County of Santa Clara
Office of the Board of Supervisors
County Government Center, East Wing
70 West Hedding Street, lOth Floor
San Jose, California 95110

(408) 299-3540 (650) 965-8737
FAX 280-0418 TDD 993-8272
www.kniss.com

Liz PCniss

Supervisor Fifth District

Tuesday, December 17,2002
To:

Board of Supervisors

From:

Liz Kniss

Supervisor, District Five
Subject:

Criteria for Affordable Housing Project Selection

RECOMMENDED ACTION

1) Refer to the Office of the County Executive a report back to the full Board of
Supervisors concerning the creation of a Board policy on the criteria for affordable
housing project selection utilizing funds allocated to affordable housing.

2) Within the report back, the County Executive’s office should evaluate the following
criteria for possible inclusion into the Board policy:
a) Projects should require support of the local government through either land
grants or direct financial support,
b) County financial support is leveraged to raise funds from other Agencies and
funding sources. All possible funding sources are contacted,
c) Projects should emphasize public private partnerships whenever possible
d) Projects deemed viable without County support should be given a lower priority
than projects infeasible without County aide.

3)The County Executive’s office should also survey other Board of Supervisor’s offices,
local city governments and other concerned parties for other criteria to include in drafting
an initial policy document to be presented to the Board.
BACKGROUND AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION

As we take action today concerning the creation of an Office of Affordable Housing, we
must begin to look forward to the criteria and processes that the new office will use in
allocating those remaining RDA set-aside funds not already encumbered by today’s
discussion. I recommend that the Board adopt a policy detailing the criteria to be used
in evaluating which projects should receive some portion of these affordable housing
funds as we move forward.

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Among possible criteria to be evaluated for inclusion include:

1) Projects should require support of the local government through either
land grants or direct financial support.
Local governments with direct control over land use decisions are paramount in
any affordable housing project. This criteria ensures that local government are a
strong proponent of any project before it can be considered for funding from the
County.
2) County financial support is leveraged to raise funds from other agencies
and funding sources. All possible funding sources are contacted.

While the County may be the largest fund provider for any specific project, any
proposed project should exhaust all possible funding streams before being
considered for County affordable housing funds. Additionally, projects where
County funds can be leveraged to raise funds from other parties should be given
a higher priority than projects in which this is not the case.
3)

Projects should emphasize public private partnerships whenever possible
Successful private public partnerships have in the past allowed public dollars to
be leveraged to a greater extent possible than if public funds were used alone.
This type of partnership should be utilized whenever possible.

4)

Projects deemed viable without County support should be given a lower
priority than projects infeasible without County aide.
Many affordable housing projects today are undertaken with the knowledge that
future rent payments are expected to repay the initial outlay of funding for
construction. Yet, in many of the neediest communities, the rent level necessary
to achieve this relationship is infeasible. Therefore, I feel projects targeted at the
neediest communities in our County should take precedent over those that could
be viable through private investment alone.

As affordable housing is a collaborative goal between county government, our
local cities and the community,the County Executive should make efforts to

consult all these entities for further important criteria to be included prior to
bringing a draft policy to the full Board for comment and adoption.