Cupertino’s Fight Over a Dead Mall
Home to the Apple Headquarters, Cupertino, California is known as an ideal city for people to live in, as it provides job opportunities, a safe environment, and a superior public school education. However, despite Cupertino being such an ideal place for families to live in, Cupertino faces a serious housing crisis, as the average price of a house in Cupertino is 2.7 million dollars with the average monthly rent of a thousand square foot apartment being around three thousand dollars. Naturally, this is not only a problem in Cupertino, as many cities around the world suffer from housing inequalities, where many people simply cannot afford to buy their own homes. For example, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Vancouver are known to have the worst housing inequalities in the world, each struggling with its own proposed solution. Although many may say that productive industrial spaces should not be converted into low-cost housing units, when looking at the successes of England’s conversion of empty flats into housing for the homeless, it can be seen that converting industrial spaces like malls into affordable housing units can be the most effective way to fix the housing crisis. Therefore, it is imperative that Cupertino should convert the demolished Vallco Mall into affordable housing to fix the housing inequality issue there.
The global housing crisis is a problem that impacts millions around the world, as people are unable to find housing due to rising housing costs in major cities. In an interview with the World Finance, Richard Florida, the founder of the Creative Class Group, said that the main reason why housing prices are soaring is that “housing has been financialised and turned into an investment vehicle, which has caused an oversupply of luxury housing and a lack of affordable housing”(Keffler).In other words, more people view housing as a financial investment that they can profit off of rather than a basic human necessity to live in. Because of this, developers aim to build housing that will earn them the most profit, rather than housing units that would solve housing inequalities. In fact, in just the US alone, more than 200 cities have a median house price of one million dollars or more (Keffler). Additionally halfway across the world, New Zealand has seen a 22% increase in housing prices in just 2020 alone (Keffler). As a result, there is a lack of land for affordable housing to be built on, as evidenced in major cities around the world that are filled by luxury housing complexes. Because of this greed for maximizing profits, developers of these luxury properties are directly responsible for growing housing inequalities, since they only cater to the select few who can afford to purchase them. This results in displacing families that actually need housing units to live in and raise their families. Instead of focusing on catering to the rich and elite, housing developers, government policymakers, and the general public should shift their focus from viewing housing as investments to viewing housing as a basic human necessity, to the benefit of the community, and society as a whole. Once this has been accomplished, more affordable housing for the general population would be built, as they are the ones who need a roof over their heads the most, especially during the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic. This most certainly also applies to the majority of California cities, especially those in the Bay Area.
In Cupertino, there is a shortage of affordable housing because developers in the area are more focused on maximizing their profits by building luxury houses over affordable homes. Housing developers know that since Cupertino provides its residents with an ideal environment for jobs, schools, and safety, many will be willing to pay more to live there. Therefore, only people who can afford to buy these luxury houses are moving into Cupertino. As a result, the average annual household income in Cupertino between 2015 and 2019 has grown to $171,917, compared to the national average of $69,560 (“U.S. Census Bureau…”). As more luxury homes are built over affordable housing, more rich people will move into Cupertino, which will drive the demand and prices for housing even higher. This cycle continues until the supply of housing cannot keep up with the demand. This trend has led to a significant housing shortage in Cupertino, as “between 2011 and 2015, the Bay Area added over 500,000 jobs but only 65,000 homes. That’s one home for every eight jobs created. The deficit for subsidized affordable housing is more alarming”(Fruen). Because of the trend of luxury homes being preferred over affordable housing units, housing prices in Cupertino are rising astronomically. This has significant impacts on working-class families, increasing their risk of homelessness, as seen by many people living out of their cars.
Even though the majority of the Bay Area residents have enough money to keep up with the soaring housing prices, the growing demand for housing displaces low-income families out of the area. According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the growing housing prices caused growing inequalities among its residents, as Santa Clara County only has 29 homes available for every 100 low-earning families (Aurand et al.). Low-income families use a large proportion of their income on rent “because there are so few homes affordable to people in this lowest income bracket, and many of those that are affordable are rented by people who make more money… they have little or nothing left over for other expenses. That lifestyle is untenable and often leads to missed rent payments and eviction, or the threat of eviction” (Kendall). In other words, high housing costs caused by the shortage of affordable housing units put low-income families at extreme risk of homelessness, since the majority of their income goes towards housing expenses. Paired with Cupertino’s high living costs, the shortage of affordable housing units places an unbearable burden on low-income households, since they have to worry about what should be a basic human right. Even though Cupertino has the best living conditions on paper, in reality, it only applies to those who can afford these conditions, as the unlucky who cannot have to constantly worry about their financial status. To find a potential solution for Cupertino, a successful global solution can provide some guidance for bringing potential affordable housing projects to Cupertino.
