Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...San Jose is offering public workers an opportunity to rent a subsidized one- and two-bedroom in a downtown high-rise.
Under a city partnership with The Fay, public employees will be given preference for an apartment in the building and have until July 15 to join the interest list to live in the tower recently purchased out of foreclosure and designated for middle-income workers.
The deal comes as San Jose – consistently ranked among the most unaffordable cities in the country
– scrambles to meet state-mandated housing targets requiring it to permit at least 60,000 units by 2031. That goal represents the second-highest housing target in the Bay Area, trailing only San Francisco.
Of the tower’s 336 total units, the city has secured 197 one- and two-bedroom apartments for the rent-subsidy program. Under the current initiative, known as the Low-Income Voucher and Equity (LIVE) Program, subsidized one-bedroom rents range from $2,900 to $3,100, while two-bedroom units range from $3,450 to $4,000.
To qualify, a single applicant must earn between $113,700 and $158,250 annually, though the income ceiling stretches up to $226,050 for a household of four. Public employees will be given priority in the application process, and anticipated move-in for qualified tenants is August 2026.
Officials designed the initiative to help teachers, police officers, firefighters, and city staff live closer to where they work. Preference will go to public workers from the City of San Jose, Santa Clara County, San Jose State University, and the State of California. Interested applicants can fill out an official Google form provided by the city of San Jose, which is currently accessible through the city housing department’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
Preferences will be given to people in those fields, but the units will also become available to the public at large.
While parking spaces are limited, developers and city officials emphasize the high-rise’s proximity to public transit, located near VTA bus lines and downtown light rail stations.
“By establishing a tenant preference for public sector employees at The Fay, we’re providing new affordable housing options for our local teachers, San Jose State faculty and staff, and of course our City employees,” Councilmember Anthony Tordillos said Friday, who represents downtown. “That will not only allow us to provide a valuable amenity to our public sector workers, but will also help us to build up a critical mass of people who both live and work downtown, helping us build the sort of dynamic, 24×7 neighborhood we’re aspiring to create.”
Located at Reed and First streets in downtown’s SoFA district, the building was purchased out of foreclosure in May for $175 million. The acquisition was made by Flow, a residential real estate company launched by WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, in partnership with ASJ Development, a local firm led by San Jose developers Andrew Jacobson and Gary Dillabough.
Under the partnership agreement approved by the city earlier this year, San Jose is committing $11.2 million over an initial five-year period to lease the units in bulk and provide a monthly subsidy. While the subsidized rates are expected to be locked in for the first two years, the five-year agreement includes options to extend, with future annual rent increases for tenants projected to be capped at the lesser of 3% or the rate of inflation. When the city eventually exits the agreement, officials aim to recoup the investment with interest alongside an anticipated 20% share of the profits.
The plan falls in line with the city’s plan to achieve its housing targets.
Mayor Matt Mahan has said the city is exploring the repurposing of existing buildings, cutting red tape, and making it easier to build. These efforts include providing exemptions for affordable unit requirements on new market-rate constructions if needed to spur development, all while simultaneously seeking alternative, sustainable funding sources to create more lower-cost housing, among other incentives.
“We can’t fix a broken housing market by doing things the way we always have – we must move faster, reduce costs, and try new approaches to securing affordable housing at scale,” Mahan told this news organization Friday. “Rather than build new, which government tends to do slowly and expensively, we are buying down affordability in existing market rate apartments that have vacancies. This stretches public dollars further and helps more of the teachers, nurses, and first responders live in the city they serve.”