This story was first printed in the Saturday Daily Post. To stay up-to-date on local news, pick up the Post in the mornings at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.
By Braden Cartwright
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Santa Clara County Housing Authority released plans yesterday to replace all of the mobile homes and build an apartment complex at the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Palo Alto.
All current residents will be allowed to stay, and rents will remain affordable based on income, representatives from the housing authority told residents at a community meeting last month.
But a handout given to residents didn’t say what the new rents would be.
The apartment complex would go at the back of the property, where 14 two-bedroom and three-bedroom mobile homes and an old motel building currently stand.
The housing authority didn’t say how big the building would be in a memo published by the city yesterday.
All 68 mobile homes at the front of the property will be replaced, the memo shows, and 18 new mobile homes have already been brought in.
The housing authority will present plans and ask for feedback from Palo Alto City Council on Feb. 13, and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will weigh in at another meeting.
The goal is to get feedback through June “to help determine the future amenities, design, security and living spaces,” the housing authority said in its memo.
The housing authority will turn in permits this summer and begin construction later this year, the memo says.
The city of Palo Alto, Santa Clara County and the housing authority purchased the park in 2017 for $40.3 million to prevent it from being redeveloped and to preserve it as affordable housing.
Agencies said at the time that 400 people lived there, but now the housing authority says there are 270 residents occupying 77 of 82 mobile homes.
The housing authority committed another $20 million toward renovating the park in a tri-party agreement with the county and the city.
The housing authority has demolished abandoned mobile homes, replaced sewer and water lines and cleared trash and ensured each unit is safe.
“This work continues today as residents adjust to the new management and policies of the park,” the memo said.
The housing authority sent the city a sample notice that would be given to residents before construction. The notice would tell residents that the housing authority will “cover the reasonable cost of your temporary housing” during redevelopment.
If anyone has to move for more than a year, the housing authority would cover the person’s replacement housing costs for 42 months and have an advisor help him or her find a new place, the notice says.
“The housing authority’s goal continues to be the preservation and improvement of the park, and the stability and success of its residents,” the memo says.
I propose that the trailer park be renamed the Karl Marx Memorial Housing Arena to honor its philosophical milieu as it were. More information about the apartment building design and operation would be nice–such as where to sign up for one of the units. I am all aboard.
I don’t understand something — why do us taxpayers have to pay to improve their homes? I’ve got things I’d like to spend money on, like fixing up my own house. I won’t vote for politicians who think they know better how to spend my money than I do. If the trailer court people want nicer homes, let them go out and earn the money to do that, the way the rest of us have done.
Don’t you understand by now that government does a better job of spending your money than you do?