Globally speaking, many major cities around the world have successfully converted industrial spaces into affordable housing, in order to reduce the housing crisis. For example, in major cities across England, like London and Edinburgh, the Empty Spaces Coalition has been able to convert empty flats into affordable homes since 1976. In fact, since 1976, they “have built more than 1.3 million homes and served over 29 million people — working in over 70 countries”(Habitat for Humanity). A specific example is that in 2016, the Empty Spaces Coalition worked with Veterans Aid in Stepney, England, to convert an old rectory into affordable housing for homeless veterans. The impact of projects like these is that it is “a huge step in [the] fight against housing poverty in the UK and across Europe”(Wray). Because of the Empty Spaces Coalition’s long history of successful conversion projects, people who were originally displaced by the high housing prices now have a place to live without having to worry about homelessness. This should be the standard around the world, as people should not have to worry about basic human necessities on a daily basis. Given the success of the Empty Spaces Coalition in providing housing solutions in England, it can be seen that the conversion of empty spaces into affordable housing units is a successful policy that can fix the housing crisis around the world.
In fact, a similar policy is already being proposed in Cupertino. To combat the housing crisis there and other cities in Bay Area, the State of California passed SB35, a bill that would create more affordable housing units for cities that were plagued by housing shortages. More specifically, SB35 allowed cities that did not meet the Regional Housing Needs Assessments to develop affordable housing units on land zoned for residential use without having to go through city legislation. In 2018, a plan was proposed pursuant to SB35 to convert Vallco Mall into a mixed-use space that included 2400 affordable housing units. The addition of affordable housing units would alleviate a lot of the burden that the disadvantaged face, as they would not have to spend the majority of their paycheck on housing, which should be a basic necessity. In addition, I strongly believe that the location of the proposed housing units would be perfect for low-income families because of its close proximity to the surrounding stores and companies that would provide them with job opportunities. Actually, this would benefit the local economy, as more people would spend their money and work in Cupertino. Obviously, none of this would be possible without the approval of current residents. As a Cupertino resident, I strongly support the addition of affordable homes, even if it means houses in Cupertino lose value. I truly think that low-income families should not have to worry about something that is considered a basic necessity and that we should put aside our greed to help others live under a roof without fear.
Many Cupertino residents, however, strongly oppose the conversion of Vallco Mall into affordable housing units, as it would not only cause a massive influx of people but also drive down their property values. For instance, many residents argue the increase of people would cause massive traffic problems because this area is situated in the central part of Cupertino and is surrounded by the already-busy Apple Headquarters, Main Street Shopping District, and Cupertino High School. Also, once affordable housing units exist in Cupertino, existing housing prices would fall, which is not ideal for the majority of homeowners in Cupertino, as they would be losing money. In fact, this is not the first time that Cupertino residents have advocated for anti-housing proposals. As early as 2005, Cupertino residents voted for three anti-housing bills that would block affordable homes from being built. A year later, then-Mayor Steven Scharf headed a grassroots campaign to block the conversion of Vallco Mall into affordable housing, with the slogan of, “Just say ‘No!’ to Condo-tino!”(Fruen). Even with the current proposed plan to convert Vallco Mall, residents counter-proposed the current plan with a plan that would only include 400 housing units, so that the surrounding housing prices would not drop so much (Fruen). Although the concerns of existing residents may be understandable, this type of exclusionary zoning is not what the city needs, as it shuts the door for middle and low-income people. In addition to the risk of homelessness, Cupertino For All, a grass-roots coalition, argues that the current housing crisis has been detrimental to the general community, as “schools have been unable to attract new families, threatening their enrollment and their funding. And as people are forced to live farther and farther away, traffic increases, lowering our quality of life and greatly exacerbating climate change, with nearly 2/3 of emissions caused by transportation”(“Our Plan…”). Residents and developers need to realize that sheltering Cupertino from middle and lower-income people is only going to decrease the quality of life. Because of the conflict within the city residents, a solution still has not been successfully proposed, so to this day the plot of land where Vallco Mall used to stand remains vacant and desolate, as the housing prices in Cupertino continue to soar. In my opinion, the City of Cupertino should take advantage of this vacant plot of land and continue with the proposed plan to convert this area into affordable housing units.
In essence, I believe the City of Cupertino should learn from England’s successful conversion projects and push for the conversion of the demolished Vallco Mall into affordable housing units, in order to relieve the high demand for housing. Globally speaking, the conversion of malls into affordable housing has been an ideal way to solve the global housing crisis, especially since the growth of online shopping has rendered malls useless. This is an important issue that everyone should care about, as housing should not be something a family should have to worry about and is a basic necessity for human survival.
