Cupertino’s Housing Crisis

Home to the Apple Headquarters and many tech startups, Cupertino, California is the ultimate dream city for people to live in, as it constantly ranks itself in the top five in Healthiest Cities in America. In addition, Cupertino has some of the best high schools in the state, as many families move to Cupertino just to gain access to these schools. However, despite Cupertino being the most ideal place for families to move to, like many other cities in the Bay Area, Cupertino faces a serious housing crisis, as the average price of a house in Cupertino is 2.7 million dollars, and the average rent of a thousand square foot apartment is around three thousand dollars. This is because of the high living cost in Cupertino because the majority of those who live in Cupertino are employed by tech companies, like Apple, which gives massive salaries to its workers. Since the people have more the spends, the prices of everything, including housing, increases as now everybody wants to come here and work for these companies. To combat this problem, the State of California passed SB35, a bill that mandated cities that did not meet the Regional Housing Needs Assessments to build more affordable housing. Since Cupertino obviously did not meet the RHNA, they planned to convert the lifeless Vallco Mall into a mixed space that would include affordable housing units and retail stores. When a plan that included 2900 housing units was unveiled, it was met with local outrage because of the fear that it would drive the surrounding housing prices down, and instead counter-proposed with a plan that only included 400 housing units. It is understandable that many residents that live in Cupertino do not support 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’s values. For example, many residents argue the influx of people would cause a massive uptick in 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, the housing prices would fall, which is not ideal for the majority of homeowners in Cupertino, as they would be losing money. Because of the conflict within the city, 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, waiting to be converted into affordable housing. This is not a problem just in Cupertino or even the Bay Area, as people around the world are unable to find housing due to rising housing costs and the cost of living increasing in major cities.