Jessie O\u2019Malley Solis, VTA director of multimodal planning and real estate, said of the 10,000 units VTA is building, 4,000 will be affordable housing. She said in VTA\u2019s employee survey, 94% of respondents expressed interest in employee housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re about to take a draft policy that will go to the VTA board in December, to union leadership to take a look at it,\u201d she told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThis is the biggest love letter to VTA employees, and I hope they feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The median home price in Santa Clara County is about $1.6 million and median rent is about $3,800 a month, according to Zillow.<\/p>\n
Kalra said VTA came to him with the concept, and he was immediately on board because thinking outside the box is critical when looking for solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s counterintuitive to have folks that operate our transit agency have to commute for one or two hours,\u201d he told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cBut the reality of our housing crisis gives them little choice sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A new bill authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra allows VTA to provide a preference for employees in its affordable housing. Photo by Lorraine Gabbert.<\/p>\n
Kalra said he would like to see an audit of all VTA properties to see where they\u2019re located and ensure they\u2019re being well used.<\/p>\n
Santa Clara County\u2019s high cost of housing has pushed many of VTA\u2019s approximately 2,300 workers out of the area. Creating housing for the transit agency\u2019s employees near where they work will cut long commute times and avoid driver fatigue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need employers to care more about where employees live,\u201d Ahrens told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWhether you\u2019re a transit worker, an educator, a nurse or a firefighter, if you are living hours away from where you work, it makes it very difficult. It puts a strain on your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Affordable housing near their jobs allows VTA employees to spend more quality time with their families, VTA General Manager and CEO Carolyn Gonot said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt plays into whether they want to even continue to work for us,\u201d she told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a great set of employees, and we don\u2019t want to lose them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonot said VTA was inspired by school districts<\/a> to create workforce housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe needed to get specific legislation as a special district to be able to do this,\u201d Gonot said, \u201cand we\u2019re one of the first in the country to be able to do this for transit workers. It was just seeing that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Although VTA policy requires 25% of its housing to be affordable, its goal is an average of 40% overall, O\u2019Malley Solis said. The Tamien Station<\/a> apartment complex is 100% affordable housing for low-income<\/a> families.<\/p>\n
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