By the Daily Post staff
City officials in Mountain View announced this afternoon that they’re buying a 1-acre site at 2566 Leghorn St., where they will house 300 homeless people in prefabricated homes by the end of the year.
The $10 million for the project is coming from a state grant for homeless housing during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The property, a former auto repair shop, was listed at $4.25 million this summer. The price the city is paying for the land wasn’t immediately available.
The site is in north Mountain View, close to the Palo Alto line, in the same neighborhood as Hengehold Trucks and Abundant Life Christian Church.
The city hopes to build 100 modular housing structures on the site, with each structure housing three people.
A statement from the city described the endeavor as an “Emergency Transitional Housing Program,” but it didn’t give the date for when the program would end. It also didn’t say how long the homeless would be allowed to live in the shelters before they’re asked to move along.
The homeless site will be run by the LifeMoves nonprofit.
“We are hoping to be able to assist more than 300 residents with occupancy before the end of the year,” Mountain View Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga said in a statement released this afternoon. “It is an ambitious housing goal, and Mountain View continues to lead the way. Not to mention, in the true spirit of Silicon Valley, this is a pilot program where success also means that it can be replicated all over the Bay Area to help more people.”
When we’re the public hearings on this proposal? Wouldn’t this normally have to go to the EPC and council for approval? When were people given a chance to speak out about this?
Wow this is insane. So we as home owners don’t have a right to vote on this. So when will they start to allow the homeless encampments in this area as well? Why don’t they move it up to the other side of El Camino. Oh that’s right not in my Nieghbor hood but okay in someone else’s.
Too bad this money and land couldn’t have been used for permanent housing instead of sheds for the homeless. But it’s within walking distance of a couple of liquor stores.
good. i will drink all the NIMBY tears in the comments.
Anon, Mountain View has disproportionately responsible on the issue of indigents and housing almost to a fault. If this project means Measure C gets passed and the RVs get off the street in favor of this transitional housing, great. But we all know Lenny Siegel and his followers want a free for all – park your RV anywhere you want without rules. A neighbor on Latham was left a huge garbage full of human waste on his doorstep and on Nextdoor was called “privileged”.
Name calling homeowners who get bags of crap on their doorstep and Anon here saying he’s gonna drink some NIMBY tears is all you need to know honestly about the regressive and rude militant socialists lobbying around town under the leadership of Lenny Siegel.
The article’s statement that the property, “a former auto repair shop” is incorrect. There is an existing operating auto repair shop that has been on this property for many many years. Although the shop was aware that the property was up for sale and there would be a chance they would have to relocate, the short notice they were given by the City of Mountain View has made this impossible and they are now forced to close. Housing for the homeless is essential to communities- that is not the issue. How the City of Mountain gave minimal notice which left the business no option but to close down is the issue.