San Jose seeks $23M in federal funds for affordable housing project

The City of San Jose seeks $22.6 million from Uncle Sam to build 99 affordable homes in its Downtown.

The city wants federal funding for a six-story apartment complex approved for Berkeley-based Resource for Community Development at 797 South Almaden Avenue, in the Washington-Guadalupe neighborhood, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. 

It would replace two single-family homes and a shuttered taqueria damaged by fire in 2021.

According to a public notice, San Jose said it plans to ask the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development next month for the Section 8 funding. 

San Jose estimates the cost of the project at $118 million, or nearly $1.2 million per unit. The city is seeking a federal subsidy of $22.6 million across a 20-year term. A public hearing authorizing the request to HUD is slated for Thursday.

City officials have determined that the two-thirds-acre project poses “no significant impact on the human environment” and that an environmental study won’t be needed.

Plans by the firm known as RCD Housing include 99 apartments, split between permanent supportive housing for homeless residents and affordable housing for low-income and extremely low-income households.

The development will include 30 studios, 24 one-bedroom, 25 two-bedroom and 20 three-bedroom apartments. The ground floor will contain a community room, offices for supportive housing staff, offices for building staff and a mailroom. 

The project is expected to be completed in 2026.

The complex, designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, features a white building with orange trim, and large vertical floor-to-ceiling windows, according to a building sketch.

RCD Housing has developed and managed affordable housing in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and Marin counties. 

In 2021, the developer completed the six-story, 70-unit Quetzal Gardens at 7 North King Road in San Jose, of which 28 apartments were set aside for formerly homeless households.

This fall, RCD plans to open a 102-unit affordable housing complex in Milpitas. By next year, it plans to open 126 affordable homes in a five-story building and in a two-story former motel next door, according to the Business Journal.

In May, RCD walked away from a legal bramble tied to building affordable homes at UC Berkeley’s People’s Park, abandoning the 17-story student dorm project.

— Dana Bartholomew

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