by Santa Clara (CA) Mayor Judy Nadler
September 9, 2002

Santa Clara was an All-America City Award winner in 2001. The city's application focused on its innovative housing programs as well as its skate park and the successful redevelopment of surplus state land.

Santa Clara is located in the midst of Santa Clara County which was once known as the "Valley of Heart's Delight," but now has international recognition as Silicon Valley, the worldwide center of technology and the New Economy. We are celebrating our Sesquicentennial in 2002 - 150 years of a rich and diverse history. From its start as one of the mission colonies and a fertile agricultural area, Santa Clara has become a prosperous and progressive city that is the home city of some of America's largest corporations including Intel, Sun Microsystems, 3Com, Applied Materials and National Semiconductor.

But there can be a downside to prosperity. Even with the recent economic setbacks that have hit the technology industry hard, Santa Clara is a much'sought-after place to live and work. Our current residents enjoy an outstanding quality of life, and they want to stay in Santa Clara to raise their families and enjoy their retirement years. Many more people want to relocate here - too many, in fact, for the supply of housing that is available. More demand than supply means that our housing is some of the most expensive in the world.

In Santa Clara, the median price for a single-family home is approximately $450,000. Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1300 per month. Although every income strata is affected by these unbelievable housing costs, they are most horrific for lower and middle-income households and those on a fixed income such as seniors and the disabled.

How do they cope? Many have been forced to double or triple up in overcrowded housing to be able to pay the price of living in our community. Workers at Santa Clara businesses often live many miles away and experience daily commute times of two to three hours or more. Because they live paycheck to paycheck, any type of disaster in their personal lives - from job loss to serious illness to losing their home in a fire - can literally put them on the street in a few weeks time.

It is not enough to simply say, "Build more housing." We would love to except that there is very little vacant land remaining and what is available is quite expensive. Our residents love their neighborhoods and want to preserve their relative low density and tree-lined streets. We do not have acres of open land prime for housing developments.

When the State of California surplused land in our city, at the site of a former mental institution, Santa Clara was given an opportunity to approve a major project that is garnering accolades from both the design community and those focusing on more affordable housing for working families. The new development, known as Rivermark, will provide up to 3,000 housing units as well as a neighborhood shopping center, an elementary school, a branch library, police substation, fire station, and new parks. Located near our County's light rail line, the Rivermark neighborhood is also an example of the "Smart Growth" policy that clusters housing near public transportation and encourages residents to use it - or walk or bicycle - to get to work, shopping and recreation.

Rivermark is also a good example of the commitment the city of Santa Clara has made to expand the inventory of affordable housing options for residents of our community. Among the sparkling new single family houses and townhomes (with prices ranging from $500,000 to $800,000) will be a 450-unit apartment complex with 90 units set aside for lower income households, 100 units of affordable senior housing, 100 units of affordable family housing and 51 apartments for homeless families.

Santa Clara has been a catalyst for cooperative efforts among many stakeholders in our community (municipal government, school district, local industry, and nonprofit organizations serving the poor, homeless, and disabled) to find innovative solutions to our housing woes.

Over the past decade, the city of Santa Clara alone has invested more than $53 million to fund a variety of affordable housing programs and services for low and very low-income families as well as moderate-income households. We consider this a wise investment because of the long-range benefits for our city and region - pride of ownership, strong neighborhoods, and more commitment to the community.

More than 200 individuals or families have been able to buy their first home in Santa Clara with the assistance of our First Time Homebuyer's Loan Program which provides no-interest second loans from the city. In the past 10 years, we have set aside nearly 300 homes and apartments in newly-constructed projects for below market rate housing and that number will double when the Rivermark neighborhood is completed.

In collaboration with other government agencies and nonprofit organizations, Santa Clara has added to our community several housing options for special populations including a 20-bed facility for homeless teens, nine transitional apartments for teen parents, two shared homes and 23 apartments for developmentally disabled able to live independently, and 24 apartments for domestic violence survivors and their children.

Another example of our community's "out of box" thinking about solutions to our housing crisis is the Intel Teacher Housing Fund. Intel Corporation purchased a $10 million bond from the Santa Clara Unified School District and agreed to receive below-market interest. The district uses the difference between what it pays Intel and what it can earn on the money to contribute $500 a month towards the mortgage payment of teachers who buy a local home. Another company, Linear Technology, reimburses the teachers for closing costs. At the end of five years, the homeowner repays the district and the funds are re-used to help another teacher.

The school district also used a surplus school site to build its own 40-unit apartment complex where rents are one-half the market rate for new teachers in the district. Both of these programs are designed to retain talented teachers in Santa Clara, many of whom are tempted to relocate to other areas of the state and country where housing costs are more reasonable for a teacher's salary.

Santa Clara was one of the first jurisdictions to commit funds to the Santa Clara County Housing Trust Endowment Fund, a public/private partnership that encompasses 79 Silicon Valley organizations, local governments and corporations. The Trust Fund reached $20 million this year. It will be a revolving fund that replenishes itself as loans are repaid. Every dollar contributed by the city of Santa Clara (which has now committed $500,000 to the Fund) or by Santa Clara corporations such as Intel (which donated $1 million), will generate $10 in funding for new affordable housing in our Valley.

We also focus on maintaining and rehabilitating the housing inventory that already exists. The city refurbished 101 apartments for seniors and we provide grants and low-interest rehabilitation loans to current lower income homeowners.

Almost anywhere in the U.S., a family income of $66,000 is enviable. In Santa Clara, it categorizes a family of four as "low income." The people who make up our community workforce - teachers, police officers, retail clerks, bank tellers and many other occupations necessary for any city to function - should be able to live in the community they serve. We are working hard in Santa Clara to apply the spirit of innovation that has made Silicon Valley the technological center of the world to finding inventive ways to increase the accessibility of housing to middle and low-income residents.