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United Hope Builders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to constructing affordable housing, may have to put its plans for a temporary modular housing factory in East Palo Alto on hold. Pastor Paul Bains, who runs United Hope Builders, told this news organization that the letter has caused his group to change its plans, but that it is still on track to have the factory up and running on a different site in East Palo Alto by the end of 2025.
A Feb. 21 joint letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control told the nonprofit that its plan to store completed modular homes on its factory site — which is contaminated due to its past as a hazardous waste management facility — was too risky due to the possibility of unhoused people trespassing and living in the homes before they are shipped to their final destinations.
“Due to the restrictions that the U.S. EPA and DTSC asked us to implement, it would have cost us an additional $23 (million) to 26 million to build on that same site,” said Bains. “That’s cost prohibitive for us.”
The agencies told United Hope Builders that the organization must update the risk management plan that it originally submitted in 2021 to reflect the new proposed use. The agencies also asked the nonprofit to demonstrate the security measures — such as updated fencing, additional signage and a site monitoring plan — that would be taken to prevent “inappropriate site use.”
“The land use covenant strictly prohibits any residential use at the site, even if that use was unintentional” the letter to Bains reads. “The U.S. EPA has significant concerns that absent sufficient site security, the presence of completed homes on the property will lead to trespassing and people illegally seeking shelter in the completed homes.”
In 2021, United Hope Builders leased seven acres of the former Romic Environmental Technologies site, which is currently undergoing cleanup due to the high levels of volatile organic compounds present in the soil and groundwater, to serve as the home base for its factory. According to the U.S. EPA, “exposure to VOCs can increase an individual’s chance of developing … cancer or non-cancer health impacts.” To protect people from the pollution present on the lot, uses of the property are restricted by a land use covenant.
“If United Hope Builders intends to proceed with storing completed homes at the Site, United Hope Builders shall demonstrate how the site will be monitored to ensure there is no inappropriate site use,” the letter reads. “United Hope Builders shall also specify a specific timeframe that the completed homes will temporarily be stored onsite.”
Bains, who sits on the board of this news organization’s parent nonprofit, Embarcadero Media Foundation, said that United Hope Builders is committed to its factory plan. He said United Hope Builders is in talks to build it at another nearby site in East Palo Alto.
“We will definitely be building the factory,” he said. “We will be employing our unhoused brothers and sisters in this factory. We will also be employing the formerly incarcerated in this factory, and we will be producing high-quality, high-grade affordable housing units.”
He anticipates that the new factory location will be operational by “the third, no later than the fourth quarter of this year.”
“(San Mateo County) has already committed $1 million of the $3.6 million that we need to raise — we just need another $2.6 million and we should be able to have our factory up and running,” he said.
Bains also thanked Bay Road Holdings, LLC, the owners of the former Romic site, for its willingness to work with United Hope Builders to get the project off the ground. Bains said that as United Hope Builders still has five years left on the lease with Bay Road Holdings, that they are trying to figure out how the site might still be used in service of creating affordable housing.
“They want us to be able to use the land to the best of our ability,” he said. “They have given us permission to use the land for whatever is the best use to help United Hope Builders.”
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