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When Wilton Court opened in the Ventura neighborhood last December, Palo Alto’s city leaders and housing advocates celebrated the project from Alta Housing as a welcome milestone after the city’s decade-long drought in affordable-housing production.
They will not, however, have to wait that long for the next such development. Eden Housing, which is working with Santa Clara County to construct a 50-apartment complex in south Palo Alto, is set to break ground on its project at 525 East Charleston Road early next year — a development that received a big funding boost Wednesday and that is now slated to be completed in 2025.
Much like the 59-unit Wilton Court project, the Eden Housing development will target individuals with disabilities. It will go up on a county-owned site in the Greenmeadow neighborhood that until last year was occupied by a small commercial building housing the nonprofit Ability Path. Once the housing project is constructed, the nonprofit will occupy an office and program space on the ground floor and work with Eden to provide services to residents.
If things go as planned, construction would kick off early next year and be completed in 2025.
Supervisor Joe Simitian, who spearheaded the housing development, called the Wednesday, July 26, allocation from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee “the final piece of the funding puzzle.”
The committee, which is chaired by state Treasurer Fiona Ma, allocated to the project an annual federal credit of $2.5 million and a total state tax credit of $4.8 million. The federal credit, which project owners can claim every year for 10 years, amounts to a total of $25 million.
“I’ve spoken to so many families who’ve worried and wondered where their adult children with intellectual and developmental disabilities can live independently as they get older,” Simitian said in a news release.
“Mitchell Park Place is a key part of the answer to that question. It’s crucial that we find ways to keep these residents housed with the services they need.”
The project will include 50 apartments, all of which will be rented out at below market rate and 25 of which will focus on individuals with special needs. All apartments would target households making up to 60% of area median income.
Unlike Eden’s prior Palo Alto project, a 50-apartment development for low-income families at 801 Alma St., the Mitchell Park development had a relatively smooth and speedy passage through the city’s famously thorough approval process.
Eden filed its application in November 2021 and, after a review by the Architectural Review Board, submitted revised plans in March 2022. Days later, it received approval from the city’s planning department.
Significantly, there has been no major opposition from the public. In his announcement, Simitian noted how “welcoming the neighborhood has been to this inclusive housing development, particularly folks in the Greenmeadow community.”
By contrast, the Alma project had to undergo months of public hearings in 2009 and faced significant opposition from a neighboring condominium community before Eden received City Council’s approval for a scaled-back version of its proposed development.
The tax credit allocation supplements the $12 million in county funding and $3.4 million in city funding that the project has already secured. The Santa Clara County Housing Authority has also awarded 25 project-based housing vouchers to Mitchell Park Place, according to Simitian’s news release.
Linda Mandolini, president and CEO of Eden Housing, thanked county and city officials and AbilityPath for supporting the project and said the organization looks forward to welcoming residents in 2025.
Bryan Neider, CEO of AbilityPath, said Mitchell Park Place will “help address the housing crisis for individuals with developmental disabilities and will also provide an inclusive community setting where people of all abilities can thrive.”
Thanks to Eden, Simitian, and everyone who made this a reality. The project seems well conceived.
I do wish that Universal Design was a greater factor in all developments here in order not to discriminate against the disabled in all housing. Just pointing out that online work because of the pandemic resulted in record employment among the disabled who are chronically underemployed. People had been clamoring for such “accessibility” for ages but it wasn’t available to the disabled until everyone else needed it. There’s a lesson there for inclusionary housing.