Searching for affordable housing is the number one reason people visit the City of San José website. Without the new portal, residents have had to search a nine-page listing of 18,000 affordable apartments in San José, most of which are not vacant. Residents could only find vacancy and waitlist information by contacting each property management company individually. This made it difficult, if not impossible, for many residents to find affordable housing.

Although it is currently in its beta version, additional functionality will be added to the portal over time, including the ability for residents to submit rental applications online, obtain real-time updates on housing opportunities, and receive automatic notifications of new housing vacancies. The portal is also meant to be a tool to help operators of affordable housing communities more easily comply with their contractual obligation to post vacancies and waitlist openings online.

Click on the image to see listings:

San Francisco, San Mateo County and other Bay Area jurisdictions are adopting similar sites. And San José is working with the Santa Clara County Housing Authority to add Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waitlists to the portal. The ultimate goal is to integrate all Bay Area affordable housing search websites.

Explore the Affordable Housing Portal.

Thank you so much to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for the generous grant that made this initiative possible.

To learn more, volunteer, donate or partner on this initiative, please fill out this form.