Bay Area residents should have choices — choices about where they live, what jobs are available to them, and how they get from place to place. This is tough to achieve especially in the Silicon Valley, where in 1990 only 15% of Santa Clara County residents could afford the median home price. Almost 90% of the workers at high-tech companies use a car to get to work, many of whom now live as far away as Manteca, where housing costs are significantly lower.
Recognizing that affordable housing is a crucial ingredient in Silicon Valley competitiveness, a volunteer speaker’s bureau from The Housing Action Coalition hit the road to get the word out.
Central to their message: we need affordable housing and this affects everyone. Citing that Mountain View school teachers could barely afford the going rent caught audiences’ attention. In a short time the Coalition has made over 150 presentations and successfully advocated for 4,500 new affordable units.
