Sep 9, 2007

Palo Alto meeting need for low-income housing

But Sunnyvale, Mountain View falling behind

By Melanie Carroll / Daily News Staff Writer

A regional agency has given Palo Alto high marks for providing affordable housing but notes that Mountain View and Sunnyvale are coming up short.

In its report, "A Place to Call Home: Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area 2007," the Association of Bay Area Governments found that Mountain View provided 17 percent of the very low-income housing needed during a seven-year period and Sunnyvale only 7 percent.

In contrast, Palo Alto met 81 percent of ABAG's 1999-2006 very low-income housing target. Only San Jose, with 83 percent, provided more very low-income housing during the same time period.

The state requires cities to try to reach allotments designed to help meet local housing needs, said ABAG spokesman Paul Fassinger. Housing for very low-income residents is a challenge for many cities, he said.

ABAG separates Bay Area residents' housing needs into four categories. Those categorized as very low-income make 50 percent or less of the median income in Santa Clara County.

One Palo Alto project that opened less than a year ago helped the city close in on its target. The five-story, 88-unit Opportunity Center on Encina Avenue is run by InnVision.

"The Opportunity Center gives Palo Alto a real boost" in the survey, said Autumn Gutierrez, director of development and communications for InnVision, a San Jose-based nonprofit that provides housing and services to homeless and at-risk families. "Cities have to have permanent housing as an option" for those in need.

Rent for a two-bedroom unit at the center runs $675 per month, and financial assistance is available for those with little or no money.

Mountain View City Council Member Tom Means said ABAG's figures are not useful, in part because they use county-wide income statistics that don't reflect the economic diversity of the county's cities.

"That very low-income is based on county allocations" that are arbitrarily assigned to cities, Means said. "I don't know what they mean."

Means said he doesn't make housing-related decisions based on ABAG's data, adding that the agency aims to impose price controls on housing.

Sunnyvale spokesman John Pilger said city officials have yet to review the ABAG data, but noted the city is working hard to provide affordable housing for residents.


E-mail Melanie Carroll at mcarroll@dailynewsgroup.com.