With individual housing units, particularly affordable ones, at a premium in the Los Altos-Mountain View area, local government officials and housing advocates are pushing for one of oldest options in the book – house sharing.
In the wake of promoting a Santa Clara County-supported sharing program March 14, affordable housing supporters have scheduled another event, “House Sharing in Los Altos: How It Works and Benefits for Homeowners,” 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Los Altos main library, 13 S. San Antonio Road.
Next week’s event, sponsored by the Los Altos Affordable Housing Working Group, is framed as an opportunity for residents to generate additional income while helping address the housing crisis.
“Many residents in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills have empty bedrooms and accessory units,” said Gary Hedden, a member of the group. “Home sharing is a way of renting these to our local workforce, college students and seniors.”
Prospective participants can learn about the social and financial benefits of home sharing and pick up information on organizations that match homeowners with reliable home-sharing tenants.
‘Incredible need’
The previous March 14 event, held in Mountain View, focused on the benefits of participating in a house-sharing program chiefly operated by Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County with support from county officials. Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, whose district includes Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View, was one of the event speakers.
In searching for solutions, Simitian offered house sharing as “one way that doesn’t cost anything, that doesn’t require us to build anything – but that could help house hundreds and hundreds of residents in this county.”
A similar program has been long underway in San Mateo County, with approximately 700 house-sharing matches.
The Santa Clara County program with Catholic Charities launched last August. It sets monthly rents at between $700 and $1,750, in most cases, and requires homeowners and house “seekers,” as they’re called, to undergo background checks and fingerprinting.
The program ensures protections from possible abuses, such as refusal to leave, and can mediate disputes that may arise.
Tom Myers, executive director of Community Services Agency of Mountain View and Los Altos, also was on hand to give his endorsement to the program and cite the “incredible need” for housing. He noted than since 2010, only one new unit of housing has been created for six new jobs in the county, and over 25 years, only two units of housing have been generated for every five new jobs.
“So this is a long-term problem that’s been in the making and it’s a problem that requires a lot of creative solutions,” Myers said.
Simitian offered a snapshot of today’s housing challenges. He pointed to a location across the street from the historical Adobe Building on Moffett Boulevard, where the event was held. The location, a former site for the county’s social services department, is now home to a new apartment complex charging $5,300 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
“That’s why there is a home-sharing program,” he said.
