A newly signed law will allow San Jose to become the first California city to create tiny homes for the homeless by bypassing the state’s confining building codes.
City housing officials and advocates for the homeless call the new legislation a “game-changer” in the fight to solve one of the Silicon Valley’s most intractable problems.
The law, authored by Assemblywoman Nora Campos, D-San Jose, as Assembly Bill 2176 and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 27, 2016 goes into effect in January 2017 and sunsets in five years. It allows the city to temporarily suspend state building, safety and health codes for the purpose of building “unconventional” housing structures — everything from wood-framed sheds to tiny homes. The city will adopt its own regulations, the law says, based on some minimum standards.
“It was huge for the governor to sign this because it’s outside-the-box and no one else has done it,” Campos said. “Other big cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles will be looking at what we do here. We had to do something because what we were doing wasn’t working.”
The law requires the city to first declare a “shelter crisis” — which it did last December — and to use city-owned or city-leased land for the tiny homes. The homes must be insulated, have weather-proof roofing, lighting and electrical outlets, according to the bill.
It’s unclear how many homeless people will benefit from the homes, which must be at least 70 square-feet for individuals and 120 square-feet for couples. A half-acre piece of land, according to city documents, could house up to 25 people inside 20 units.
But no matter the size of the homes, San Jose resident Monica Fuentes says anything is better than life on the streets. The former accountant ended up outdoors after a divorce and brain tumor — and now she moves from one downtown park to another, transporting her belongings in a small plastic cart.
“You can’t live your life out here without having your stuff stolen,” said Fuentes, 47, who’s been homeless for three years.
Ray Bramson, San Jose’s homeless response manager, said the state’s regulatory barriers were the biggest challenge in building creative housing units for some 4,000 homeless residents.
Bramson said the homes are a “temporary stopping point” until San Jose builds more than 500 new affordable housing apartments in the next five years. The temporary homes would include on-site supportive services.
“This law really is the first of its kind,” Bramson said. “It will allow us to create bridge housing opportunities — a stable place people can live and stay while they’re waiting to be placed in a permanent home.”
The next step is figuring out where to put the homes. And then deciding what they’ll look like.
This is amazing! I’ll be curious to see how this develops! Calling all tiny house builders, container homes, etc!