|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Menlo Park City Council voted unanimously Feb. 23 to spend $5.5 million from the city’s below market rate housing fund to help the San Mateo County nonprofit HIP Housing purchase 14 apartments to preserve as affordable housing.
HIP Housing, and its development arm, the HIP Housing Development Corporation, serve about 1,400 low-income people throughout the county through several programs they operate, which include home sharing and helping families develop self sufficiency, as well as a program focused on purchasing housing for rent by low-income tenants and providing property management at those locations, according to Kate Comfort Harr, executive director of HIP Housing.
The request is the result of an alert or “notice of funding availability” the city put out recently to let affordable housing providers know that it has money in its below market rate fund that it wants to spend on worthy projects. According to staff, the city received three proposals, including the HIP Housing project. The other two proposals, from Habitat for Humanity and MidPen Housing, are set to come to the council for potential approval at a later date and are estimated to cost a total of $10.3 million.
The city had a total of $17.2 million in the fund as of Feb. 18, according to staff.
The two two-bedroom and 12 one-bedroom apartments that HIP Housing requested $5.5 million in city funding to purchase are in two buildings at 6 to 8 Coleman Place in the city’s District 3 area and cost a total of $7.45 million. The rest of the funds are expected to be covered by private bank loans and donation funds.
Comfort Harr explained to the council that the nonprofit looks for properties that have specific characteristics when considering which homes to preserve for affordable housing. They should be located in areas near services; offer between 6 and 16 housing units so as to be within reach of purchase on short notice; be in good, well-maintained condition; and have tenants who likely already qualify for affordable housing due to their incomes, since otherwise the owner is required to pay property taxes. In addition, the seller needs to be interested in working with nonprofits, because generally they need more time than a traditional property buyer to pull together funding from multiple sources.
The properties at 6 to 8 Coleman Place met all of those qualifications, plus the buildings offer two two-bedroom apartments, which can be hard to find in San Mateo County and represent important housing options for families, she explained.
In response to questions from council members, Harr noted that HIP Housing would be open to considering programs to add some energy-efficient features and to possibly talk about making one or two of the units available for purchase.
Priority to live in the new units will go to people who live or work in Menlo Park, or have been displaced from the community.
Go to is.gd/mpbmr to learn more about the city’s below market rate housing program.
