Court strikes San Jose affordable housing law
Source: San Jose Mercury News
San Jose officials Thursday said they plan to appeal a recent court ruling striking down a city law that would require housing developers to include units affordable to low-income buyers starting next year.
Approved in January 2010, San Jose's "citywide inclusionary housing ordinance" required developers to offer 15 percent of units in new projects of 20 or more units at below-market rates. Backers said the law would avoid concentrating affordable-housing projects in redevelopment areas where they already were required.
The housing industry argued it would only force developers to pass costs for the below-market units on to buyers of their market-priced homes. The California Building Industry Association challenged the law in court.
In a ruling last week invalidating the law, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Socrates Manoukian said San Jose had failed to show that new home construction creates affordable housing shortages. The judge wrote that such "reasonable relationships" are "constitutionally required."
Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_20754177
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After all, we MUST accept that "the invisible hand" of the "free" market has a right to close its fingers tightly 'round the throats of the poor.
