Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Housing Advocate: Campbell resident Sharon Teeter, Campbell's Housing Coordinator, has been working to provide low-income housing for the past 17 years.




Public Citizen

Keeping House

By Erin Mayes

When housing prices soar and landlords start hiking up rent, Campbell's Housing Coordinator Sharon Teeter is one of the first to hear about it.

"Every once in a while, we get a ton of calls when rents go up," she says. "Sometimes it's from the tenants wanting to know how much their landlords can increase their rents, but sometimes it's from the landlords, who want to know the same thing."

Even with the economy slowing down, causing housing and rental prices to drop, Teeter's job hasn't gotten any easier.

Teeter, who works 30 hours a week, says she's doing what she's always wanted to do. A Bay Area native, the 50-year-old is a Prospect High School and San Jose State University graduate, with a degree in urban sociology.

Having worked for the city of Campbell for 17 years, Teeter operates as a sort of housing fairy for people who live or work in Campbell and have difficulty with their rent or home buying.

One of the most noteworthy programs offered by the city and overseen by Teeter is the low-interest home repair loans and grants program.

On one of August's warmer days this year, Teeter, also a Campbell resident, stood outside a home on Pollard Road that has qualified for the program. She calls the new owner a "rehab client." Surrounded by caution tape, the home is empty but will soon get two new bedrooms, a new roof, new flooring and a bathroom accessible to people with disabilities.

Another city program, with the help of a nonprofit agency called Economic and Social Opportunities, provides free minor home repair services to low-income households, for problems such as leaking faucets, broken water heaters or broken windows.

Other programs Teeter oversees are the Tenant/Landlord Information and Mediation Services Program and the First Time Homebuyer Program. The latter is a home finance program called Community Assisted Shared Appreciation (CASA). The city, in cooperation with Union Bank of California, funds up to 20 percent of the purchase price for second and third shared appreciation mortgages. There are no monthly payments on second or third CASA home loans and owners pay a portion of the home's appreciation after they sell or refinance.

To qualify for this program, applicants have to reveal their income for the previous year. Teeter said the income has to be less than 80 percent of the median income for this area, which is $87,300. The maximum income for a household of one is $48,350, two is $55,250, and so on.

Also on the list of housing programs are the Below Market Rate Housing Program, which designates 15 percent of new ownership or rentals to be affordable housing, and the Mortgage Credit Certificate Program, which provides financial assistance in the form of a tax credit to first-time home buyers so they can purchase single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums.

Teeter has one son, 19, who just came back from a vacation in Hawaii for her 20th wedding anniversary.

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For more information about housing programs, call Sharon Teeter at 408.866.2137, or email her at SharonT@ci.campbell.ca.us.

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