A lack of affordable housing is at the heart of the crisis plaguing our region. From 2010 to 2015, Santa Clara County added 141,000 new jobs but created only 29,000 units of housing. That disconnect is driving up rental and purchase prices - making our housing some of the most expensive in the nation. Long before the pandemic, this shortage forced longtime residents out of the area, forcing people to drive long distances to work, hurting families and creating more pollution.
To address this crisis, Susan is working to prioritize the building of permanent supportive housing for our county's most vulnerable residents. In addition to protecting rent control, she is working to create public-private partnerships that allow the county to use funds to support first-time home buyers and our public sector workers like teachers and firefighters.
Susan understands that we must also get creative, repurposing county-owned properties in urban areas to provide more sites that are suitable for housing development. We need to cut red tape, making in-law units and ADUs easier to permit and build. Reducing regulatory barriers is a necessary step in cutting constraints on the supply of affordable housing.
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