Issue date: June 10, 1998
By MARION SOFTKY
By the turn of the millennium, the Haven Family House in Menlo Park, where hundreds of homeless families have rebuilt their lives over the last 13 years, will start a new life as a modern homeless shelter with one-and two-bedroom family units and a licensed child care center.
Shelter Network, the San Mateo County agency that serves the homeless and has operated Haven Family House since 1991, plans to demolish the rundown building, formerly the Belle Haven Motel, at the end of Van Buren Avenue facing Bayshore Freeway, and replace it with a completely new and larger shelter on the same 1.5-acre site. The new shelter will have 23 units. There will still be 15 units for transitional housing for four-months for families, plus eight new units for participants in a "Bridge Program." This will provide up to two years of housing for families taking job training or further schooling to improve earning power.
About a dozen neighbors turned out June 4 for a community meeting to see Shelter Network's plans and offer suggestions for improving the project.
"There were some really good suggestions," said Cassandra Benjamin, executive director for Shelter Network, after the meeting. "We would like to become part of the community and build positive relationships."
The meeting was also "deja vu" as a core of neighbors, who have been fighting the shelter since it was first established in 1985, angrily attacked the new plans, complained about problems, and demanded the shelter find somewhere else so the property can revert to the single-family use for which the land is zoned.
"My objection is to overdevelopment of that site. It should be single family," said adjacent neighbor and longtime opponent Bernadette Trammell.
While three neighborhood residents vehemently opposed the new plans, half a dozen supported them. A 25-year neighbor said she values it because she can take her children and grandchildren there to meet different kinds of people. "It helps my children and grandchildren to be good citizens," she said.
New plans
Two parallel wings with a central community building and courtyard will replace the present open, U-shaped motel design. The eight bridge units will be on the second story. Apartments will have one-and-two bedrooms instead of the present mostly studio apartments. There will be a turnaround at the end of Van Buren Avenue.
Buildings will be shifted as far as possible away from neighbors and toward Flood School and Flood Park. There will be a community vegetable garden between the shelter building and the neighbors on Iris Lane. The setback will be some 60 feet, greater than that required by Menlo Park zoning.
The community building will house a licensed child care center, tutoring rooms with computers, and offices for case managers, who help residents learn to manage their lives, find jobs and permanent housing, and save money. Behind the community building is an outdoor children's play area, between the wings and away from neighbors.
"This project represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Alex Podell of the M.H. Podell Co. in Burlingame, which is developing the project without charge as a contribution. The company builds luxury homes around the Bay Area.
Countering arguments that the shelter should go somewhere else, he said: "We have seen the price of housing become so astronomically absurd. There is no land left on the Peninsula."
Shelter Network is embarking on a campaign to raise $9.9 million to rebuild Haven Family house and open two other new facilities to help the homeless in San Mateo County, where 6,000 people become homeless each year, according to Ms. Benjamin. About $2.6 million is targeted for Haven Family House.
As part of the package, San Mateo County will buy the land for the shelter, valued at $1.5 million, from the Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition, which acquired the ramshackle Belle Haven Motel for a shelter in 1984. The county is committing $906,000 of federal block grant funds, which it controls. It will hold a note from the housing coalition for the remaining $594,000, which it will only have to pay if it sells the property for profit.
Because the building has been on land leased by the county since it took the shelter over from Menlo Park in 1991, the county has complete control over what is built there, Menlo Park City Manager Jan Dolan pointed out.
Menlo Park Councilman Steve Schmidt noted that the amount of floor area in the project, 27,158 square feet, is about what would be allowed under Menlo Park zoning. Ten single-family homes would impact the neighbors far more and generate more traffic, he said. "This project from an architectural standpoint is better than single family."
Hostile debate
"There is no crime wave," replied Menlo Park Police Chief Bruce Cumming. He said the department responds to about four calls a year and works closely with the staff.
Ms. Benjamin said all families are carefully screened. They must be referred by a county agency, not be on parole, be clean and sober for six months, and be motivated to help themselves. Most work and must save 75 percent of their salary toward deposit and first month's rent for an apartment. "Each year we have 80 percent success in getting them into permanent housing," she said.
Ms. Trammell complained about vandalism and kids kicking garbage pails on Iris Lane while she tries to sleep during the day. She argued that single-family homes would provide more sense of community than transients.
Another Iris Lane neighbor said she was aware of one crime in 11 years, didn't think the vandalism had been traced to the shelter, and was more disturbed by traffic and leaf blowers than shelter residents. "This is a great thing," she said.
Menlo Park architect Roger Hagman suggested that families in the Bridge Program will help provide stability and help to shorter-term residents. "Bridge units provide links of permanency to the community," he said.
Nearby neighbor Holly McKerral suggested: "Maybe we can get to know them. Why don't we have a potluck? Why don't we bake cookies with the kids? Let's do that every month."
Bill Clark from Ringwood Avenue suggested reactivating the neighborhood advisory group. "We could meet some of the issues head-on," he said.
Neighbor Harold Smiley was still bitter that Menlo Park's 1985 promise to tear down the shelter after five years was never carried out when the county took over the shelter. He wanted it moved to another, better location. "I'm not against Shelter Network," he said. "You do a good job. You just do it in the wrong place."
"Finding a site for this kind of thing is very, very tough," said neighbor Jim Burklo, founder of the Urban Ministry, which also caters to the homeless. "You run into the same problems everywhere else. This is a social need; it's got to exist. Let's help make it the best."
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