San Jose “Tenant Preference” Law Would Curb Gentrification

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan aims to prevent low-income residents from being pushed out of gentrifying neighborhoods.

That’s why the mayor has backed a proposed ordinance that would set aside some affordable apartments in city-funded properties for local low-income residents, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The “tenant preference” ordinance is set to go before the City Council for a vote on March 26.

Under the proposed ordinance, 20 percent of affordable apartments in city-funded properties would be set aside for lower-income applicants who live in Census tracts that the city deems “high-displacement.”

Another 15 percent of affordable units would be reserved for lower-income applicants living within the same City Council district as the available affordable apartments.

“We can’t continue to allow displacement to tear apart families and communities in the Bay Area,” Mahan told community leaders in Mayfair, a historically Latino neighborhood east of Downtown whose residents have seen rapid change.

Working-class families in San Jose have been hit hard by skyrocketing rents. A market-rate one-bedroom apartment in San Jose now goes for $2,359 a month, compared to $1,207 nationwide, according to Apartment List.

“We have witnessed our families, our friends, our neighbors, make the difficult decision to move their families away from a place they have known for generations, all because they can no longer afford to live here,” said Maritza Maldonado, executive director of Mayfair-based nonprofit Amigos de Guadalupe.

Community organizations like Maldonado’s, as well as SOMOS Mayfair and Vecinos Activos have advocated for a tenant preference policy since 2017, but it required a change in state law, which came in 2022, according to the Mercury News.

Other Bay area cities such as Oakland and San Francisco reserve certain affordable units for their own residents.

But San Jose is the only city to propose a policy focused on protecting residents specifically from high-displacement areas.

The city aims to build 62,000 housing units by 2031, with nearly 15,000 of those set aside as affordable for families making below 50 percent of area median income.

Of the 5,599 units the city added between 2018 and 2022, 14 percent were reserved for those making below median income.

— Dana Bartholomew