Recently more San Jose City College
students must be have to work to pay for living expenses while also having to cram for exams.
John Nunes and Jodi Flores are a few of the thousands of struggling students who have to work in order to pay the high cost in rent. Their remarks suggest that the high cost of living in Silicon Valley takes a toll on many college students.
"I barely get any sleep and am always stressed" stated 20 year old John Nunes, a Political Science student whom is taking 25
units while having to work full time. Nunes asserted that he is forced drink caffeinated beverages such as; coffee or rockstar energy drinks too manage his daily life.
Jodi Flores 25, complained that she is overworked
with her school and work load due to the high cost of rent in San Jose
“It Is a very hard to be a student while not having any
amenities that are paid for by my parents," she said. She has to skip classes often and usually she
tries to take more online classes.
According to https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/san-jose-california monthly rent for a 900 Sqft furnished home is 2,397.
"This is definitely appalling," he condemned. We are the Capitol
of Silicon Valley and the hub of innovation, but yet our young people cannot
afford to live here.
Yousef Latifi, 23, commutes to Tracy to San Jose Monday to Thursday because his family cannot afford to rent him
a room.
Every morning, I would wake up around 6 a.m and drive about
1 and a half hour to get to San Jose. Sometimes I encounter traffic coming to
or from San Jose. He said his car is now his home away from home.
After a long commute, Yousef comes to school extremely
tired. Especially since he has to work and is stuck in traffic again during his
commute back. Sometime he is extremely
tired that he does not even feel safe commuting back. He believes that his
major difficulty with commuting could have been resolved had the rent prices
here was much cheaper.
After hearing stories of difficulties from students and
residents like John or Yousef, the San Jose City Council decided to take up a
vote on rent control. After years of tension regard San Jose’ s high prices,
the San Jose City Council were able to act on it. The meeting took place until 2 a.m in which
the Council decided voted to lower the rent hike from 8 percent to 5 percent.
Some would say that this vote was rather useless.
“Our Council must be able to act more!” said SJSU Student David Jones, “ A decrease from 8 percent to 5 percent
is not enough especially in downtown San Jose , an area filled with hundreds of
students like me”.
Opponents on the opposing side beg to differ with the
arguments posed by the renter rights group.
“We are small business owners just like everyone else” said
Eric Tang, apartment owner, “The San Jose City Council are disregarding a
main fact that affordable housing is possible not by rent control , but rather
by building more affordable housing.”
"The city should tackle on big policy solutions such as development or transitional housing in order to combat affordable housing and homelessness rather than this harmful rent control policy” stated another advocate from the California Apartment Association
Mike Zito. Zito believes that if the city builds more than there will
be less of a challenge for renters to find affordable places to live within San
Jose.
While there may be a
fight from both sides of the aisle, residents all agree that they need rent
control and better protection from tenants. Meanwhile, in our cities around the
Bay Area , rent control will be on the ballot box as measure. This is not
possible in San Jose because signatures were able gathered with the deadline.
Additional information regarding San Jose housing crisis and its possible solution can be found on http://kron4.com/2016/05/05/video-solution-to-bay-areas-housing-crisis-may-be-tiny-homes/.
