Residents uneasy over housing plan at hotel site
Corte Madera residents sounded off this week on county plans to fast-track the purchase of a hotel to convert into housing for the homeless.
The county has been awarded $9.6 million through the statefunded Project Homekey program to help cover the costs of purchasing two properties in Corte Madera and San Rafael. The initiative is an expansion of Project Roomkey, which paid for counties to lease hotel rooms to provide temporary shelter for homeless people during the pandemic.
The Board of Supervisors approved a letter of intent on Tuesday to purchase an 18-room hotel at 1591 Casa Buena Drive for $4.1 million and an office building at 3301 Kerner Blvd. in San Rafael for $7.2 million.
“This has happened very quickly. This process around Homekey is happening throughout the state and it’s feeling rushed for people and for cities,” said Leelee Thomas, a Marin County planning manager. Thomas said the county reached out to motel providers, who in turn expressed interest in participating.
Speakers at a community meeting in Corte Madera on Monday said they were unclear on a wide range of details, citing everything from public safety concerns to whether such a plan fit into the town’s community character. Specifically, residents and business owners inquired about how the location was selected, how the purchase would be financed, why it was expedited and how long people would live there.
“We feel that there has been inadequate information regarding this plan, both short and long term,” said Marin Joe’s owner Ralph Della Santina, whose family has owned the restaurant adjacent to the hotel property for nearly 70 years.
He said he recognizes the need for such programs, but does not agree with theway the purchase was being handled.
“The ‘ rush’ to approve this is not providing vital information that is needed regarding the use of this property,” he said. “Casa Buena Drive has experienced an increase in crime that does not need to accelerate.”
Paul Fordham, deputy executive director of Homeward Bound, said he understands the concern but the project involves vulnerable people who have compromised health issues.
“They’re not committing a lot of crime. They’re very vulnerable, usually, often frail, elderly folks who have extremely limited income, physical disabilities and often aged beyond their years because of having time on the streets,” Fordham said.
“And often the difference between the people we serve and people in our own families is exactly that,” he said. “They don’t have families around to sweep them up.… We don’t see crime rates increase when we build permanent supportive housing.”
Town Manager Todd Cusimano said because residents have expressed concern about the timeline, town officials might add it as a discussion item for the Nov. 2 meeting.
Concern also has been expressed about the loss of transient occupancy tax revenue, particularly during the economic strain the pandemic has placed on the town budget.
At its most profitable four years ago, the hotel paid about $30,000 in transient occupancy taxes. Since then, the amount has dwindled to less than $8,000 as the property has deteriorated. No tax revenue from the property for the town is expected this year because of the pandemic, Cusimano said.
“It’s a concern, but we wouldn’t let that revenue stream affect our decision making when it comes to a project like this,” he said.
Long term, the county plans to seek additional housing vouchers to convert the hotel into permanent housing, an initiative is slated to be completed by the summer, said Ashley Hart-McIntyre, the county’s homelessness policy coordinator.
“In January of 2019 we counted 39 unsheltered individuals sleeping outside in Corte Madera, specifically just part of it,” HartMcIntyre said. “It may, and in fact I anticipate, it will look a little different in our next count, which is upcoming in January of 2021.”
Barbara Solomon, a retired attorney and Corte Madera resident, said she is not opposed to the project but wonders why Novato, Mill Valley or Sausalito were not selected.
“Is it just the fact that these hotels wanted to dump their properties? And do the local citizens get any say in this whatsoever?” Solomon asked. “You’re going to have huge pushback from our community. You might think Corte Madera is an easy community to let this happen. It’s not going to be easy.”
Andrew Hening, San Rafael’s director of homeless planning and outreach, said the short-term plan would limit units to one person during the pandemic. The hotels would be outfitted with a kitchen for long-term use by next year.
Still, Hening said, people are hesitant because they have a misperception of how housing homeless people works.
“What’s hard is that we can’t definitively say it’s going to be X, Y or Z type of demographic; rather vulnerability in our community can manifest in a lot of different ways,” Hening said. “It can be a little bit complicated, but we housed close to 300 similar people across the county.”
“Housing, regardless of those underlying conditions, works well to address those issues,” he said.