Welcome to SV@Home’s Policy Rundown, your need-to-know overview of important housing policy actions and developments from the past two weeks.

Palo Alto City Council Approves Exploring HomeKey Project

On Tuesday, the Palo Alto City Council approved 6-1 a staff recommendation to explore a potential Project HomeKey-funded transitional housing development. The Council also took steps to make permanent its Safe Parking program, which is only the third program of its kind in the County behind San José and Mountain View. SV@Home strongly supports the Council’s actions and is looking forward to continuing to engage as this proposal moves forward.

Palo Alto City Staff identified an opportunity site at the former Los Altos Treatment Plan in the Bayshore area north of Highway 101 and a nonprofit partner, LifeMoves, who have had success with Mountain View’s Homekey-funded development at 2566 Leghorn Street. While this is only the first step of the process, we are excited that the city is engaging LifeMoves in its efforts and pushing forward with operationalizing its homelessness housing priorities. This is an excellent opportunity for the city to provide housing solutions for our most vulnerable neighbors.

The Project Homekey Initiative, launched by Governor Newsom in 2020, is designed to bring permanent housing for residents experiencing homelessness online quickly and effectively. So far, four projects in Santa Clara County have been awarded Homekey funds, including in the City of San José, the City of Mountain View, and two proposals overseen by the County.

Show Your Support for the Crestview Hotel Conversion!

Next Thursday, August 19th starting at 6pm the City of Mountain View and Santa Clara County will host its second virtual community meeting regarding the potential conversion of the Crestview Hotel to residential uses for our most in-need neighbors. If you missed the first community meeting, you can view the recording, the presentation slides and the summary here. We are still in the early stages, but it is important that people show up to voice their support for providing housing for our vulnerable community members!

In January, the Mountain View City Council unanimously directed staff to pursue an opportunity to convert the Hotel, located at 901 E. El Camino Real near the border with Sunnyvale, to residential use for persons experiencing or at risk for homelessness and/or tenants displaced from their homes. The City of Mountain View and the County are partnering on the purchase, rehabilitation, and renovation.

Community meeting attendees will hear about the status of the Crestview process and have an opportunity to learn about and provide input on affordable housing needs in Mountain View, project funding, tenant selection process, and other issues. For more information about the Crestview Hotel including the Zoom link for the August 19 community meeting, visit MountainView.gov/Crestview. Translation services will be available in Spanish and Chinese.

Developments Update/Public Events

Show your support for affordable housing projects in your community! Here are some upcoming opportunities to get engaged, learn more, and provide feedback:

• Los Altos –EAH Housing is hosting a third community meeting tonight, 8/12 at 6pm for its proposed 330 Distel Circle 90-unit affordable housing development in Los Altos. The development would convert underutilized commercial land to needed affordable housing on a 38,000 square foot site adjacent to El Camino Real. The City of Los Altos, County of Santa Clara, and EAH Housing are partnering to develop the proposal. For proposal information, visit the City’s project site here.
  
  Join fellow Los Altos community members for an introduction to EAH and the proposed development. RSVP for the community meeting here.
   
• San José –Next Thursday, 8/19 at 6pm Charities Housing invites community members to participate in its first community meeting to discuss a potential 100% affordable development in San José.
  
  Charities will present the proposed Driftwood Family Apartments development, located in the Winchester Boulevard Urban Village Plan area. The development is in the very preliminary stages of design and pre-development, so it’s a perfect time to share your comments and provide community input! Visit SV@Home’s event calendar for meeting details to join!