstep today.

Hear my full statement in English & Spanish above.