Mayor Gonzales is committed to affordable housing for families of all income levels .  The best way to reduce the high cost of housing in the San Jose is to build more housing that is affordable to for families at all income levels. This has been the City’s long standing goal, and we have been very successful in creating thousands of affordable homes over the last four years by leveraging local redevelopment, state, and federal funding sources. In addition to the approximately 6000 affordable homes that San José’s current five-year plan will create by 2004, the city has also seen approximately 4000 market-rate housing being built in San José every year. San José has built more affordable and market rate housing than all other cities in the county combined. Since Mayor Gonzales was elected mayor in 1998, housing has been one of his top priorities.  He quickly established very aggressive goals to create 6000 new affordable homes by 1994. This doubled the rate of affordable housing production in the past. San José has accomplished this goal using $300 million in Redevelopment Agency funds to leverage another $800 million from other funders, including state and federal agencies. But that is not enough for San Jose.  The housing crisis is not over, and housing is still too expensive for many working families. That is why last year the Mayor recommended that the City extend its affordable housing strategy for five more years. Over the next five years, San Jose will invest more than $500 million from city and redevelopment agency funds. It is estimated that this will bring in $1.6 billion more from other sources – for a total of $2.1 billion! Unfortunately, current state budget proposals could substantially reduce San José housing programs by taking local redevelopment resources away from affordable housing and San Jose’s strong neighborhoods effort.  The Mayor will continue to work with the Legislature and the Governor to ensure that together we can keep investing in homes that our families can afford. As a result of this new strategy, the City will: *         Continue to produce affordable housing at the rate of 1,200 homes a year.  *         Expand our commitment to build 300 homes a year for extremely low-income families.  *         Continue to rehabilitate existing affordable housing to prevent homes from being converted to market-rate units. *         Continue our successful efforts to find creative developers and strong partners who are committed to high quality affordable housing State Budget Impacts on San José’s Affordable Housing Programs Unfortunately, current state budget proposals could substantially reduce San José housing programs by taking local redevelopment resources away from affordable housing and San Jose’s strong neighborhoods effort.  The Mayor will continue to work with the Legislature and the Governor to ensure that together we can keep investing in homes that our families can afford.  Please click here to visit our City of San Jose Housing Department.