The San Jose State Facilities Development and Operations members say the university is combating the city’s housing crisis by pushing forward affordable-housing construction for faculty and staff.
“[Faculty and staff] cannot afford to come here even on the salaries that are offered,” said Sabrina Porter-Parees, a college analyst in the College of Health and Human Services, during the Oct. 11 panel in the Student Union.
Porter-Parees said staff retention has been affected because of the lack of nearby affordable housing.
Current employees who have “super-commutes,” a commute that is more than 90 minutes one way, are more likely to burnout. They are leaving SJSU to pursue jobs in areas with more housing security, according to the workforce housing presentation during the panel.
Kelly Snider, SJSU urban and regional planning director, said part of what makes housing in the Bay Area so expensive is the cost of labor.
“We saw this in a very serious way when the fires in Santa Rosa came through about five years ago,” Snider said. “All of them had insurance money, there were hundreds of millions of dollars available to hire labor to rebuild those communities, but they couldn't find anyone to do it.”
Another issue that comes into play when building affordable housing are zoning laws.
“Believe it or not, most of the zoning laws that you've heard of or read about, or heard your kids or your grandparents talking about, were all put in place, on purpose, to discriminate against certain classes of people, whether it was people of color or new immigrants or non-English speakers or you name it,” Snider said.
Zoning refers to municipal or local laws and regulations that govern how property can and can’t be used in certain geographic areas, according to a Feb. 24 Investopedia article.
She said unwinding discriminatory zoning laws will help with the housing crisis.
Panelists during the session also talked about the proposed Alquist redevelopment, which is expected to be located on Third Street next to the Hammer Theatre Center.
It is expected to include 24 stories and at least 1,000 units, in which at least 50% will be workforce housing, according to the SJSU Alquist Redevelopment webpage.
The redevelopment is expected to be finished in 2027, according to the Alquist Redevelopment Timeline.
Snider said Alquist would be able to avoid some zoning issues.
“A third of what I just described probably doesn't even apply to the Alquist site,” Snider said. “It gets to sort of leapfrog straight up to the state, to the [California State University] system for all of its jurisdictional approvals.”
Regarding the Alquist development, Porter-Parees presented the 2020 SJSU Staff Council survey that found 70% of respondents were in favor of it.
Sharon Watkins, SJSU Information Technology lead software specialist, said she is only interested in workforce housing if it is below market rate.
“If they’re going to have something that’s the same price as what they’re offering now then what’s the point?” Watkins said.
According to the Alquist redevelopment webpage, the ratio of below market value to market value housing will be determined through the request for proposals and request for qualifications results.
According to the business blog HubSpot, a request for qualifications is sent when you know exactly what service you want and you really only need to know the price. A request for proposals is sent when it's more complicated and you want to evaluate other factors besides price before making a decision.
Watkins said the amount of subsidized housing also matters to her because that amount affects whether people will be able to afford it.
“For something that’s gonna cost you $2,000,” Watkins said. “Are you gonna have to pay $1,800? Are you gonna have to pay $1,500? It’s a big difference.”
