An emergency housing voucher program offers improvements to the decades-old federal solution to the housing affordability crisis, but landlord reluctance remains a crucial hurdle.

In Santa Clara County, 1,028 people have a rental subsidy in hand but no place to use it, leaving them in shelters or on the streets.

A public interest lawsuit that paints one property owner as an unrepentant slumlord reflects a growing power imbalance between landlords and tenants.

San Jose wants to clean up its largest homeless encampment and build a fence around it to prevent illegal dumping. But residents of The Jungle say they have nowhere else to go.

While San Jose considers where to build a bond measure-funded softball complex, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will discuss a plan to bring it rent-free to the fairgrounds. Also on the agenda: a discussion about contraband being smuggled in with jail laundry, Section 8 housing help and a work-study program for college students.

Families that faced eviction and homelessness were bought a little time Tuesday, when the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to pull $1 million from reserves to cover a shortfall in the Section 8 housing subsidy program caused by the federal sequester.

Starting in September, as a result of federal budget sequestration earlier this year, rent will rise significantly for Santa Clara County’s Section 8 tenants, close to 60 percent of whom are elderly or disabled.