At a time when rising rents are forcing people out of their homes, one Santa Clara County nonprofit is offering an alternative solution to keep tenants from being displaced.
The South Bay Community Land Trust is looking to acquire three apartment buildings on Virginia Avenue in East San Jose to keep rent affordable — by taking them out of the hands of a private owner and putting them into the hands of residents. Once the buildings are purchased, rent will not increase for the tenants that live there. In some cases, the land trust is even looking to lower costs for families spending a majority of their income on rent.
“The houses that used to be affordable aren’t affordable anymore,” Sandy Perry, land trust board vice president, told San José Spotlight. “This guarantees that the building stays affordable long into the future.”
Rents for one and two-bedroom apartments in San Jose have surged nearly 50% since 2010, while salaries for low-income residents have declined when accounting for inflation, according to city data.